Human Rights Council concludes thirteenth session

ROUNDUP

26 March 2010

Adopts 28 Resolutions, Creates Expert Committee on Goldstone Report and Extends Mandates of Special Procedures on Right to Food, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Myanmar

The Human Rights Council closed its thirteenth regular session this afternoon, adopting 28 texts on a wide range of issues, including adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, in the context of mega-events; the human rights of persons with disabilities; the protection of human rights defenders; the role and responsibility of judges, prosecutors and lawyers with regard to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the fight against sexual violence against children; on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; on the grave human rights violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; combating defamation of religions; and the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

By virtue of the texts adopted, the Council established a committee of independent experts to monitor proceedings by both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side with regard to investigations into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the Council’s Fact-Finding Mission. The Council also extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food and of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and prolonged the mandate of the Working Group on the on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure until the Council’s seventeenth session. It further extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar for one year.

The Council also adopted texts on the composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights; human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality; the Open-ended Working Group on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities; protection of journalists in situations of armed conflicts; a United Nations declaration on human rights education and training; the Social Forum; human rights in the Occupied Syrian Golan; the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; the elaboration of complementary standards to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; strengthening of technical cooperation and consultative services in the Republic of Guinea; trafficking in persons, including women and children; and on a world of sports free from racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

The Council also approved a list of members of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, appointing Mona Zulficar, Alfred Ntunduguru Karokora, Shigeki Sakamoto, Chinsung Chung, Vladimir Kartashkin, Jose Antonio Bengoa Cabello and Wolfgang Stefan Heinz. Further, it approved candidates for special procedures mandate holders, including Jasminka Dzumhur, for the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Vladimir Tochilovsky for the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and Verene Shepherd for the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

Over the course of its session, the Council heard a number of high-profile reports and held interactive dialogues with the Special Procedures presenting them, including the Special Rapporteur on the right to food; the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders; the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; and the Independent Expert on minority issues.

The Council also heard presentations from the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on arbitrary detention, the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, which were followed by interactive debates. In addition, the Chairperson of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child presented a report to the Council. The Council also heard presentations of the reports of its subsidiary bodies: the Advisory Committee, the Forum on Minority Issues and the Social Forum; and from the Chairpersons of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards.

The Council also undertook a review of human rights situations that required its attention, hearing presentations of reports by Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and in Myanmar, which were debated by the Council.

On Thursday, 4 March, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, addressed the Council, to present her annual report of the work of her Office. Ms. Pillay said her Office had supported the Council in its wide and expansive range of activities, including its special sessions over the past year. The Special Procedures now benefited from the work of 55 mandate holders, including the new Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights. To maximize their contribution, States should ensure that those experts were enabled to work in full independence and latitude and that those who were in contact with Special Procedures were protected against reprisals. In 2009, her Office had carried out work on a number of priority areas, including countering discrimination; strengthening accountability, good governance and the rule of law; and promoting and realizing the right to development. Following the presentation there was an interactive debate with the High Commissioner, during which speakers raised a range of issues, including measures to ensure a more equitable geographic distribution of the staff of her Office; the role and support of the High Commissioner in the context of the Council’s upcoming five-year review; developments in priority areas such as the elimination of discrimination and the right to development; and the work carried out by the Office in the field.

The Council also considered and debated the High Commissioner’s report on the composition of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the report of the High Commissioner on the enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights; a thematic study on the structure and role of national mechanisms for the implementation and monitoring of the Convention on Persons with Disabilities; the report of the Secretary-General on arbitrary deprivation of nationality; the High Commissioner’s report on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; the report on the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on human rights; the report on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights; the report of the Secretary-General on the process currently utilized by the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights; and a report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on violations of human rights in Honduras since the coup d’état.

On Monday, 22 March, the High Commissioner gave a presentation of reports concerning the human rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories, following which the Council held a general debate on follow-up to its ninth and twelfth Special Sessions concerning the same topic, in which speakers were worried about the consistent breaches of international law by both sides, as the respect for international human rights and humanitarian law in all circumstances remained an essential precondition for achieving just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

In the second week of its session, the Council held its annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child, focusing on the theme of the fight against sexual violence against children, holding a panel discussion on manifestations of sexual violence against boys and girls, and another panel discussion on protecting boys and girls from sexual violence: prevention and response. Also during this session, the Council held its annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities, focusing on the structure and role of national mechanisms in the implementation and monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Council further held a number of general debates, including on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development; human rights situations that require the Council’s attention; human rights bodies and mechanisms; the Universal Periodic Review mechanism; the human rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories; follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action; and on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance: follow-up to and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

The Council also held panel discussions on the impact of the global economic and financial crises on the universal realization and effective enjoyment of all human rights; and on the right to truth.

