16 February 2009 - Child Rights at the Human Rights Council 49
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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: Session 10 [event]
The 10th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) will be held from 2 to 27 March 2009 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, in Room XVII.
NGO participation
Information note for NGOs - including information on accreditation and NGO parallel events
Written statements
NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC may submit written statements relevant to the
work of the Human Rights Council.
The HRC Secretariat wishes to draw the attention of NGOs to ECOSOC resolution
1996/31, which authorises written statements of: a) 2,000 words for NGOs in general
consultative status; and b) 1,500 words for NGOs in special consultative status and on the
roster.
NGO written statements are to be submitted in accordance with the guidelines for the
submission of NGO written statements:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/guidelines.htm
NGOs may submit their written statements to the Council Secretariat electronically to
hrcngo@ohchr.org.
The deadline for the submission of written statements has now passed.
OHCHR NGO Liaison Office:
The NGO focal point from the Council Secretariat, together with the Civil Society Unit of OHCHR will be facilitating the participation of NGO representatives in the work of the Council:
• Ms. Elena Kountouri Tapiero, Human Rights Officer, Human Rights Council
Secretariat, Phone: +41 22 917 96 72, E-mail: ekountouri-tapiero@ohchr.org
• Ms. Constanze Schimmel, Intern, Civil Society Unit, Phone: +41 22 917 97 70, E-
mail: erbintern@ohchr.org
Contact information, as well as the NGO liaison office location accessible during the session will be communicated at a later stage.
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Sources of information
CRIN - sign up to the special HRC CRINMAIL.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Press releases are issued by the HRC on a daily basis during HRC sessions and are available on the OHCHR website. In addition, relevant documents are posted on the Human Rights Council extranet (sign up).
Relevant and updated information on the 5th session of the HRC will be regularly posted on the HRC Extranet. Username: hrc extranet - Password: 1session.
A live Webcast service will be available under the Council’s webpage, covering the plenary session online, and will be accessible through this link.
Civil society news and perspectives are available on the CONGO website (Conference of NGOs in consultative relationship with the UN) and the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) - ISHR: Human Rights Council daily updates UN - FAQs about the Human Rights Council
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Useful contacts
For more information about the Working Group for the Human Rights Council, contact:
Cecile Trochu, co-Convenor
OMCT
Email: ct@omct.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/NGOCRC/subgroup-CHR.asp
or Jennifer Grant, co-Convenor
Save the Children UK
Email: J.Grant@savethechildren.org.uk
Visit: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/NGOCRC/subgroup-CHR.asp
Any other enquiries:
Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
East Studio
2, Pontypool Place, London, SE1 8QF, United Kingdom
+44 20 7401 2257
Email: info@crin.org
Website: http://www.crin.org/HRC
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=19549&flag=event
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SPECIAL SESSION: Impact of the financial and economic crisis on the universal realisation and effective enjoyment of human rights [event]
The Human Rights Council will hold a Special Session on the impact of the financial crisis on 20 February 2009.
Nigerian Ambassador Martin Ilhoeghian Uhomoibhi said this session was being spearheaded by Brazil and by Egypt on behalf of African countries. Resolutions issued by the 47-member Council, which held a special session last year on the food crisis, are not binding.
"The holding of this session, I believe, is an important sign from the Human Rights Council that we should and can address all emerging challenges which have implications for human rights," Uhomoibhi told a news briefing.
"The hope of this session is to send out a strong message that human rights should not be overlooked or allowed to be drowned by the current financial crisis that is affecting all our lives particularly the lives of the most vulnerable in our respective societies," he said.
The deadline for the submission of NGO written statements, originally set for close of business last Friday, has been extended to Wednesday 18 February 2009, 6 pm.
Further information
For more information, visit:
UN Human Rights Council
Website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=19638
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NIGERIA: Minister alleges that children were paid to admit torture [news]
Following reports of children from Eket in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria, being abused and mutilated for being witches and wizards, the first official reaction from the federal government came from far away Geneva.
The Minister for Foreign Affair, Ojo Madueke, leading the Nigeria delegation to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on human rights in Geneva, Monday denied that torture is an official state policy in Nigeria, suggesting however that the "children were paid to say they were tortured."
Madueke made this comment while answering questions in response to his official statement at a question and answer session after he presented the official Nigerian statement at the UN forum.
The universal periodic review (UPR) is an assessment of human rights conditions in particular countries and the current session , the fourth in the history of the UN, included consideration of Nigeria, Russia, China and Azerbaijan.
Madueke declined a telephone interview from Geneva Wednesday to elaborate on this issue saying "I do not grant interviews on phone."
The children are held in shelters managed by the nongovernmental organisation, child right rehabilitation network centre (CRARN), with support from Nigerian citizens.
Children at the CRARN shelter were reportedly given up by their parents for witchcraft and handed over to pastors who tortured the children for the purposes of 'exorcism'.
Civic organisations immediately responded to the comments by the minister, characterising them as "odious and unfortunate." Speaking to NEXT on Sunday, Chijoke Odum, chairperson of civil liberties organisation of Nigeria [CLO], said "The minister told a lie because investigation revealed otherwise."
