The incoming President of the Human Rights Council – Polish Ambassador Remigiusz Henczel – pledged to continue the efforts of his predecessors in ensuring full participation of civil society and human rights defenders in the work of the UN’s main human rights body. He added that to make human rights a reality, the work of human rights defenders must be fully supported by the work of the Council. These positive remarks were made during the Council’s 7th organisational session (10 December) for the next cycle, which will start on 1 January 2013. The organisational session was the first meeting with the Council members newly elected by the General Assembly on 11 November 2012.
In her closing remarks as the outgoing President, Ambassador Dupuy Lasserre of Uruguay highlighted some of the successes and challenges of her 18-month term. She underscored the need for the Council to drive important ‘unpoliticised messages’ while involving a wide range of actors to promote and protect human rights. The President also highlighted the importance of strengthening the stance taken by the Council on reprisals to prevent intimidation against human rights defenders.
For those who are interested to know more about the Council or want to follow its proceedings more closely I recommend the International Service for Human Rights (http://www.ishr.ch/council) who also publishes the Human Rights Monitor, a non-governmental but unbiased take on the sometimes bewildering number of UN human rights bodies and procedures. The draft programme of work of the Council’s 22nd session in March 2013 is available on the OHCHR extranet and here.
The newly elected members of the HRC are (by region):
- Africa: Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Sierra Leone
- Asia: Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates
- Eastern Europe: Estonia, Montenegro
- Latin America and Caribbean: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela
- Western Europe and Others: USA, Germany, Ireland
The members leaving at the end of 2012 are (by region):
- Africa: Cameroun, Djibouti, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal
- Asia: Bangladesh, China, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia
- Eastern Europe: Hungary, Russian Federation
- Latin America and Caribbean: Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay
- Western Europe and Others: Belgium, Norway, USA
Also interesting to note that Belarus did not observe the diplomatic tradition of making complimentary statements but expressed concern about the election of a Polish diplomat as the next President of the Council and the ‘overrepresentation’ of EU members in important mandates. This discontent was clearly influenced by Poland’s leading role in the creation of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus earlier this year.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 