人权事务委员会召开第一百零七届会议

上午

2013年3月11日

为斯特凡·埃塞尔致以一分钟默哀，选举奈杰尔·罗德利为主席

人权事务委员会今日上午召开第一百零七届会议，选举奈杰尔·罗德利为主席，并选举产生新的办公署，通过了议程，听取了人权事务高级专员办事处特别程序司司长简·康纳斯的发言。

康纳斯女士对委员会的新成员致以欢迎：马塔迪恩、维克多·曼努尔·罗德里格斯-莱西亚、安雅·塞伯特佛尔、尤瓦尔·沙尼和康斯坦丁·瓦尔泽拉什维利。联合国和人权事务高级专员办事处面临着系统范围内的预算削减。联合国秘书处将削减1亿美元的预算，其中450万美元可能来自人权高专办的常规预算。她表示，尽管70%的削减来自人员开支，但人权事务委员会此次不会受到影响。康纳斯女士在会上跟进了关于加强条约机构体系的联大政府间进程。讨论的议题包括文档和会议服务，简化报告程序，网络直播和视频会议，以及提名和选举进程。下一届会议将在四月中旬召开。

委员会新成员庄严宣誓后，委员会选出了新的办公署，其中奈杰尔·罗德利任主席，亚赫·本·阿舒尔、尤利亚·安托阿尼拉·莫托科和马戈·瓦特瓦尔任副主席，科内利斯·弗林特曼任报告员。

委员会通过了议程，经过简单的讨论，通过了工作组关于来文的报告。

委员会为在2月27日过世的伟大人权卫士斯特凡·埃塞尔默哀一分钟。

在会议期间，委员会将审议巴拉圭、中国香港特别行政区、安哥拉、中国澳门特别行政区和秘鲁的报告。

委员会下一次公开会议将于今日下午3点召开，届时开始审议巴拉圭的第三次定期报告。

Statements

JANE CONNORS, Chief of the Special Procedures Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, began by welcoming the new Committee members: Kheshoe Parsad Matadeen, Victor Manuel Rodriguez-Rescia, Anja Seibert-Fohr, Yuval Shany and Konstantine Vardzelashvili. She said all five members came with a wealth of experience and wished them the best in their new challenge.

Ms. Connors said the Special Procedures Branch provided support to the majority of the thematic Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The Branch now had 48 Special Procedures of which 36 were thematic mandates and 12 mandates relating to countries or territories. Special Procedures reported annually to the Human Rights Council and most also reported to the General Assembly on an annual basis. Mandate holders communicated confidentially with Member States through letters and urgent appeals. In 2012, 603 communications were sent to 127 States regarding at least 1,512 individuals. State responses were improving but were still disappointing with governments replying to 40 percent of communications sent between January 1 and December 31, 2012. Communications and replies were compiled in a report submitted to each session of the Human Rights Council.

Ms. Connors said much of the work of the Special Procedures was relevant to the work of the Committee. Last year, the Working Group on arbitrary detention, in response to Human Rights Council resolution 20/16, started to prepare basic principles and guidelines on remedies and procedures on the right of anyone deprived of his or her liberty by arrest or detention to bring proceedings before court so that the court could decide on the legality of the detention and order a release if not lawful. The “Rabat Plan of Action” was the result of discussions and workshops related to the prohibition of incitement to national, racial or religious hatred. The action plan made recommendations on how to improve the response to these behaviours in legislation, jurisprudence and policies.

Ms. Connors said that in 2012, the death penalty was taken up for analysis in two reports presented to the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly by the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and on torture in light of trends toward the abolition of the death penalty. The report stressed that countries which had not abolished the death penalty may only impose it for intentional killing offences. The report also called for governmental transparency regarding all information related to the imposition and implementation of the death penalty.

The United Nations and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) faced system-wide budgetary cuts. Of the $ 100 million to be cut from the United Nations Secretariat, $ 4.5 million would likely be drawn from OHCHR’s regular budget. Although 70 percent would be in staff costs, she said the Human Rights Committee Secretariat would not be affected at this time.

Ms. Connors updated the meeting on the General Assembly’s intergovernmental process on strengthening the treaty body system. During the session last year, the co-facilitators, the ambassadors of Indonesia and Iceland, were re-appointed. Issues discussed included documentation and conference services, the simplified reporting procedure, webcasting and videoconferencing, and the nomination and election process. The next meeting would take place in mid-April.

Ms. Connors also mentioned that Stephane Hessel, one of the greatest champions of human rights, was honoured with a minute of silence at the Human Rights Council for his life’s work.

NIGEL RODLEY, Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, said he was aware of how the language of diplomacy had a tendency to inflate the description of things but thanked those who nominated him for their nominations and for their support. He said it was encouraging and invigorating. He welcomed the new members to the Committee and hoped they would find the proceedings worth being part of.

MARGO WATERVAL, Committee Expert and Rapporteur of the Working Group on Communications, said the Working Group met from 5 to 8 March and was composed of eight Committee members. They examined 21 cases, of which nine were recommended as inadmissible. The others would go before the Committee for its examination.

NIGEL RODLEY, Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, said he continued to be troubled by reduced draft communications and not enough cases had been provided; as a result, the Working Group met for only four days instead of five. More drafts need to be provided by the secretariat as an urgent matter.

The report on communications was adopted.

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