GA/SHC/4047
Sixty-seventh General Assembly
Third Committee
22nd & 23rd Meetings (AM & PM)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Presents Report; Also Hears from Experts On Iran, Extrajudicial Executions, Judicial Independence, Violence Against Women
The recent protracted violence in a number of sensitive areas around the world was a reminder that the prevention of conflict and protection of human rights in times of conflict remained among the world’s most daunting challenges, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.
“The past year has been marred by developments which have put to the test the capacity of the international community to prevent and promptly respond to human rights and humanitarian crises: the conflict in Syria, fragile transitions, the situation in the Horn of Africa, in Mali and the Sahel, and the economic and social crises on all continents,” said Navi Pillay, noting that the challenge of addressing crises had grown, as today they tended to develop at a faster pace, and often involved non-State actors.
Ms. Pillay’s briefing on the work of her Office over the past year began the Committee’s consideration of specific human rights questions, which over the next week will feature the special rapporteurs tasked with investigating the matters. Today it heard presentations by experts on Iran, extrajudicial executions, judicial independence and violence against women.
Ms. Pilay told delegates that, while much remained to be done to prevent abuses, there had been encouraging developments, including increased invitations to her Office by Member States to assist in addressing human rights concerns. Her Office now supported 57 field presences, and in June it had started regional activities in North Africa. In September, it signed an agreement with Yemen for a country office in Sana’a, and it also had a memorandum of understanding with Somalia on technical cooperation for human rights.
She said she valued her several opportunities to brief the Security Council this past year, including on Syria, which demonstrated the intrinsic link between human rights, peace and security. She also briefed the General Assembly on Syria, and had appealed for a focus on the centrality of human beings above political and economic interests. “This is the reason d’être for the United Nations, and must be reflected both in the decisions of its intergovernmental bodies and throughout the work of the Organization,” Ms. Pillay said.
To that end, her Office had also provided consistent support to the Human Rights Council, whose resolutions required it to provide monitoring, reporting and technical cooperation. The Office was now providing support to 48 Special Procedures, who carried out 82 country visits in 2011 and issued 605 communications to 124 States, she said.
Integrating human rights into the development agenda, her Office worked this year to have the right to development included in documents, especially as it related to the Rio+20 Conference. The main human rights commitments in the outcome document were welcome steps, she said.
But it had become increasingly difficult for her Office to keep pace with its expanded mandates because it was labouring under financial constraints. “While we will continue to endeavour to fulfil such work, without sufficient resources, we are being compelled to do less with less,” she said, earnestly seeking renewed commitment and support to enable the Office to maintain its momentum.
During a lengthy question-and-answer session, most State delegations pledged to continue to cooperate and engage with her Office to promote and protect universal human rights. However, a number expressed concern over the decision this year to move treaty body meetings from New York to Geneva. Several also asked for comment how the Office would address underfunding, as the budget heavily relied on voluntary contributions.
Responding, Ms. Pillay said she looked for Member State support for an increase in the regular budget. “This tradition of keeping human rights as the Cinderella of the three pillars must be addressed,” she said. On concern about the relocation of meetings of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Human Rights Committee, she said their sessions had not been reduced, but rather those in New York had been moved to Geneva, with prior consultation, as the Office had overspent extra budgetary funds by $40 million.
Following Ms. Pillay, the Committee began the afternoon with the report from Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, who said responses to communications from Iran made him optimistic about establishing a substantive dialogue with its Government. Since the drafting of his report, he added, Iran had announced hundreds of pardons and released a number of prisoners of conscience. He continued to call for the release of all such prisoners and to investigate charges of human rights violations, especially of due process rights.
The impact of general sanctions on Iran’s human rights situation had been raised in several meetings with Iranian officials and members of the Iranian diaspora. “The potential impact of sanctions on human rights does concern me”, Mr. Shaheed said, and an examination would be part of his future work.
However, Iran appeared to have a “deeply troubling” human rights situation, Mr. Shaheed told the Committee. Information from interviews painted a picture in which a “climate of fear” pervaded civil society, and legislative actions served to frustrate healthy participation in democratic processes and impaired the judicial system. He recommended that attention be paid to legislation that attenuated and abrogated rights guaranteed by the five human rights instruments it had ratified. Impunity must be addressed to facilitate accountability, he said.
Responding to the presentation during the question and answer period, Iran’s representative said she had expected that the Human Rights Council, as the main pillar in the human rights sphere, would not allow any of its mechanisms to be abused as “instruments for discouragement”, but the appointment of a country mandate holder had been the result of the political ambition of certain countries. That approach undermined the Special Procedures mechanism and status of the Council. Iran had submitted its general comments and observations on the draft report, but regrettably, they had not been included in the report. She welcomed cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms and her country had invited the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit.
The Committee then heard from Christof Heyns, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who said he had deemed it essential to dedicate this year’s report to the use of the death penalty, which was at the core of his mandate. There was a consistent trend among States toward abolition of the death penalty, and the impact of the General Assembly on the process, through the adoption of a series of resolutions in recent years, was well known and important, he said.
“Yet the retention of the death penalty remains a reality in a shrinking group of States,” he said. Moreover, in many cases, domestic law and practice regrettably run counter to international standards surrounding capital punishment, while in other cases information on the use of the death penalty is kept secret, which forecloses an assessment of the level of State compliance with international standards.”
His report detailed areas of concern in the continued use of the death penalty, and explored options for strengthening international engagement, he said. He welcomed a number of developments in Africa, including Benin acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights earlier this year, but regretted the renewal of executions in The Gambia, which represented a significant step backward.
Also speaking today were Gabriela Knaul, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.
The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 25 October to continue its discussion on human rights with presentations by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; the Chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances; and the Chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.