|
Human Rights Council
September 2009: Human Rights Council, 12th Session
During the UN Human Rights Council's 12th session, CWGL new Executive Director Radhika Balakrishnan participated in a side event focused on the human rights implications of the financial crisis and the importance of using rights norms to address macroeconomic policy at global and national levels. Cynthia Rothschild followed the annual session on gender integration (CWGL's statement at Human Rights Council at annual session on gender integration), resolutions on "traditional values" and on HIV, and the appointment of a new special rapporteur on cultural rights. We are very pleased to announce that the Council has appointed colleague Farida Shaheed, from Shirkat Gah in Pakistan, for this position. The resolution on "traditional values" calls for OHCHR to do more work in this area, and was sponsored by Russia. Despite our NGO advocacy against it, the resolution passed on the last day of the Council, after having been further diluted through the elimination of references to conformity with international law. The annual session on gender integration focused on the Universal Periodic Review, the process by which states review one another's human rights records. Panelists noted the critical need for states to collect sex-disaggregated data (as well as data that cuts across other social factors), and to focus on implementation of recommendations. Full report is available here.
June 2009: Human Rights Council, 11th Session
CWGL Comments at Human Rights Council at Human Rights of Women Session
CWGL delivered a joint statement as part of the UN Human Rights Council’s day long session on human rights of women on June 4th. The statement called for the UN system and governments to focus attention on four under-addressed areas in human rights analysis and advocacy: 1) strengthening approaches that highlight women’s empowerment and agency rather than resting only on a victim/protection model; 2) incorporating sexual rights issues, including but not limited to experiences related to sexual orientation and gender identity; 3) highlighting the experiences of women human rights defenders and defenders of sexual rights; and 4) developing approaches that use an intersectional analysis, which takes into account multiple forms of discrimination and overlapping social factors such as race and class that affect women’s experience of violations. Click here to see the webcast of the gender integration/human rights of women sessions.
Delivered by Cynthia Rothschild from CWGL, the statement was co-sponsored by Action Canada for Population and Development, Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Center for Reproductive Rights, Forum Asia, International Women’s Rights Action Watch-Asia Pacific, the Sexual Rights Initiative (a project of ACPD, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action [CREA] India, Mulabi - Espacio Latinoamericano de Sexualidades y Derechos, and others); Women Living Under Muslim Laws, and the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights.
CWGL attends 11th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
During the 11th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), which runs until June 18th, a number of sessions will focus on women and gender. Among these are sessions on violence against women, including the report of the Special Rapporteur on VAW; an all day session on the human rights of women, including integration of gender and equality under the law; and discussions on maternal mortality, sexual orientation and gender identity, and on health. During this Council session, Yakin Erturk, the Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, will deliver her last annual report as her term closes. Click here to read the 15 years of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences. Click here to read the opening address from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay.
September 2008: Human Rights Council, 9th Session
Gender Integration Moves Ahead at Human Rights Council
On Friday, September 12th, governments and NGOs participated in the Human Rights Council’s second major session on Integrating a Gender Perspective in the work of the Council and its Special Procedures. This session built on last September’s groundbreaking panel on the same theme, which stressed to governments the concepts behind integrating a gender perspective as well as concrete ideas for how to do this within the Council’s mechanisms and processes. Recommendations noted on Friday emphasized the need for special procedures (such as Special Rapporteurs) to address gender and experiences of women and girls within their mandates; and for the Council to establish means to move these issues forward in future Council sessions. The civil society statement was delivered by Sandeep Prasad, with Action Canada for Population and Development and the Sexual Rights Initiative. The session was created through the work of a coalition of NGOs including CWGL that have been promoting gender integration at the Council since its inception. To read the civil society statement, click here. To watch the webcast, click here.
