HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONCLUDES HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT

The Human Rights Council this morning concluded its annual high-level segment after hearing statements from 13 dignitaries who mainly outlined national efforts to ensure the promotion and protection of human rights. Many speakers continued to express concern about the situation in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire, and spoke about the working methods of the Council.

Speaking in the meeting were Slobodan Uzelac, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Issues and Human Rights of Croatia; Salamata Sawadogo, Minister for Human Rights of Burkina Faso; Mohamed Al Soodani, Minister of Human Rights of Iraq; Patrick Antony Chinamasa, Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs of Zimbabwe; Augustine Makgonatsotlhe, Secretary for Defense, Justice and Security of Botswana; Asta Skaisgiryte Lliauskiene, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania; Frazyna Bernatowicz, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland; Diego Falconi, Vice Minister of Justice of Ecuador; Akmal Saidov, Chairman of the National Centre for Human Rights of Uzbekistan; Anders Johnsson, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; Julia Joiner, Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union; Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary General of the Commonwealth; and Janet Lim, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Concerning the situation in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire, speakers welcomed the unanimous response of the Council on the violations in Libya and the timely response of the Security Council, which had sent a strong message that the Council was ready to assume its global responsibilities in human rights protection. They deeply regretted the loss of lives in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire and fully endorsed the decisions recently adopted by the Human Rights Council. One speaker condemned the use of force against demonstrators as no quest for stability could justify the suppression of freedoms of the people. Another speaker called upon the Government of Libya to protect its population and fully respect their human rights. Speakers welcomed yesterday’s vote in the United Nations General Assembly for the suspension of Libya’s membership from the Human Rights Council. Speakers said the massive popular movements of today demonstrated that people everywhere aspired to democracy and human rights. Democracy was about ensuring respect for human rights and social justice. Protests were a reminder that the main task of governments was to serve the people and those governments that failed to do so did it at their peril.

Concerning the work of the Council, speakers praised the Universal Periodic Review and outlined national efforts to fulfil the recommendations made during the review. The Universal Periodic Review process was very important as it was based on an equality of treatment between Member States and required the attention of the entire international community as a delicate balance must be stuck so that the end product of this session on the review contained the minimum elements for consensus which would strengthen the cohesion of this young body. The Universal Periodic Review should not be reserved for governments, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, but should also include parliaments. It was noted that the Special Procedures were one of the core elements of the Council, its eyes and ears and its early warning mechanism for human rights situations around the world. A speaker said that the enhancement of the Council’s capacity to fulfil its responsibilities should be a joint priority. The ability to deal with chronic and emergency human rights situations shaped the credibility of the Council and the world community’s opinion of its work. Speakers supported the efforts of the Human Rights Council in the field of human rights by encouraging international cooperation based on the principles of objectivity, universality and impartiality.

Among other issues raised, one speaker said that freedom of expression continued to be under attack in many parts of the world. Free speech was suppressed, journalists arrested and millions of people were denied access to information. The importance of human rights education was also stressed. Another speaker condemned widespread violations of religious freedoms in many parts of the world, stressing that it was the primary duty of States to protect their citizens, including persons belonging to religious minorities. The treatment of national minorities reflected the true attitude of a government towards human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Council today is holding three back-to-back meetings from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. During its midday meeting, the Council will hold a panel discussion on the full enjoyment of the human rights of people of African descent to mark the International Year for People of African Descent.

High-Level Segment

SLOBODAN UZELAC, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Issues and Human Rights of Croatia, said that the Council had confirmed its readiness to act swiftly on gross human rights violations and abuses. Croatia welcomed the unanimous response of the Council on the violations in Libya and the timely response of the Security Council, which had sent a strong message that the Council was ready to assume its global responsibilities in human rights protection. Croatia fully supported the world of the Human Rights Council, in particular the Universal Periodic Review as a transparent mechanism for evaluation and improvement of human rights in the world. Last year Croatia had successfully undergone this process for the first time. The adoption of the review report would present another opportunity to engage in dialogue on strengthening of the Human Rights Council. It was crucial to uphold the achieved momentum of cooperation in order to timely and effectively meet the common task. This process had to be geared towards the improvement of the capacity of this body to meet the expectations of the international community. The Special Procedures were one of the core elements of the Council, its eyes and ears and its early warning mechanism for human rights situations around the world and in that vein Croatia welcomed the creation of the two new mandates. Croatia supported the United Nations activities for the promotion of the right to development and the fight against all forms of racial and religious intolerance. The needs of least developed countries should be adequately taken into account, primarily through the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and thought increased contribution of the international community for programmes and activities of the United Nations.

