Posts Tagged ‘UN’
October 7, 2012
On 2 October 2012 the Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIHR) published its overview of the last session of the UN Human Rights Council. It concludes that many Arab governments have started a kind of ‘counter-revolution’ by harassing human rights defenders, especially those that engage with the UN:
“Reflecting the ‘counter-revolutionary’ repression we have witnessed being carried out by many Arab governments against democracy and rights activists over the last year and a half, this session of the Council witnessed multiple human rights defenders from Sudan, the United Arab Emirates UAE and Bahrain subjected to attacks by their governments or government-affiliated actors for engaging with the United Nations,” said Mr. Ziad Abdel Tawab, Deputy Director of CIHRS. “We urgently call on the UN and its member states to increase efforts to provide protection for these brave defenders and others like them. Such reprisals against those who cooperate with the UN not only constitute rights violations, but also represent an attack on the UN itself and its ability to function properly.”
via ‘Counter-Revolution’ at the United Nations Human Rights Council? Arab states respond to unprecedented scrutiny with attacks on rights defenders and standards | Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Arab region, Bahrain, Cairo Institute for Human Rights, Geneva, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, Sudan, UAE, UN, UPR
September 27, 2012
On 26 September UPI reports from Geneva that a U.N. rights delegation announced plans to assess the role human rights defenders have played in Tunisia since the country’s Jasmine Revolution in 2010.
Margaret Sekaggya, U.N. special envoy on human rights organizations, leads a delegation to Tunisia for a trip that concludes Oct. 5, a first since the country’s revolution.
“Human rights defenders have played an essential part in the call for democracy, justice and human rights across the region,” she said in a statement. “We are intrigued and excited to observe the working conditions of defenders of all generations in the country that in many ways triggered the Arab Spring.”
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2012/09/26/UN-rights-delegation-heads-to-Tunisia/UPI-29741348668711/#ixzz27fzkoNw1
U.N. rights delegation heads to Tunisia – UPI.com.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Arab spring, Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, Tunisia, UN, UN Special Rapporteur
August 18, 2012
A few months ago I drew your attention to the annual effort by the UN to collect information on the harassment of those who cooperate with the United Nations (its representatives and mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteurs). Now – on 13 August 2012 – the report has been published as GA A/HRC/21/18 and makes grim reading. Several countries (such as Bahrain, Colombia, Iran, China, Sri Lanka) continue to punish or intimidate persons who had the courage to stand up in the United Nations and accuse their country of human rights violations. Government controlled media routinely refer to them as ‘traitors’ and that is the least of the bad treatment given. One would wish that the UN would be even more outspoken and concrete in protecting its own sources!
full document in PDF:
Click to access A-HRC-21-18_en.pdf
Posted in UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, cooperation, retaliation, Sri Lanka, UN, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 15, 2012
On March 8 and 9, 2012, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), organised the fourth “inter-mechanisms” meeting, which was hosted by the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, Switzerland. This is a unique informal platform where under Chatham House Rules key actors meet to fine tune standards and mechanisms for Human Rights Defenders.
On this occasion, international and regional mechanisms and programmes for the protection of human rights defenders – operating within the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Council of Europe, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights(IACHR) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights – joined by representatives of the European Union, the International Organisation of the Francophonie and various NGOs, discussed the drafting of a joint report on existing standards and recommendations related to the protection of human rights defenders at the international and regional levels. IACHR offered to take a coordinating role in drafting the report, with the back up of the Observatory. This report would be inspired by the 2011 Commentary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the IACHR Second Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. Such a document, the first of its kind, will not only be a useful tool to human rights defenders, States and other relevant stakeholders, but will also demonstrate a unity of approaches among mechanisms.
Participants also shared their experiences and lessons learnt in order to identify possible ways tostrengthen the coordination and cooperation among existing mandates on the protection of human rights defenders. In particular, action-oriented discussions focused on how to ensure accountability for human rights violations against human rights defenders, which is a central issue for all mechanisms and programmes in order to combat impunity.