June 2008: Human Rights Council, 8th Session
On June 5th, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva hosted several events on “Rights of Women”, including a session on violence against women – the first time this topic had been addressed in depth since the inception of the Council in 2006. Human rights, anti-violence, women’s rights and sexual rights advocates, including CWGL staff, helped to create the session on “Addressing Violence against Women: Setting Priorities, which is also a result of recent efforts to integrate “human rights of women” throughout the Council’s agenda. Alejandra Sarda, representing CLADEM and Mulabi (Argentina), was the civil society representative on the panel, and called for, among other things, greater state commitment to providing resources for and implementing measures that will prevent and punish acts of violence. Advocates also are calling for the creation of a Human Rights Council Focal Point on gender, who would have a particular focus on violence against women. Click here to read Alejandra’s presentation. The full speaker list is below:
- Peteris Larlis Elferts, Ambassador of Latvia to Council of Europe (Thematic Coordinator on Gender Equality of the Council of Europe);
- Pauline Veloso, Former Minister of the General Secretariat; Former Deputy Head of the National Women’s Agency. Coordinator of the regional project on “Strengthening the network of actors for a citizens’ democracy” UNDP, Chile;
- Kathleen Cravero, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery UNDP;
- Isabel Martinez Lazaro, Secretary General for Equalities Policies, Spain;
- Alejandra Sardá, Civil Society Representative. Member of Network Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women‘ s Rights
After the VAW session, the Council hosted a session on “Maternal Mortality and the Human Rights of Women”; speakers included:
Francis Songane, Secretariat for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Former Minister of Health of Mozambique; Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on Right to Health; Vincent Fauveau, Senior Maternal Mortality Advisor, UNFPA; Monir Islam, Director of Making Pregnancy Safer, WHO; and Jashodhara Dasgupta, Civil Society (Coordinator of SAHAYOG, an organization in India that addresses women’s health and gender equality).
In other Council news, states continue to review one another’s human rights records in the Universal Periodic Review process, to which sexual rights advocates have made significant contributions; and government representatives from Egypt suggested that the mandate of the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions be reformulated as a “right to life” mandate which should cover induced abortions. Reproductive rights and women’s rights allies are monitoring these developments.
March 2008: Human Rights Council, 7th Session
September 20, 2007: Discussion on the Integration of a Gender Perspective in the Work of the Human Rights Council.
Presentations:
- H.E. Maria Nzomo, Permanent Representative of Kenya
- Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict
- Miloon Kothari, representative of Special procedures (Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living)
- Charlotte Bunch, civil society representative (founder and Director of Center for Women's Global Leadership - Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA)
Update:
Human Rights Council Passes Resolution on Gender Integration
At its December 2007 session, member states of the Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted by consensus a resolution on integrating the human rights of women throughout the UN system. The resolution reaffirms the HRC’s commitment to integrate the human rights of women as well as a gender perspective in its work and welcomes the new Women’s Rights and Gender Unit of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Allies are particularly pleased that the Council agreed to integrate gender in all phases of the universal periodic review, the process through which states review one another’s human rights records. CWGL worked with other organizations over the past months to help develop and support the resolution and helped create a landmark HRC panel on this topic. For more information please click here.
Resources:
Background Information on the Creation of the Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights, met for the first time in June 2006. At its inaugural session, the Human Rights Council adopted two landmark new draft human rights mechanisms: a new treaty, the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Both drafts will go to the General Assembly for final adoption. A working group was set up to further Council work on universal periodic review of UN member States; their recommendations will go to the Council for further discussion in the September 2006 Council session. Special procedures’ mandates, which include Special Rapporteurs and certain thematic working groups, were extended for one year, as was the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. A working group was set up to begin reviewing mandates and mechanisms inherited from the Commission. Reports of Special procedures will be taken up at the September session. NGO participation was guided by procedures from the Commission, and NGOs were present in all segments of the session, including in the interactive dialogues and informal consultations. A synopsis of the meeting and other important outcomes can be found on the Council’s official website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/press/hrc/HRCOutcomesFINAL.pdf
Resources
back to top
|