Croatia was committed to continuing with proactive approach in addressing specific human rights questions, including the ones that formed the legacy of the armed conflict of the 1990s, such as the return of refugees and internally displaced persons. Furthermore, Croatia was fully aware of the particular importance of the protection of the rights of national minorities, especially the participation of national minorities in decision-making processes at all levels. Combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance represented a key priority for Croatia on both national and international levels. In closing, Croatia stressed yet again that the Human Rights Council, as the key universal body for the promotion and protection of human rights, should continue to act resolutely when faced with serious human rights violations in the world. Building upon the steps taken recently, Member States should continue to provide the Council with effective tools to prevent human rights violations, ensure full respect of human rights and bring an end to impunity.

SALAMATA SAWADOGO, Minister of Human Rights of Burkina Faso, said that Burkina Faso was committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and was complying with all international instruments relating to human rights. Burkina Faso was working to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in the country as manifested by the good conditions in which the presidential election of 2010 took place. Justice and basic social services were a priority as well as the completion of the reform of the national human rights commission and the introduction of human rights education in primary schools. Burkina Faso welcomed the Advisory Committee’s work on the draft declaration on human rights education and training. The Government of Burkina Faso was providing better health care in the country including free access to anti viral drugs to combat AIDS, free prenatal care treatment and free malaria treatment for women and children. The Government planned to adopt a law to define and punish the crime of torture. As part of Burkina Faso’s commitment to human rights at the regional and international level, it had submitted reports to the treaty bodies dealing with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Torture and others.

Burkina Faso was resolutely working for peace in Africa. This session was opening in a difficult global context when the general conviction was that democracy was the best form of government for the world despite some countries having moved in the other direction. Burkina Faso welcomed the resolutions regarding Libya and the human rights violations in Côte d’Ivorie. With globalization there was a tendency toward the elimination of certain values and cultures when it should be seen as a harmonious development which respected the specific social circumstances of each country.

MOHAMMED AL-SUDANEY, Minister of Human Rights of Iraq, said that seven years ago Iraq had gained freedom from a criminal regime and the Iraqi people had welcomed this change, even though it was the result of a military action by foreign countries. The Iraqi people properly used democracy and they respected the sovereignty of other States and the will of the people to change the system of government and all this should be in compliance with their international obligations. The protection of human rights would remain the top propriety of the Government that sought to spread a culture of human rights through the establishment of a Ministry of Human Rights which was set up seven years ago and during this period a human rights culture had spread in the Iraqi society. The Minister said that at the present moment human rights were seen by the Iraqi people as a right. The Government of Iraq was attentive to the reports by governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations and information contained in their reports would always be considered and studied by the Government in order to prevent violations and violators would be tried in a transparent manner. The Ministry of Human Rights through the diplomatic channels verified the accuracy of this information and the Government of Iraq hoped that the communication and coordination channels would remain open to the delegations of the United Nations. Iraq had presented its four-year political programme where human rights constituted a large project and in the next few years the Government would concentrate on services, social security, the road network, corruption and all the matters which received budgetary allocations. Regarding the security field, the Government would continue to combat terrorism and provide compensation to those who were victims of attacks by the terrorist groups.