Participants also discussed core policy challenges affecting the protection of human rights defenders in relation to freedom of association, as well as possibilities of cooperation with the newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. A specific focus on the right to receive and access funding, including foreign funding was discussed, reflecting renewed preoccupations by mechanisms on restrictions by States in this regard. These issues should be further discussed during a future inter-mechanisms meeting, to be organised by the Observatory.
For more information, please contact :
• OMCT : Delphine Reculeau : + 41 22 809 49 39
• FIDH : Karine Appy / Arthur Manet : + 33 1 43 55 25 18
Concrete steps towards better protection of human rights defenders / March 15, 2012 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Council of Europe, FIDH, Human Rights Defenders, IACHR, international community, NGOs, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OIF, OMCT, OSCE, Special Rapporteur, UN
March 13, 2012
If it was not so serious a subject, the Iranian government’s response to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran could be considered comical. On June 17, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council named former Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed as its human rights investigator on Iran. Numerous reports including this blog reported last year that Iran was not willing to cooperate with this rapporteur. So it is a bit much to hear now the official complaint that the Rapporteur has relied on “political motivations based on news provided by terrorist groups”. On Monday 12 March, a senior Iranian official censured Shaheed for his biased report against the Islamic Republic with the following words: “The documents presented by Ahmed Shaheed in this report were extracted from the resources and groups which are terrorist and are known as undesirable elements all over the world,” (Director-General of the Iranian Presidential Office for International Affairs Mohammad Reza Forqani speaking to FNA).
Government spokesman Mehman-Parast’s statement that “Iran is ready to cooperate with human rights bodies like the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights” now sounds utterly unbelievable.
Fars News Agency :: Spokesman Criticizes UNs Biased Report on Irans Human Rights.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ahmed Shaheed, Human Rights Council, Iran, UN, United Nations Special Rapporteur
February 16, 2012
While many of us are in despair over the inaction by the Security Council due to the exercise of a veto on geopolitical grounds, one high level official, Mrs Pillay, at least speaks out relentlessly, recently at the General Assembly of the UN in New York. The short video here embedded was uploaded by the UN:
States must “act now” to protect Syrian people, UN human rights chief tells General Assembly – YouTube.
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: arrests, civil war, General Assembly, human rights violations, humanitarian law, mass killings, Pillay, sexual violence, Syria, torture, UN, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
February 13, 2012
On 10 February 2012, the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (ROSA) launched a Human Rights Resource Centre at the Oliver Tambo Law Library at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The inauguration ceremony took place on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Class of the LLM in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa, hosted by the Human Rights Centre of the University of Pretoria. The establishment of the Human Rights Resource Centre at the University of Pretoria is part of a larger project whereby ROSA aims to establish human rights resource centres in the Southern African countries overseen by ROSA. The establishment of the next human rights resource centre will be in Maputo, Mozambique, as part of the Human Rights Centre of the Faculty of Law at the Universidade E. Mondlane, and is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2012.
via United Nations in South Africa » News Archive » Establishment of The Human Rights Resource Centre at The OLIVER TAMBO Law Library, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: human rights, Mozambique, resource centre, South Africa, southern africa, UN
December 17, 2011
Image by US Mission Geneva via Flickr
- Image via Wikipedia
The first formal report on the state of LGBT human rights was presented to the UN General Assembly on Thursday 15 December by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, who has been an outspoken supporter of LGBT human rights. This the result of the adoption of a Resolution by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011 asking for this study.
She concludes that on the basis of the information presented in this report, a pattern of human rights violations emerges that demands a response. “Governments and inter-governmental bodies have often overlooked violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” she said. LGBT people face widespread discrimination everywhere in the world and are subjected to extreme violence, including rape, beatings and torture, evidenced by confirmed reports of mutilation and castration that were characterized by a “high degree of cruelty” .
LGBT persons also face criminal punishment in 76 countries and risk capital punishment in five countries, including Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. The report lays out the evidence of widespread discrimination and arbitrary arrests and criminal punishment based upon sexual orientation and gender identity.
The full report is entitled “Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity” and is available from : OHCHR: Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence Against Individuals Based on their Sexual Ori…
Posted in books, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: homophobia, Human Rights Council, Kasha, LGBT rights, Pillay, UN