As this was the Council’s first regular session of the year, at the beginning of its thirteenth session, the Council held its annual High-Level Segment, being addressed by a range of foreign dignitaries from all areas of the world on a range of subjects.

In the context of its Universal Periodic Review procedure, the Council adopted the outcomes of the reports of its Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Eritrea, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Norway, Albania, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal, Bhutan, Dominica, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, and Ethiopia.

The thirteenth session, which was presided by Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, was held from 1 to 26 March 2009.

The fourteenth regular session of the Council will be held from 31 May to 18 June 2010.

Resolutions Adopted by the Council

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

On the composition of staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council requested the High Commissioner to work on the broadest geographic diversity of her staff to achieve a better representation of countries and regions that were unrepresented or underrepresented, particularly from the developing world, while considering applying a zero-growth cap on the representation of countries and regions already overrepresented.

On enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights, the Council urged all actors on the international scene to build an international order based on inclusion, justice, equality and equity, human dignity, mutual understanding and promotion of and respect for cultural diversity and universal human rights, and to reject all doctrines of exclusion based on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
On human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality, the Council requested the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the impact that arbitrary deprivation of nationality, including in cases of States succession, might have on the enjoyment by persons of their human rights, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and to present it to the Council at its nineteenth session.
On the Open-ended Working Group on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure, the Council decided to extend the mandate of the Open-ended Working Group until the seventeenth session of the Council.
On the right to food, the Council decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, for a period of three years, and requested the Special Rapporteur to continue to monitor the evolution of the world food crisis and to maintain the Council informed of the impact of the crisis on the enjoyment of the right to food and to alert it to possible further actions in that regard.

On adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, in the context of mega-events, the Council called upon States, in the context of mega-events, to promote the right to adequate housing and to create a sustainable, development-oriented housing legacy.

On the human rights of persons with disabilities: national implementation and monitoring and introducing as the theme for 2011 the role of international cooperation in support of national efforts for the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities, the Council decided that its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities will be held at its sixteenth session, and that it will focus on the role of international cooperation in support of national efforts to realize the purpose and objectives of the Convention.

On the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, the Council urged States to review, enact and amend their legislation, where necessary, as well as their educational policies and systems, to ensure the realization of the right to education to eliminate discrimination and to provide for equal access to quality education for persons belonging to minorities; and requested the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a compilation of existing manuals, guides, training material and other tools dealing with minority issues by various United Nations entities, and to present the compilation to the Council at its sixteenth session.

On protection of human rights defenders, the Council urged States to take timely and effective action to prevent and protect against attacks on and threats to persons engaged in promoting and defending human rights and fundamental freedoms and their relatives; urged States not to discriminate against human rights defenders on any grounds and to desist from any discriminatory measures against them; urged States to investigate, in a prompt, effective, independent and accountable manner, complaints and allegations regarding threats or human rights violations perpetrated against human rights defenders or their relatives.

On torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: the role and responsibility of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, the Council condemned any action or attempt by States or public officials to legalize, authorize or acquiesce in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under any circumstances, including on grounds of national security or through judicial decisions; and urged all States to consider establishing or to maintain and enhance independent and effective mechanisms with qualified legal and other relevant expertise to undertake effective monitoring visits to places of detention.

On the rights of the child: the fight against sexual violence against children, the Council urged all States, inter alia, to ensure accountability and seek to end impunity of perpetrators of sexual violence and abuse against children in all settings, including in conflict and emergencies, and to give priority attention to the prevention of all forms of sexual violence and abuse against children by addressing its underlying causes; and called upon all States and relevant United Nations bodies and agencies and regional organizations to address the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse of children by United Nations peacekeeping and humanitarian personnel and urges States to adopt appropriate national legislation and to ensure rigorous investigation and prosecution of such crimes.

On the protection of journalists in situations of armed conflict, the Council decided to convene a panel discussion at its fourteenth session on the issue of protection of journalists in armed conflict.

On the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, the Council called upon States, while countering terrorism, to ensure that any person whose human rights or fundamental freedoms had been violated had access to an effective remedy and that victims received adequate, effective and prompt reparations where appropriate; and urged all States to take all necessary steps to ensure that persons deprived of liberty enjoyed the guarantees to which they were entitled under international law.

On trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Council decided to hold a panel discussion at its fourteenth session to give voice to victims of trafficking in persons, with due consideration for the psychological well-being of the victims involved, with a view to reinforcing the centrality of their human rights and needs, and taking into account their recommendations when devising actions to combat human trafficking.

Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

On the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Council expressed serious concern at ongoing grave, widespread and systematic human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, for a period of one year; urged the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur; and also urged the Government to ensure full, rapid and unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance that was delivered on the basis of need, in accordance with humanitarian principles, coupled with adequate monitoring.

On the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the Council strongly condemned the ongoing systematic and violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar; called upon the Government to ensure a free, transparent and fair electoral process; decided to extend for one year the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; and urged the Government to continue to respond favourably to the Special Rapporteur’s requests to visit the country and that the Government implement the recommendations addressed to the Government contained in his reports and in Council resolutions.

Human rights bodies and mechanisms

On a United Nations declaration on human rights education and training, the Council decided to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group with the mandate of negotiating, finalizing and submitting to the Council the draft United Nations declaration on human rights education and training, on the basis of the draft submitted by the Advisory Committee.

On the Social Forum, the Council decided that the Social Forum will meet for three working days in 2010, in Geneva, and that it should focus on: the negative effects of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights; measures and actions to address the impact of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights, including on most vulnerable groups, particularly women and children; and the importance of international assistance and cooperation in addressing the human rights-related impact of climate change.

Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories

On human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan, the Council called upon Israel to desist from its continuous building of settlements and from changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan, and emphasized that the displaced persons of the population of the occupied Syrian Golan had to be allowed to return to their homes and to recover their property.

On the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the Council reaffirmed the inalienable, permanent and unqualified right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including their right to live in freedom, justice and dignity and to establish their sovereign, independent, democratic and viable contiguous State.

On Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, the Council condemned the new Israeli announcement on the construction of 120 new housing units in the Bitar Elite settlement, and 1,600 new housing units for new settlers in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo, and called upon the Government of Israel to immediately reverse its decision which would further undermine and jeopardize the ongoing efforts by the international community to reach a final settlement compliant with international legitimacy.

On the grave human rights violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the Council demanded that the occupying Power, Israel, end its occupation of the Palestinian land occupied since 1967, and that it respect its commitments within the peace process towards the establishment of the independent sovereign Palestinian State; demanded that Israel, stop the targeting of civilians and the systematic destruction of the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people; called for the immediate cessation of all Israeli military attacks and operations throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory; and demanded that Israel immediately lift the siege imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip.

On follow-up to the report of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, the Council reiterated the call by the General Assembly upon the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side to conduct investigations that were independent, credible and in conformity with international standards into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the Fact-Finding Mission, with a view to ensuring accountability and justice; and established a committee of independent experts in international humanitarian and human rights laws to monitor and assess any domestic, legal or other proceedings undertaken by both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side.

Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

On combating defamation of religions, the Council called for strengthened international efforts to foster a global dialogue for the promotion of a culture of tolerance and peace at all levels and urged States, non-governmental organizations, religious leaders as well as the print and electronic media to support and foster such a dialogue; and requested the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to report on all manifestations of defamation of religions, and in particular on the ongoing serious implications of Islamophobia, on the enjoyment of all rights by their followers.

On the elaboration of complementary standards to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Council decided that the Ad Hoc Committee on the elaboration of complementary standards should convene its third session from 29 November to 10 December 2010.

On a world of sports free from racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the Council strongly encouraged States to organize and finance awareness-raising campaigns for preventing and combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in sport.

Technical assistance and capacity-building

On strengthening of technical cooperation and consultative services in the Republic of Guinea, the Council invited the Guinean authorities to consider implementing the recommendations on, inter alia, combating impunity, protection for and the granting of assistance and appropriate reparation to the victims of acts of violence, and reform of the justice and the security sectors; and strongly appealed to the international community to provide the transitional authorities, as soon as possible, with appropriate assistance as a contribution to a sustainable restoration of peace and the constitutional order and to support the efforts of the Guinean authorities to promote respect for human rights.

On the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the strengthening of technical cooperation and consultative services, the Council requested the Democratic Republic of the Congo to continue to ensure protection of journalists and human rights defenders in the discharge of their duties, to fight against sexual violence and to prosecute the perpetrators of serious human rights violations, in the army and the national police force, within the framework of the policy of zero tolerance.

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For use of the information media; not an official record