The Government of Iraq would also seek to strengthen the armed forces and security machine to be able to fulfill its responsibilities. In addition, the Government of Iraq would continue to make sure that security plans and measures were in compliance with international standards and they should try to avoid any measures of retaliation against the population. The security situation in Iraq had improved and terrorist attacks had decreased and this improvement had allowed for the return of internally displayed persons to their homes. The Government of Iraq was striving to be an active member of the international and regional community and they had cooperated with the request for clarification and information by the human rights machinery from the Universal Periodic Review and in the next period, especially during the national partnership period, they would like to continue on this track as Iraq had voluntary accepted a number of recommendations. Iraq did not forget the victims of violations committed by the previous regime which had ruled Iraq for 34 years. They had more than 1 million victims in mass rape that they could not identity and they had charged the independent Iraqi judiciary to try these crimes in order to ensure that these were lessons learnt. Young people were discouraged from glorifying the past dictatorship. The Government of Iraq had tried to set up a documentation center for these crimes. Before 2003 the idea of human rights was not popular and that was why the Minister of Human Rights had set up an academic institute, called the National Institute for Human Rights, to spread a human rights culture. The plan of this Institute for the next for four years was to expand the coverage of beneficiaries as well as its activities. Changes had swept across all sectors of society of Iraq and these changes were evident. Iraq thanked all those who had provided them with technical assistance, training and institutional building and they called on the international community to continue to support human rights in Iraq with various means in order to build up a new channel of cooperation.

PATRICK ANTONY CHINAMASA, Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs of Zimbabwe, said that the people of Zimbabwe, who were well known for their determination to resist neo-colonialism and exploitation, had fashioned a roadmap that clearly elaborated all issues of concern to them, such as governance, democracy, human rights and development. The Global Political Agreement sketched out the roadmap that laid down the various stages on the road towards the holding of harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local authority elections. In the sphere of human rights, the Government had already established a human rights commission and Parliament would soon be setting up a bureau to operationalise it. Concerning the press release by the High Commissioner of 1 March regarding recent arrests by the police of persons for organising activities and subverting the Government, Zimbabwe said that the comments of the High Commissioner on a matter pending before the court were tantamount to interference with the judicial process and demonstrated contempt for this country’s institutions. Any so-called peaceful protests were direct interference in domestic affairs of Zimbabwe and would not be tolerated. Zimbabwe would continue working with the Human Rights Council to ensure that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was immunised from being used as a pawn in the wider political game.

Zimbabwe remained resolute in ensuring that its people fully enjoyed their economic, social cultural, civil and political rights and those efforts were negatively impacted by continued illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe not by the United Nations but by some Western countries. Zimbabwe urged the Council to call for the immediate lifting of those illegal sanctions. This year marked a turning point in the development of the international community in the field of the promotion and protection of human rights as the last set of countries would be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. Zimbabwe’s review would start in October this year and Zimbabwe sincerely thanked the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the tremendous assistance in the launch of the first consultative process aimed at coming up with a national report for the Universal Periodic Review. Zimbabwe deeply regretted the loss of lives in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire and fully endorsed the decisions recently adopted by the Human Rights Council. Zimbabwe congratulated the people of the Sudan for the exemplary manner in which they conducted the recent referendum on the status of South Sudan. Concerning the review of the Council, Zimbabwe said that it would have liked to see a better reflection of the need to reinforce the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, and the allocation of more funds to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to enable it to adequately fulfil it mandate and wean itself from the whims and caprices of well-heeled donors.

AUGUSTINE MAKGONATSOTLHE, Secretary for Defense, Justice and Security of Botswana, said Botswana continued to believe in the primacy of human rights even though as a developing country capacity constraints had hampered the progress of the fulfilment of the obligations under various international treaties. The Government had accepted all of the Universal Periodic Review recommendations during the first cycle and had established the Law Reform Unit which would study existing legislation to identify gaps in human rights and had established a Legal Aid Unit to address the lack of access to justice by the less privileged in society. Botswana honoured its commitments under the International Labour Organization’s Conventions 138 and 182 and had been implementing its action programme on the elimination of child labour. The national development plan 2010-2016 focused on alleviating poverty especially in its worst form because there was a strong link between poverty eradication and the right to development as outlined in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

Botswana continued to be troubled by situations of political unrest in some parts of the world. Botswana condemned the use of force against demonstrators as no quest for stability could justify the suppression of freedoms of the people and it had joined other Member States in ensuring a strong outcome of the Special Session of the Human Rights Council on 25 February. Botswana took the review of the working group of the Human Rights Council seriously and had engaged with all other stakeholders to open dialogue and to identify areas requiring further strengthening. Having been an active observer in the Council for the past five years, Botswana would present its candidature as a member of the Human Rights Council for the period 2011-2014.

