HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TO VISIT COLOMBIA AND HAITI

17 October 2008

The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay will undertake her first review of two very different United Nations human rights field operations in ten days time, visiting Colombia from 27 October to 1 November, and Haiti from 2 to 5 November.

In Colombia, where the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has a major country office, Ms. Pillay will meet with the President Alvaro Uribe and senior ministers, as well as members of Congress, the judiciary, civil society, and UN colleagues to discuss a range of human rights concerns. She will also visit OHCHR field operations outside the capital Bogota.

In Haiti, where OHCHR operates through the Human Rights Section in the integrated peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, the High Commissioner is expected to meet with President Rene Garcia Preval, as well as other representatives of the Government and civil society. Key issues will include judicial reforms, and the extent to which economic and social rights are subject to legal jurisdiction – particularly relevant given the severe aggravation of existing deprivation by the recent natural disasters and the global food crisis. She will also visit a regional office outside the capital Port-au-Prince.

There will be press conferences at the end of both visits.

__________

For use of the information media; not an official record