EXPERTS OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
TO DISCUSS PROBLEMS, OPPORTUNITIES
NEXT WEEK IN GENEVA
28 May 1999
HR/99/48
28 May 1999
Experts from the full range of United Nations human rights mechanisms will gather in Geneva next week to discuss the strengthening of implementation of human rights treaties and how to make the work of special investigative mechanisms and procedures more effective.
The experts represent the committees set up to monitor States' compliance with their treaty obligations and the mandates established by the Commission on Human Rights to study specific issues and the situation in individual countries. The treaty-body chairpersons, who will meet from 31 May to 4 June, will discuss, among other issues, a draft plan of action for strengthening the implementation of the conventions on civil and political rights, racial discrimination and torture.
The chairpersons' meeting has been organized to coincide this year with that scheduled from 31 May to 3 June by the Special Rapporteurs, Representatives, Experts and Chairpersons of Working Groups of the Commission. The Commission's experts will debate the future of the special-procedures system and capacity-building to improve the quality and effectiveness of extra-conventional mechanisms. On 2 June, the two groups of experts will hold their first-ever joint meeting to discuss more effective cooperation between them.
At their respective meetings the experts will also highlight the integration of human rights concerns into the work of the UN system at sessions focusing on cooperation with departments, specialized agencies, funds, programmes and mechanisms of the Organization.
Many of the experts were in Geneva this week to participate, from 26 to 28 May, in a workshop on integrating a gender perspective into the human rights system. The workshop was organized jointly by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Division for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
The meeting of the chairpersons, which will be public, will take place in room XXV starting at 10 a.m. on 31 May.