ASTA SKAISGIRYTE LLIAUSKIENE, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, said that in terms of Lithuania’s international engagements, this year was especially important; first, because Lithuania assumed the chair-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Second, in July Lithuania would conclude its chairing of the Community of Democracies by hosting the Community of Democracies Ministerial Conference. Lithuania was particularly satisfied that human rights issues had figured prominently in the activities of the Community, including human rights education and education for democracy; gender equality and women’s empowerment; freedom of expression and internet freedom; as well as support for civil society. As part of their commitment to women’s rights and gender equality, Lithuania would hold a high level panel discussion on the role of women in promoting democratic government later this year.

Ms. Lliauskiene said that freedom of expression continued to be under attack in many parts of the world. Free speech was suppressed, journalists arrested and millions of people were denied access to information. Lithuania hoped that an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe conference on the safety of journalists to be organized in Vilnius in June this year in cooperation with the Organization’s Representative of the Freedom of Media, would allow them to further elaborate on the importance of free media in today’s world, by highlighting the risks journalists took on a daily basis. In an increasing globalised world, too many problems arose from the inability or unwillingness to understand and accept their diversity as human beings, and as nations. Education was undoubtedly one of the first steps in promoting understanding and tolerance. In this regard, Lithuania noted with great interest relevant initiatives at the United Nations, namely the process of elaboration of the draft declaration on human rights education and training.

GRAZYNA BERNATOWICZ, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, said Poland joined the international community in calling upon the Government of Libya to protect its population and fully respect their human rights. Also, Poland welcomed yesterday’s vote in the United Nations General Assembly for the suspension of Libya’s membership from the Human Rights Council. Democracies did not fear their own people, said Ms. Bernatowicz, drawing attention to the situation in Belarus following the recent presidential elections. Poland called for the immediate release of people detained on political grounds and said the Belarus must be mindful of its obligations as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. On widespread violation of religious freedoms in many parts of the world, Poland condemned the recent violence and acts of terrorism and discrimination against Christians and their places of worship, and other religious communities. It was the primary duty of States to protect their citizens, including persons belonging to religious minorities. The treatment of national minorities reflected the true attitude of a government towards human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The enhancement of the Council’s capacity to fulfil its responsibilities should be a joint priority, said Poland. The ability to deal with chronic and emergency human rights situations shaped the credibility of the Council and the world community’s opinion of its work. Poland was dissatisfied with the outcome of the review of the Council and hoped that there would be other opportunities to implement some of the good ideas that had been raised in the course of the review. Poland supported the process of strengthening the human rights treaty body system and in that vein had organised last September a symposium of experts who had adopted the Poznan Statement providing recommendation on how to enhance the impact of treaty bodies’ on human rights protection.

DIEGO FALCONI, Vice Minister of Justice of Ecuador, said that the Human Rights Council should listen to the global call for international freedoms and respond in accordance with the lofty principles that had led to the Council’s existence, no matter where these violations occurred. The Universal Periodic Review process was very important as it was based on the equality of treatment between Member States and required the attention of the entire international community as a delicate balance must be stuck so that the end product of this session on the review contained the minimum elements for consensus which would strengthen the cohesion of this young body.

Ecuador worked for the adoption of all instruments and treaties related to human rights law, welcomed all visits by international bodies, including the Inter-American body, and understood the mandatory nature of the recommendations of the treaty bodies when drawing up its own domestic laws. The Government had welcomed the creation of human rights indicators for Ecuador as a tangible example of its active policies and the fulfillment of its obligations to indigenous people, especially those living in the Amazonian region where human rights should penetrate into the jungle reflecting the dependency of indigenous people on their environment. The Government appreciated the support the international community showed during the attempted coup in Ecuador in 30 September 2010 and reiterated its support not only to human rights but also to stress the need for this Council to respect the sovereignty of every nation and the policy of non-interference in national affairs.

