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Tuesday, 11 November 2008 10:41 |
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4 November 2008 – Nearly
three years since its creation, more patience is needed in judging the
work of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is still in an
“evolutionary” stage, the body’s President told the General Assembly
today.
The Council was set up in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human
Rights, which had been dogged by accusations of bias and
politicization, as part of ongoing UN reform.
“All too often, and most times without any real justification, the
Human Rights Council has been criticized in the manner and outcome of
its work. Let me appeal for greater circumspection, objectivity and
patience in assessing the work of the Council,” President Martin
Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria said.
“Two years is hardly enough time to be overly critical of an
institution which we strongly believe holds great promise as a
universal human rights body.”
The Assembly decision to establish the Council showed nations’
commitment to boosting the UN’s role in ensuring the enjoyment of human
rights for all, said Mr. Uhomoibhi, who was elected for a one-year term
in June.
One of the reforms differentiating the Council from the Commission on
Human Rights is the Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism to examine
the record of every Member State.
“In a very particular sense, the decision to empower the Council to
consider human rights situations in all countries, through the
mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review, not only emphasized the
principle of equality among all states, but also underscored the
universality of all human rights,” the President said.
He highlighted some of the Council’s activities to the 192-member body,
including the adoption in June of the Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
The Council has also taken steps to address serious rights issues, with
three special sessions being held during the reporting period on the
situation in Myanmar, violations in the occupied Palestinian territory
and the food crisis.
“Given that we live in a globalizing world where an event in one part
has the potential of affecting life in other parts, the Council found
it necessary to remain vigilant and seized with all situations namely
of growing inequality, continuing armed conflicts or other menaces such
as climate change and food crisis,” Mr. Uhomoibhi noted. |
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:32 |
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The United Nations human rights chief today
praised Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe for dismissing three army
generals and 24 other officers over the alleged illegal killing of
civilians in the South American country.
“I support the commitment expressed by the highest civilian and
military authorities that progress in security should be achieved with
full adherence to legality and respect for human rights,” said UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay during her visit to Colombia.
Last month, the High Commissioner called on the authorities to take
urgent measures to stop a wave of apparent extrajudicial executions
after 25 bodies were found in the north of the country, according to a
press released issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR).
The Office said it had already officially informed the authorities of
other disappearances and deaths of young people who, according to
various accounts, had been promised work in the provinces, only to be
reported as killed in fighting with the army a couple of days later.
Ms. Pillay applauded the fact that these cases were being investigated
by civil courts and encouraged the Colombian Attorney General to
strengthen its Human Rights Unit to address all claims of illegal
executions and enforced disappearances.
During her week-long visit of Colombia to review the country’s human
rights situation, the High Commissioner has held meetings with Mr.
Uribe and senior ministers, as well as with members of Congress, the
judiciary, civil society and UN colleagues. She also plans to visit
OHCHR field operations in the east of the country. |
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:31 |
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Over two-thirds of young people in Latin
America feel they suffer discrimination, partly because so many are
poor and under-educated, according to a report released today by the
United Nations office for the region.
An average of 69 per cent of youths in Latin America said they have
experienced discrimination, with over 20 per cent of those saying it
had occurred because they were poor, the study – which was launched at
the Ibero-American Summit in El Salvador – finds.
The “Youth and Social Cohesion in Ibero-America: A model in the making”
report also noted that almost 11 per cent of young people in the region
say they are discriminated against because they lack education.
“Those with the least probabilities of finishing high school are those
youths whose parents didn’t conclude their formal education, those of
indigenous and Afro-descendent origin, those living in rural areas and
those who enjoy less material well-being,” said the report, stressing
that education as a means of mobility does not work for everyone.
The study, published by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC)
and the Caribbean, nonetheless provided some optimism by pointing out
that unemployment among youths has fallen across all income groups over
the past decade.
Young people are also at the forefront of communications and knowledge,
said the study, while warning that the digital gap based on
socio-economic and educational differences is notorious.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also praised the heads of State and
government at the Ibero-American Summit for their convention
recognizing the human rights of young people, in a video message to attendees today.
Mr. Ban addressed the Ibero-American Summit – a yearly meeting of the
political leaders of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations of
Europe and the Americas – at the start of the three-day gathering in El
Salvador.
“I commend the countries in the region for their many important
initiatives to benefit youth, from education to employment to the
effects of migration,” he told the meeting, held in the nation’s
capital, San Salvador.
The Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth entered into force
on 1 March this year, and includes a range of civil, political,
economic, social and cultural protections for young people.