"There are evidences of psychological trauma in the children," insisted Odum, who went on to say that "the sign of trauma is indelible evidence [of torture]"
The CLO president maintains that: "there is also biological evidence, when you go through their bodies; you will see lacerations, scars, enduring scars, marks that were not sustained during childbirth or childhood play or fun, marks that were deliberately made."
He also wants paediatricians brought in to determine the degree, depth, and age of the body lacerations, asking "How come no one contradicted any of the evidence months after the children articulated them and cried out except this one purported instance by the minister?"
Odum said he was unhappy that the minister is trying to defend the deplorable act of religious fanaticism, when the offence was not committed by the state/government. "He wants to show the international community that all is well in Nigeria particularly at the religious level but this is all lies."
Odum's views are shared by Olasupo Ojo, president of the committee for the defence of human rights (CDHR), who also flayed the foreign affairs minister. "Maduekwe believes everything should be politicised and sees everything from the spectacle of politics not based on principles."
Olasupo Ojo maintains too that "What happen in Akwa-Ibom is well known to all Nigerians that there was torture, and for the foreign affairs minister to now go and tell the UN that it didn't happen mocks the entire nation."
"Such discrepancies by a nation will never allow the world to take us seriously and that explains our denial a seat in the UN Security Council because we are signatory to so many international treaties particularly on human rights yet we do not honour the treaties domestically" concludes Mr Ojo.
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=19634
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UPR: Human Rights Watch press release - 'Nations Show True Colours at Rights Review' [news]
The UN Human Rights Council's review of the human rights records of 16 countries exposed both endemic abuses and attempts to thwart the review by some of the world's most serious human rights violators, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Human Rights Council's review is a good litmus test of a government's real commitment to human rights," said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "For example, China and Cuba went out of their way to deny that they ever violate rights, while Mexico and Germany agreed to discuss difficult aspects of their records."
China rejected any criticism of its record as politicised, refused to speak of its difficulties and turned down 70 recommendations put to it to improve its human rights record. Cuba denied the existence of political prisoners and falsely claimed that all those serving sentences had previously been prosecuted with all the guarantees of due process.
This session of the "universal periodic review" process, which began on February 2, looked at the human rights situation in Germany, Djibouti, Canada, Bangladesh, Russia, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Mauritius, Jordan, and Malaysia.
Saudi Arabia will give its public position at the council's June 2009 session on the more than 60 recommendations put forward about its record. Other states recommended, for example, that it abolish discriminatory practices against women, such as strict gender segregation and limitations on freedom of movement, and that it allow women the right to vote. Saudi Arabia rejected on the spot, though, recommendations for a moratorium on the death penalty and an end to corporal punishment.
Russia also will respond in June to the recommendations made during its review. These include an appeal to provide access to Ingushetia for the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the UN experts on torture and extrajudicial killings.
As part of the Universal Periodic Review, the Human Rights Council examines human rights situations in each UN member state once every four years. The review provides a chance to draw attention to, and make recommendations about, human rights violations in all UN member states. States under review submit written reports concerning the human rights situation in their country; nongovernmental organisations also make submissions and UN experts present a compilation of their recommendations.
"The universal periodic review provides a unique opportunity for states to make a difference in the lives of those facing human rights abuse," de Rivero said. "Yet some states reviewing the records seemed more committed to scoring points with their allies by praising their efforts than to addressing real human rights concerns that exist in all countries."
The review consists of a three-hour debate during which the government under review responds to the questions, comments, and recommendations put forward by other UN member states. Some governments have demonstrated substantial ill-will in their approach to this process. Cuba, for example, notably failed to conduct consultations with civil society, as encouraged in advance of the review, and then cynically maneuvered the speakers' list for the review to ensure that states likely to be least critical of its record dominated the discussion. Some of the world's most notorious human rights violators - including Zimbabwe, Burma, Uzbekistan and Sudan - were the most effusive in praising human rights progress by countries such as Cuba, China and Russia.
"The review proved that repressive countries like Cuba will not tolerate criticism," de Rivero said. "What is more surprising still is that so many governments are willing to be complicit in that silence by engaging in meaningless praise that does nothing to protect victims' rights."
Despite efforts to undermine the discussion of the rights records of several of the countries under review, the session succeeded in exposing key human rights concerns in each of the countries reviewed.
For example, governments criticised killings of journalists, suppression of freedom of expression and lack of accountability for violations in Russia, including in Chechnya. A number of governments decried Saudi Arabia's discriminatory system of male guardianship over women, and encouraged the kingdom to allow the establishment of nongovernmental organisations and to abolish the death penalty for children. In the case of China, numerous governments raised concerns about media freedom, called for access to China by UN experts and appealed to China to reveal the number of executions it carries out, as well as to place a moratorium on executions.
"The review also provides an important opportunity to push for change in countries that are more open to international scrutiny regarding their rights records," de Rivero said. "Mexico, for instance, has received a clear message that it should stop using its military justice system to investigate, prosecute, and try army abuses."
Coming up... CRIN has almost completed compiling references to children's rights for the 3rd session of the UPR. We expect to send this information out, by HRC CRINMAIL, very soon.
For more information, contact:
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor, New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel: + 1 212 216 1837; Fax: + 1 212 736-1300
Email: hrwnyc@hrw.org
Website: www.hrw.org
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=19630
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