AKMAL SAIDOV, Chairman of the National Centre for Human Rights of Uzbekistan, said that 2 March marked the nineteenth anniversary of the membership of Uzbekistan in the United Nations. Last year the international community had celebrated the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Millennium Declaration and Uzbekistan had paid great attention to this event and approved additional measures for 2012 and 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and intended to take part in their implementation. In relation to women empowerment, the country had adopted measures to promote gender equality and to improve the role of women in the society and according to some of the most prestigious international institutions Uzbekistan occupied a leading place on the level of conditions created for women and the protection of motherhood. Uzbekistan gave attention to the realization of international obligations in the sphere of human rights and its periodic reports were being considered by treaty bodies. Mr. Saidov also said that Uzbekistan cooperated with the Special Procedures of the United Nations and for the last three years Uzbekistan had presented information to 10 Special Procedures of the United Nations. In 2010 Uzbekistan submitted replies to questions of the Special Procedures on cultural rights, modern forms of slavery and on torture.

Uzbekistan said that the reform of the judicial and legal system proposed to extend the application of habeas corpus in criminal procedures and they were also reforming the information system by establishing and developing civil society institutions. Uzbekistan supported the efforts of the Human Rights Council in the field of human rights by encouraging international cooperation based on the principles of objectivity, universality and impartiality. In 2009 Uzbekistan adopted a national plan of action in the sphere of human rights in which civil society institutions took an important part. Uzbekistan supported the efforts of the Human Rights Council aiming at the implementation of the second stage of the World Programme on Human Rights Education.

ANDERS JOHNSSON, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, said that the massive popular movements of today demonstrated that people everywhere aspired to democracy and human rights. Democracy was about ensuring respect for human rights and social justice. Protests were a reminder that the main task of governments was to serve the people and those governments that failed to do so did it at their peril. National parliaments everywhere had the responsibility to represent the people and hold governments accountable on behalf of the people. The core mission of the Inter-Parliamentary Union was to help parliaments become truly effective in their representative, legislative and oversight roles. They must be representative of people and how they did so depended on many factors, such as the electoral system and its financing for example. Political parties played a crucial role too and since many members of parliament entered though political parties, it was crucial how those parties acted, how democratic they were, how transparent and accountable, and how tolerant they were of divergent views. A third aspect of representation had to do with how well minorities and indigenous peoples were represented in parliaments. In that effect, the Inter-Parliamentary Union had been implementing a number of actions in cooperation with the Special Rapporteurs, the United Nations Development Programme and others.

Parliaments’ mandate of legislating and ensuring governments’ accountability was one of utmost importance when it came to the work of the Human Rights Council. Now that the Council was undergoing a review process, it was opportune to emphasize that only few of the recommendations coming from the Universal Periodic Review process could be implemented without parliamentary action. The Universal Periodic Review should not be reserved for governments, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organization, but should also include parliaments. The Council did have means to involve them and the Union had circulated a proposal on the involvement of parliaments in the Universal Periodic Review process. The Human Rights Council had a clear mandate from the General Assembly to take this into account. In closing, the Inter-Parliamentary Union reiterated its commitment to playing its part to ensure greater parliamentary involvement in the work of the Council and was convinced that this could only enhance its effectiveness.

JULIA JOINER, Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union, said that the African Union Commission had expressed sadness at so many who had lost their lives to seek the human rights they deserved and that despite the mechanisms and institutions that had been established to secure these rights there had been a failure as evidenced by these events which had called for deeper reflection on the efficacy and value of all of their efforts. The time had come to seek new or alternative forms to secure human rights and the Council must address the human rights challenges posed by the threat of internal conflict and should explore alternative avenues for demanding change. This Council must maintain a focus on the role of regional institutions and instruments which could provide a basis for local particularities within and amongst Member States as was stated in the recent African Union Summit.

