United Nations Advocacy

Human Rights Council

June 2008: Human Rights Council, 8th Session

On June 5th, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva hosted several events on “Rights of Women”, including a session on violence against women – the first time this topic had been addressed in depth since the inception of the Council in 2006. Human rights, anti-violence, women’s rights and sexual rights advocates, including CWGL staff, helped to create the session on “Addressing Violence against Women: Setting Priorities, which is also a result of recent efforts to integrate “human rights of women” throughout the Council’s agenda. Alejandra Sarda, representing CLADEM and Mulabi (Argentina), was the civil society representative on the panel, and called for, among other things, greater state commitment to providing resources for and implementing measures that will prevent and punish acts of violence. Advocates also are calling for the creation of a Human Rights Council Focal Point on gender, who would have a particular focus on violence against women. Click here to read Alejandra’s presentation. The full speaker list is below:

• Peteris Larlis Elferts, Ambassador of Latvia to Council of Europe (Thematic Coordinator on Gender Equality of the Council of Europe);
• Pauline Veloso, Former Minister of the General Secretariat; Former Deputy Head of the National Women’s Agency. Coordinator of the regional project on “Strengthening the network of actors for a  citizens’ democracy” UNDP, Chile;
• Kathleen Cravero, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery UNDP;
• Isabel Martinez Lazaro, Secretary General for Equalities Policies, Spain;
• Alejandra Sardá, Civil Society Representative. Member of Network Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women‘ s Rights

After the VAW session, the Council hosted a session on “Maternal Mortality and the Human Rights of Women”; speakers included:

Francis Songane, Secretariat for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Former Minister of Health of Mozambique; Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on Right to Health; Vincent Fauveau, Senior Maternal Mortality Advisor, UNFPA; Monir Islam, Director of Making Pregnancy Safer, WHO; and Jashodhara Dasgupta, Civil Society (Coordinator of SAHAYOG, an organization in India that addresses women’s health and gender equality).

In other Council news, states continue to review one another’s human rights records in the Universal Periodic Review process, to which sexual rights advocates have made significant contributions; and government representatives from Egypt suggested that the mandate of the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions be reformulated as a “right to life” mandate which should cover induced abortions. Reproductive rights and women’s rights allies are monitoring these developments.

March 2008: Human Rights Council, 7th Session

• Joint statement on torture and gender, delivered by OMCT and co-signed by CWGL.
• Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak.
  

September 20, 2007: Discussion on the Integration of a Gender Perspective in the Work of the Human Rights Council.

Presentations:

• H.E. Maria Nzomo, Permanent Representative of Kenya
• Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict
• Miloon Kothari, representative of Special procedures (Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living)
• Charlotte Bunch, civil society representative (founder and Director of Center for Women's Global Leadership - Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA)

Update:
Human Rights Council Passes Resolution on Gender Integration 
At its December 2007 session, member states of the Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted by consensus a resolution on integrating the human rights of women throughout the UN system. The resolution reaffirms the HRC’s commitment to integrate the human rights of women as well as a gender perspective in its work and welcomes the new Women’s Rights and Gender Unit of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Allies are particularly pleased that the Council agreed to integrate gender in all phases of the universal periodic review, the process through which states review one another’s human rights records. CWGL worked with other organizations over the past months to help develop and support the resolution and helped create a landmark HRC panel on this topic. For more information please click here.

Resources:

• International Service for Human Rights Human Rights Council, 6th session Daily Update, 21 September 2007, Discussion on integrating a gender perspective into the work of the Council
• The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) Human Rights Council Discusses Integration of Gender Perspective in its Work Programme

Background Information on the Creation of the Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights, met for the first time in June 2006. At its inaugural session, the Human Rights Council adopted two landmark new draft human rights mechanisms: a new treaty, the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Both drafts will go to the General Assembly for final adoption. A working group was set up to further Council work on universal periodic review of UN member States; their recommendations will go to the Council for further discussion in the September 2006 Council session. Special procedures’ mandates, which include Special Rapporteurs and certain thematic working groups, were extended for one year, as was the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. A working group was set up to begin reviewing mandates and mechanisms inherited from the Commission. Reports of Special procedures will be taken up at the September session. NGO participation was guided by procedures from the Commission, and NGOs were present in all segments of the session, including in the interactive dialogues and informal consultations. A synopsis of the meeting and other important outcomes can be found on the Council’s official website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/press/hrc/HRCOutcomesFINAL.pdf

• August 2006: Charlotte Bunch and Cynthia Rothschild have written an article on the Council in a new publication on UN Reform, UN Reform: What's in it for Women?, edited by Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Tina Johnson and Liane Schalatek and published by the International Women’s Tribune Center and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. This article is an overview of the Council and some of the concerns and interests of the women’s human rights community, such as preservation of the special procedures and of NGO access. To read Human Rights Council: Women Monitor Advances and Note Concerns, click here. To read full publication, please visit http://www.boell.org/docs/Boell_IWTC_Gender+UNReform_final.pdf.
• June 29, 2006: The Center for Women's Global Leadership gave what's assumed to be the final NGO oral intervention of the inaugural session of the Human Rights Council. NGOs have been making various forms of "interventions" throughout the two weeks of the Council, yet few have come from a feminist perspective or have focused on women's experiences. We believe that this was only the second statement to mention sexual orientation and possibly the only one to name reproductive rights. The statement was given in a section of the meeting that focused on the importance of human rights education. Click here for statement.

  CWGL has signed on to the following statements:

  • Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Must Become Full Partners in The Human Rights Council: Produced by Global Rights, this statement stresses the important contribution NGOs have made and will continue to make in the UN human rights arena. NGO participation in the Council is due to be reviewed in the first year of the Council’s operation.
    The Promise of the Human Rights Council: Marginalised Groups, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: For many years, CWGL has supported sexual rights advocacy at the Commission on Human Rights. For the Council, CWGL submitted with six other ECOSOC-accredited organizations this statement, which was drafted by ARC International.
  • Statement to the First Plenary Meeting of the Council, Advocacy Coalition on the UN Human Rights Council. The Advocacy Coalition was formed to examine the agenda and work of the HRC and to analyze and assess its progress according to its expressed mandate and functions.
  Other Statements:
  • Submission by Sunila Abeysekera, recipient of the UN Human Rights Prize of 1998 and human rights defender in Sri Lanka, 22 June 2006, Geneva
  • Submission by International Women's Rights Action Watch (Asia Pacific)
    

Resources

• The resolution that created the Human Rights Council stipulates that civil society participation in sessions is due to be reviewed by Council members. Until that review takes place, NGOs will have access similar to that which they had under the rules of the Commission on Human Rights. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has created a chart that notes comments by states recently elected to the Human Rights Council on future NGO participation in Council proceedings http://www.wilpf.int.ch/humanrights/2006/ngoparticipation.htmUpdate: First Members Elected to Human Rights Council!Reform the UN: http://www.reformtheun.orgAmnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/un-index-engForum Asia: http://www.hrc.forum-asia.org (for Asian regional information)Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/doc/?t=united_nations_hrc International Service for Human Rights: http://www.ishr.ch
• Report on Informal Consultation and Exchange of Views in preparation for the United Nations Human Rights Council, WUNRN http://www.wunrn.com/news/04_23_06/043006_un_human_rights.htm

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