23 September 2009 - Child Rights at the Human Rights Council 54
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**News in Brief**
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Children Have Rights Too!
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12th session underway [news]
The 12th session of the Human Rights Council is taking place until 2 October 2009 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Yesterday (Tuesday) saw the conclusion of the Council's general debate on human rights situations.
Speakers highlighted violations of human rights in different countries and regions around the world.
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) notes that: "During past sessions of the Council, discussions under Item 4 were marked by the general lack of participation from African and most Asian States. These States have often claimed that the discussion of country situations would lead to ‘politicisation', and that naming States that violate human rights would undermine the spirit of cooperation and dialogue the Council is supposed to be built on.
"In this context it was remarkable that Nigeria delivered a statement on behalf of the African Group, and that China specifically raised the situation of Roma in ‘European countries'. Making reference to the Council's mandate, Nigeria noted situations of human rights violations ‘across the world', but specifically highlighted a ‘consistent pattern of human rights violations linked to deportation of asylum seekers' and racism more broadly. While it refrained from mentioning specific States, the African Group's statement is a welcome and positive addition to the Council's debate on human rights violations."
Find out about the debate here
You can also read daily updates from the Human Rights Council by the International Service for Human Rights.
Further information
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Reports concerning children's rights [publications]
During different sessions of the Human Rights Council, experts, both as individuals and in groups, submit reports for consideration by the Council. The following reports are particularly relevant for the rights of children:
The reports are debated, in the presence of the authors, by State delegates during the session. Read about the debates here
Read other reports submitted to the Council here
Further information
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Child porn on internet increasing, says expert [news]
The number of Web sites containing child pornography is increasing and more images show serious abuses, a UN expert said Wednesday.
More than four million Web sites worldwide show images of children being sexually exploited, said the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Najat M'jid Maalla.
"There is an increase in the number of sites recorded," she told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, citing research by the UK-industry group Internet Watch Foundation.
"The number of images showing serious exploitation quadrupled between 2003 and 2007, showing abject images of brutal rape, bondage, oral sex and other forms of debasement," Maalla said. She did not give precise figures.
Over 750,000 people are using child porn sites at any time, said Maalla, a Moroccan medical doctor who was appointed to the unpaid UN post last year.
Internet chat rooms have become the main method for child abusers to recruit children, she told the 47-nation council.
A study by the U.S. National Center on Missing and Exploited Children found 83 per cent of people who had child pornography possessed images of children aged 6 to 12 years old, 39 per cent had images of children between the ages of 3 and 5, and 19 per cent had images of children younger than 3 years old, she said.
Maalla urged international cooperation to stop the child pornography industry, which she estimated to be worth between $3 billion and $20 billion. She recommended countries share information on sites containing child pornography in order to block them faster.
[Source: Associated Press]
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20952
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US appears as member for the first time [news]
The U.S. attended its first formal meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council as a member Monday, saying it will try to promote dialogue at a body it once avoided and heavily criticised.
The U.S. was elected in June to the 47-nation council, which was criticised by the Bush administration for primarily denouncing Israel while ignoring abuses elsewhere. Washington left its observer seat on the council vacant during the last six months of President George W. Bush's second term.
"We will strive for discussions that are thoughtful, focused and open to all viewpoints and perspectives," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer told the council.
The decision in May to seek a seat on the Geneva-based body after three years of staying on the sidelines was a major shift in U.S. policy in line with President Barack Obama's stated aim to closer cooperate with the United Nations.
Brimmer did not mention Israel or the earlier US boycott of the council but she echoed remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week that upholding freedom of speech and combatting intolerance and discrimination are priorities for the US.
The council in March approved a proposal by Muslim nations urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism — a move that drew strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.
The council is dominated by African and Asian countries, who have blocked criticism of allies such as Zimbabwe, Sudan and Sri Lanka while passing a series of resolutions critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Since its creation three years ago, the council has held five urgent meetings on Israel alone. There have been only four such meetings on other country-specific situations, including Myanmar, Darfur, Sri Lanka and Congo.
Although the rights council is virtually powerless compared to the UN Security Council, its decisions carry considerable symbolic weight, particularly in the developing world, to which the Obama administration wants to reach out.
Western countries, human rights groups and senior UN officials have warned that the council needs to improve its work if it wants to avoid the fate of the discredited UN Human Rights Commission it replaced in 2006.
Brimmer, who acknowledged that the U.S.' human rights record is "imperfect," called on council members to try to "end this session with a more strengthened and robust human rights mechanism than we had before."
Juliette de Rivero, a spokeswoman for New York-based group Human Rights Watch, said that the real test would come when the council debates a report on human rights abuses during Israel's assault on the Palestinian territory of Gaza earlier this year. Criticism of its ally by the council was one of the main reasons the former administration withdrew from the council in June 2008.
[Source: Associated Press]
Further information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20947
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Ouster of NGO from Council has unexpected effect [news]
A very active NGO, the Arab Commission for Human Rights, will not participate in the current session of the Human Rights Council after having its consultative status suspended at the demand of Algeria on July 28th. But the ouster may have led to an unexpected result.
The official reason given by Ambassador Idriss Jazaïri at the time was that during the June 2008 Council session, the NGO gave the floor to a political refugee in Switzerland, Rachid Mesli who is charged with terrorist activities in Algeria
But Arab Commission’s representative in Geneva, Abdel Wahab Hani was given a different explanation from Arab and European diplomats who said the real reason was that certain countries did not appreciate Hani’s protests against the nominations of Egypt’s Ahmed Amin Fathalla and Algerian Senator Lazhari Bouzid to the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He had denounced the nominations during the 9th public session of the Council (September 9, 2008) and to former Council President Doru Costea of Romania and then President Martin Ihoeghian of Nigeria as well as to High Commissioner Navi Pillay.
The nomination of diplomats to UN watchdog agencies has frequently been criticized by NGOs due to their lack of independence as government officials. For them this represents a violation of Article 28 of the Covenant which states that the body must be composed of ‘persons of high moral character and recognised competence in the field of human rights.”
In the end, it appears that following the protests by the Arab Commission for Human Rights, a tacit agreement has been reached to no longer present government officials as candidates for the Committee on Torture. The list of candidates for upcoming mandate holders includes no ambassadors, ministers or senators with the exception of Libya who presented a former diplomat.
[Source: Human Rights Tribune]
Further information
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**News in Brief**
Iran: Rights groups seek UN probe of Iran rape charges
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20954&flag=news
Honduras: Human Rights Council bars Honduras ambassador
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20953&flag=news
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This update has been produced by CRIN, in collaboration with the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Working Group for the Human Rights Council. To subscribe, unsubscribe or view archives, visit http://www.crin.org/email.
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