The African Union was determined to build a constituency voice in this Council and had played a role in drafting the human rights strategy of Africa during the thirteenth session as reflected in resolution 61. The African human rights strategy placed prominence on achieving harmonized coordination among regional organizations and bodies and once the strategy had been finalized and adopted it would become a central platform to address regional challenges. The Executive Council of the African Union also had approved the establishment of an African governance platform and signed a formal ten year memorandum of understanding with the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The draft Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training was a priority along with moving forward on actions related to the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances, and the new protocol on the rights and welfare of the child. In the year 2011 there would be a programme to commemorate the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the African Union urged all stakeholders to join events to increase awareness and call attention to the rights of development.

KAMALESH SHARMA, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, said that 11 of their member countries were currently among the Human Rights Council members, but the remaining 43, whether they had sat on this Council in the past, or would do so in the future, shared fully in its work and its aspirations. In the Commonwealth, they shared the vision of a world which human rights were “universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated”. They shared task was to give these words life and in doing so, they struck a balance, in recognizing individual countries’ sovereignty, but in stressing that they belonged to an international community of shared values. They had a mechanism for finding and knowing the moment of censure, but the natural inclination was to encourage and engage and secure advances in the human rights aspirations to which they had committed themselves. Mr. Sharma assumed that many of the Human Rights Council’s members were familiar with the work of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, a group of nine Foreign Ministers and its focus on peer review and guardianship of the Commonwealth’s values and principles.

In the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’s 15 years, seven countries had been on its agenda, of which four had been suspended. Fiji had, so sadly for them, been fully suspended since September 2009, and they watched the continuing human rights situation there, with concern. They stood ready to re-engage meaningfully. Their Heads of Government had asked the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to go further and beyond the unconstitutional overthrow of governments into what they termed “the full range”, of possible violations. In 2011, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group was indeed aiming to move in that direction and also to strengthen its scope to engage: being critical where it had to be, but also engaging positively with offers of assistance, in keeping the Commonwealth culture of seeking to secure advancement to which Mr. Sharma alluded earlier. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group would present its recommendations to their Heads of Government when they would next meet in Australia in October of this year. The Commonwealth also convened a network of some 31 national human rights bodies, including 21 independent national human rights institutions. The Secretary General of the Commonwealth said that they had published guidelines on best practices for these bodies, and through a partnership approach had given training to national human rights institutions, governments and non-governmental organizations’ staff.

JANET LIM, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that the events unfolding reminded the Council of the danger and the need to flee within and across national borders. The escalating violence in Libya, which was a traditional transit and destination country for refugees, had posed risks for Sub-Saharan Africans who had been identified as mercenaries. At the borders of Tunisia and Egypt, 160,000 people had crossed, mostly Tunisians and Egyptians, but few refugees had been allowed to flee. The Tunisian and Egyptian Governments should keep their borders open but would still need assistance and UNHCR appealed strongly to the international community to come to their aid during this time. All people leaving Libya should be granted asylum without discrimination and regardless of their background. The Member States should provide a strong multilateral response to these resettlement responsibilities in order to support the countries neighboring Libya and to encourage them to keep their borders open with the understanding that resettlement would be shared.

There was an ongoing crisis in Côte d’Ivorie where civilians had been trapped in the Abobo district of Abidjan where armed groups had prevented them from leaving, especially the elderly, sick, pregnant women and the disabled; over 30,000 people had fled to Liberia and UNHCR had plans for a new camp. The fighting should stop, a political solution should be reached and humanitarian actors should be given access to assist civilians.

Human rights had always lay at the heart of refugee policy by setting standards to define what could be considered persecution and mechanisms for asylum seekers against expulsion. Protection of stateless persons relied on norms and treaties. Many persons were at risk at becoming stateless owing to gaps in nationality legislation. Persons in need of international protection should be able to enjoy the same freedoms as nationals. It had become difficult for people in need of international protection to reach safe territory. The worsening state of asylum was a human rights issue and this year marked the sixtieth anniversary of the convention relating to the status of refugees and UNHCR had placed forced displacement and refugee status at the core of its advocacy work culminating in a 7-8 December meeting in Geneva of this year where the Member States would be encouraged to make pledges, ratify treaties or to remove reservations from these treaties. Coordination of activities with Special Procedure mandate holders had been fruitful in promoting and protecting the rights of displaced persons and refugees.


For use of the information media; not an official record

HRC11/012E