Human Rights Council discusses its programme of work - 29 June Morning

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ORDER OF THE DAY

[GENEVA, 29 June 2006] - At 10am, President Luis Alfonso de Alba called to order the 20th meeting of the Human Rights Council, during which Council members will consider two issues: the programme of work for the next year and the issue of dialogue and cooperation on human rights (human rights education and learning, advisory services, technical assistance and capacity-building). A draft programme of work was prepared by the delegation from Norway.

President de Alba added that thanks to the small number of statements scheduled to be made this morning, the Council would probably be able to start its decision making process this afternoon.

Statements from member States

Most delegations expressed their wish to see a programme of work which would be both predictable and flexible. Predictable, so that it could allow for Council members, observer States, NGOs and NHRIs to plan their work in advance; flexible to allow the Council to response to urgent and pressing human rights issues as they occur. 

The Norwegian delegate then presented a draft decision on the Human Rights Council’s programme of work for the first year. The programme of work should enhance transparency, allow for predictability to ensure that discussions are focused, and allow for the full participation of all stakeholders. As this year is a transitional year, the speaker highlighted that the programme of work and subsequent agenda adopted should not be considered as setting precedents for the following years.

The Draft proposed the following HRC sessions (NB: the draft framework does not contain dates for intersessional activities (working group meetings and possible special sessions):

  • September 2006 (3 weeks) to deal withy the questions of legacy, and allow for presentations and an interactive dialogue on all the reports of the mechanisms and mandates that were due for the last session of the CHR.
  • December 2006: new mechanisms, progress reports of intersessional mechanisms, and discussion and decisions on UPR, review of mandates, mechanisms etc.
  • March-April 2007 (main session) to deal with new reports of Special Procedures, decisions on new mechanisms not made in the December session.

Other delegations took the floor to support Norway’s proposal and add a few comments.

Inter-sessional work

Some delegations stressed that the programme of work for this first and transitional year had to enable the Council to make both urgent and non urgent decisions in time. For this reason, they thought inter-sessional work was required, that has to be carried out in both a formal and informal manner (Australia/ Australia, Canada, NZ).

Role of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Aware of the importance of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in drawing the Council’s attention to important human rights issues, delegations discussed the frequency with which the High Commissioner should present her report to the Council: at each session (Japan) or every year (Iran).

Separation of rights

Austria (on behalf of the EU) pointed out that the programme of work should avoid dichotomies between different rights and work on one generic item dealing with human rights in general rather than separating civil and political rights from economic, social and cultural rights. Algeria/ African Group disagreed and wanted to see those rights separated.

NGO statements 

HRW, Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitie entre les peuples, Indian Coucnil of Education, Coordinating Board of Jewish Organisations.

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