UN Deputy Human Rights Chief to visit Haiti

1 July 2011

GENEVA – The United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, begins tomorrow an official five-day mission to Haiti.

During the mission, from 2 to 6 July 2011, Ms. Kang will visit Port-au-Prince and other areas affected by the January 2010 earthquake, and will meet with the new authorities, parliament, the judiciary, the Haiti Interim Recovery Commission, the diplomatic corps, representatives of MINUSTAH and UN agencies as well as Haitian human rights defenders and civil society organisations.

The Deputy High Commissioner will use the opportunity to see first-hand the situation in the country and raise important concerns with the new authorities, including the need to put greater emphasis on human rights within the reconstruction process, to tackle impunity, and to make progress with the reform of rule of law institutions including the judiciary, the police and prisons. She will also address the need for the population to access their basic rights. Ms. Kang will discuss the upcoming Universal Periodic Review of Haiti in the Human Rights Council in October 2011 with the authorities and other stakeholders.

In Port-au-Prince, she will visit several camps of displaced persons as well as places of detention. She is due to inaugurate the refurbished library of the Magistrate training school on Tuesday 5 July.

The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights will hold a press conference on 5 July 2011 at 12.00, at the MINUSTAH Logistics Base Conference Room 31, to present preliminary observations from her visit.

END

OHCHR Country Page – Haiti: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/LacRegion/Pages/HTIndex.aspx

To learn more about the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/DeputyHighCommissioner.aspx

For additional information and media requests, please contact:

In Haiti: Sylvie van den Wildenberg, MINUSTAH Spokesperson, on +509 3702 9042. Email: vandenwildenberg@un.org. From 2-6 July, Michael van Gelderen, OHCHR Haiti Desk Officer, can be reached on +509 3701 0564.
In Geneva: Rupert Colville (+41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org) or Ravina Shamdasani (+ 41 22 917 9310 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org)

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