Statement by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang to the International workshop on “Enhancing cooperation between regional and international mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights”

Geneva, Palais des Nations – Room XIX
 12 December 2012

Madam President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this international workshop on Enhancing cooperation between United Nations and regional mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights.

I am delighted to see representatives from regional, subregional and interregional human rights mechanisms, governments, national human rights institutions (NHRIs), national preventive mechanisms and non-governmental organizations from around the world, as well as regional and United Nations experts. I am confident that the diversity of participant’s experiences and expertise will translate into very rich and enlightened discussion during the next 3 days.

Principles of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have repeatedly recognized, in a number of resolutions, the important role played by regional human rights arrangements in the promotion and protection of all human rights.

The first Geneva workshop on regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, held in November 2008, to highlighted the important work undertaken by regional human rights mechanisms in promoting and protecting human rights and underscored the need for more coherent and regular cooperation between the regional and international levels.

The second workshop held in 2010 reaffirmed the importance of strengthening the cooperation between the UN human rights system and regional human rights arrangements, with participants concluding that enhanced cooperation would allow them to fulfill their mandate more effectively. They also affirmed that the ultimate aim of such cooperation is to ensure a real impact on the ground, making a difference to the right holders.

The 2010 workshop recommended that biennial meetings be convened with the participation of UN and regional human rights mechanisms, Governments, NHRIs and NGOs, in order to discuss ways and means to enhance cooperation in three key areas: sharing of information, joint activities and follow-up to recommendations.

OHCHR undertook several activities to prepare the ground for this third workshop. In 2011, it held consultations with regional human rights mechanisms in the Americas, Africa, Europe and ASEAN, aimed at identifying the themes for this and further biennial workshops, in particular prevention of torture, women’s rights, the rights of the child, and the rights of human rights defenders and indigenous peoples.

After a consultation with Member States in April 2012, it was decided that the themes for the 2012 workshop would be prevention of torture, women’s rights and the rights of the child, taking into account that there are already some concrete and practical examples of cooperation in these areas. I hope you will be able to hold specific discussions on these themes and produce solid recommendations in the three main areas of cooperation identified at the 2010 workshop, namely: information sharing, joint activities and follow up to UN and regional mechanisms’ recommendations.

Ladies and gentlemen,

OHCHR has recently organized some activities that brought together UN and regional mechanisms.
 
In June 2012, OHCHR facilitated a dialogue between chairpersons of the UN human rights treaty bodies and African human rights mechanisms. The meeting recognized the complementarity between the UN human rights treaty body system and African human rights mechanisms, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, and the East African Court of Justice, and recommended enhanced cooperation between the regional and the UN entities, including on reporting procedures, individual communications, and the role of NHRIs and NGOs. It was also recommended that UN treaty bodies and African human rights mechanisms hold regular meetings, that they make cross-reference to each other’s recommendations, and that they take measures to ensure mutual follow up on the implementation of their recommendations.  

Also in 2012, OHCHR, in cooperation with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, organized a dialogue between special procedures mandate-holders of the Human Rights Council and their colleagues of the African Commission. This dialogue resulted in a roadmap on cooperation which contains measures to enhance collaboration between the special procedures of both organizations. A joint working group composed of UN and the African Commission mandate holders has also been established to oversee the implementation of the roadmap, including recommendations on information sharing, involvement of mandate holders in each other’s thematic work, and follow up to country based recommendations formulated by both mechanisms. Some joint actions have already taken place, for instance, a joint visit of UN and ACHPR Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders to Tunisia in September 2012.

Some regional mechanisms regularly contribute to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in particular the Council of Europe and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. I would like to encourage other regional human rights mechanisms to follow this practice. Another potential area of involvement of regional mechanisms is the follow up to UPR recommendations. OHCHR stands ready to continue to support regional human rights mechanisms so as to enable them to collaborate more closely with the UPR.

An important layer of cooperation lies at the secretariat level. For instance, an agreement was concluded in 2012 between OHCHR Petitions and Inquiries Section and the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights for exchange of staff. This exchange has helped to strengthening the mutual knowledge of both bodies’ mandates and practical functioning, in particular their jurisprudence, which will contribute to avoiding contradictory decisions and the fragmentation of international human rights law.

Furthermore, OHCHR signed memoranda of understanding with the League of Arab States and with the African Union Commission in 2002 and 2010 respectively, which provide the legal basis for a strengthened cooperation between UN mechanisms and human rights arrangements within these regional organizations.

OHCHR and the Council of Europe continued to hold desk to desk annual cooperation meetings aimed at facilitating discussion on topics of common interest. This year the meeting, which was held in Geneva yesterday, took stock of developments since the process started in 2007, with a view to identifying best practices, challenges and lessons learned focusing on cooperation in the field, particularly with regard to follow up to recommendations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are many issues that need to be tackled in the work ahead. The program of this workshop reflects the main areas in which cooperation and synergies between UN and regional human rights mechanisms could be enhanced.

The first session will focus on ways to share information on a regular basis, using the topic of prevention of torture as a concrete basis for exchange. I invite participants to reflect on the questions indicated in the programme of this workshop, for instance the need to establish institutional channels to exchange information on planned visits, preparation of reports, actions on individual cases, work plans, and calendars of activities.

The second session concerns possible joint activities of regional and UN human rights mechanisms. The underlying theme is women’s rights. I would like to encourage you to go beyond current practices and to consider joint activities, such as joint reports, joint press statements, joint capacity building, and joint visits. Joint activities should be carefully chosen so as to obtain a more effective result through increased visibility. For example, in June 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women convened a side event on the margins of the 17th session of the HRC on regional standards on violence against women. The panel included representatives from the African, Inter-American, European and ASEAN human rights mechanisms; they discussed the levels of protection awarded through regional human rights instruments, remaining gaps and challenges, as well as possible areas of cooperation with the UN and the Special Procedures. On critical issues such as these, cooperation between mechanisms is crucial to enhancing protection provided to women.

The third session is dedicated to the follow-up to decisions and recommendations by UN and regional human rights mechanisms. I would like to invite you to discuss ways and means to complement each other in the follow up to your respective recommendations in order to avoid fragmentation and duplication. The rights of the child will be the vehicle to concretize this discussion. A good example in this area is the Joint Working Group Meetings of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and the Welfare of the Child and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which started in 2010. The participants agreed to establish cooperation mechanisms aimed at following up to concluding observations, including joint visits and workshops.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Through this workshop, let us jointly identify common priorities between UN and regional human rights mechanisms and develop realistic and feasible proposals and strategies of cooperation; discuss methods to overcome challenges; and, most importantly, to outline a plan of action defining the responsibility of each human rights mechanism and that of OHCHR in implementing the proposals. It would be equally important to define and elaborate on the role played by NHRIs, national preventive mechanisms and NGOs in the process of cooperation.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, let me reiterate that cooperation for human rights protection and promotion must be grounded on the principles of universality, indistinctly to interdependence of rights and freedom and that complementarity between international, regional, and national human rights protection systems is a great asset in tacking the human rights challenges around the world. Your deliberations will be a crucial step forward along this important path.  I wish you a productive discussion.

            Thank you.

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