The rights detailed include the right to object to compulsory military
service, the right to sexual education, to freedom of thought and
religion, justice and shelter. |
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:30 |
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Propelled by
this year’s global food crisis, nearly one billion people worldwide are
now hungry, an independent United Nations expert said today, urging the
issue to be viewed through the lens of human rights.
Prices have dropped around the world, but “the crisis is still with
us,” cautioned Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on the right
to food, noting that the number of hungry has grown significantly as a
result.
Numerous international responses – including Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon’s convening of a high-level task force – have centred around
the need to boost food production to meet rising demand and lower
prices, he told reporters in New York.
“The human rights dimension has been all too often absent from these
reactions,” Mr. De Schutter, who addressed the General Assembly today,
said.
The “real problem of hunger” is not linked to inadequate food supplies,
but rather that many people lack the purchasing power to buy available
food, he pointed out.
“If you double the number of supermarkets in New York, those who today
are hungry will still be hungry if they don’t see their incomes
increase [and therefore] if their purchasing power remains too low for
them to afford the food which is on the market.”
Hunger is a political problem, he stressed, with poor governance
leading to insufficient attention being paid to swathes of the
population traditionally discriminated against.
It is crucial to empower smallhold farmers, comprising half of the
world’s hungry, as well as landless labourers, pastoralists and others,
the Rapporteur, who took up the position this May, said.
“We must avoid at all costs that under the pretext of producing more
food, we increase the marginalization of smallhold farmers and increase
the dualization of the farming system for the benefit only of the very
few large agricultural producers,” he stressed. |
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:26 |
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UN forum on upholding human rights while countering terrorism kicks off:
The United Nations today convened a gathering
of more than 60 delegates from 17 countries across the Middle East and
North Africa in Amman to discuss the responsibility of States to
protect human rights while countering terrorism, in the first event of
its kind in the region.
Representatives of governments, national human rights institutions and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are taking part in the three-day
seminar, organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with the UN Development Programme (UNDP)
in Jordan.
“As countries across the world are increasingly turning their attention
and resources to countering terrorism, it is essential to reaffirm
States' obligation to protect human rights in this respect,” said Adam
Abdelmoula, Head of OHCHR's Middle East and North Africa Unit.
Participants will have the opportunity to exchange information and good
practices related to the protection of international human rights
standards within effective counter-terrorism laws.
The Seminar, which is expected to conclude with the adoption of an
outcome document, will also tackle issues such as defining
terrorism-related offences and the treatment of individuals suspected
of terrorist activity, in particular fundamental rights concerning
detention and transfer and limitations on freedoms of expression,
religion and association.
This is the third event organized by OHCHR on the subject of human
rights and counter-terrorism, and follows seminars held in Switzerland
in 2005 and in Liechtenstein in 2006.
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New Human Rights Chief... |
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Friday, 31 October 2008 10:22 |
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New UN human rights chief in Colombia as indigenous flee violence
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights today begins a week-long review of the situation in Colombia
amid concerns that indigenous groups continue to be forced to flee
their territories by armed groups.
Navi Pillay makes her first country visit since taking up the human
rights post last month, as the UN reports that some 300 people have
fled the north-western Antioquia department since fighting began in
mid-September between the army and Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC).
In the Putumayo department 57 families of the Nassa indigenous
community left their homes and in Buenaventura 104 people escaped after
alleged threats from the army, according to a press release issued by
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA).
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
is investigating the accusations against the army while six members of
the Baro tribe – considered to be at risk of extinction – in the
southern department of Amazonas have fled to the regional capital,
Leticia, following an attack by unidentified militia.
In Colombia, Ms. Pillay will meet with President Alvaro Uribe and
senior ministers, as well as members of Congress, the judiciary, civil
society, and UN colleagues to discuss a range of human rights concerns.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
has a major country office in Colombia, and while there Ms. Pillay will
have the opportunity to visit her agency’s field operations outside the
capital, Bogota.
Ms. Pillay follows her Colombian trip with a four-day visit to Haiti,
which begins on 2 November, the High Commissioner plans to meet with
President René Préval and other representatives of Government and civil
society, as well as visit a regional office outside the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
Among the issues that will be raised are judicial reforms, and the
extent to which economic and social rights are subject to legal
jurisdiction – particularly relevant given the severe aggravation of
existing deprivation by the recent natural disasters and the global
food crisis.
OHCHR carries out its work in Haiti through the human rights section in the integrated UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSTAH.
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