HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONCLUDES FOURTH SESSION

The Human Rights Council this afternoon concluded its fourth regular session, having considered a large number of reports from its Special Procedures, on the high-level missions mandated during earlier special sessions, and on a wide range of issues, including racism and racial discrimination, freedom of religion or belief, indigenous peoples, violence against women, human rights defenders, and follow-up to earlier resolutions on Darfur and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It also adopted its report to the General Assembly.

In his closing statement to the Council, Luis Alfonso de Alba, President of the Council, said the Council should feel satisfaction at the high level of participation and interaction at the highest levels at the work being performed. The level of participation and commitment shown was very encouraging. It showed the priority that should be attached to the institution building process, convergence and follow-up, seeking consensus, the need to clearly identify outstanding issues and focus on these issues. The time had clearly come to begin negotiating, to reduce the distance between positions and take account of different concerns.

During the three-week session, the Council heard the Special Procedures of the Council present their reports on the situation of human rights in Burundi, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Reports were also presented on minority issues, effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on human rights, racism and racial discrimination, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, freedom of religion or belief, human rights of migrants, protection of human rights while countering terrorism, freedom of opinion and expression, physical and mental health, education, sale of children and child prostitution, indigenous people, torture, violence against women, human rights and transnational corporations, human rights defenders, internally displaced persons, people of African descent, arbitrary detention, and enforced or involuntary disappearances.

The Council’s high-level missions to Darfur and the Occupied Palestinian Territory also presented their reports.

In the resolution adopted on Darfur, the Council took note with regret that the high-level mission could not visit Darfur. It expressed deep concern regarding the seriousness of the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur and decided to convene a group to be presided over by the Special Rapporteur on Sudan to work with the Government of Sudan and the appropriate human rights mechanisms of the African Union to ensure the effective follow-up of the implementation of resolutions and recommendations on Darfur and to contribute to monitoring the human rights situation on the ground.

In the resolution adopted on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Council noted with regret that Israel, the occupying power, had not implemented resolutions S-1/1 and S-3/1 and had hindered the dispatching of the urgent fact-finding missions. It called for the implementation of its resolutions and the dispatch of the two missions to the territory.

Two special events were also held during the session, on violence against children, and on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Council continued the review work of its mechanisms and heard progress reports from its two intergovernmental working groups on the Universal Periodic Review, and on the Review of Mandates, which included segments on the Complaints Procedure, the Expert Advice Body and the Special Procedures.

Meetings of the 1503 procedure, during which the Council considers the situation of human rights violations in certain countries behind closed doors, were also held. The Council decided to discontinue consideration of the human rights situation in Iran and Uzbekistan.

At the opening session, in a video statement, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said that the world was watching to see if the Council would live up to its promise. He hoped that the Council’s members would work together to promote an objective and universal approach to human rights. In the weeks and months ahead, this would be put to the test time and again, and acute crises and long-simmering human rights issues would demand scrutiny and remedy. It was crucial that the Council had the components in place to pass this test. By the first anniversary of the Council in June, the wheels of the Council should be in full motion, including the Universal Periodic Review.

High Commissioner Louise Arbour, in her opening statement, said poverty and discrimination were both the causes and the consequences of the most egregious violations of human rights and attacks on human dignity. Armed conflict, whether internal or international, inevitably increased the threats to life and the vulnerability of civilians. Yet, poverty and war were often perceived as akin to natural disasters, unfortunate and deplorable things that happened, but that were essentially unavoidable and for which no one could really be held responsible.

The Secretariat of the Council announced at the last meeting that an inquiry would be held, at the request of China, into how an unauthorized person had obtained a badge and had addressed the Council on behalf of a non-governmental organization which he did not represent.

The fifth regular session of the Council will be held from 11 to 18 June.

Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the Council

In a resolution on transitional justice, the Council commended the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its efforts in developing the issue of transitional justice and human rights, and encouraged OHCHR to continue and strengthen its important analytical and practical work regarding this complex issue.

In a resolution on the question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights, the Council called upon all States to consider signing and ratifying, and the States parties to implement, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and also called upon all States to guarantee that economic, social and cultural rights should be exercised without discrimination of any kind.

In a resolution on the follow-up to the Human Rights Council resolutions S-1/1 and S-3/1, the Council called for the implementation of those resolutions, including the dispatching of the urgent fact-finding missions, and for the President of the Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to report to the Council at its fifth session on their efforts for the implementation of the resolutions and on the compliance of Israel.

In a resolution on the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Review of Mandates, the Council requested the Coordinating Committee of the Special Procedures to extend the deadline for the submission of comments on and inputs to the draft manual of Special Procedures, and to present to the fifth session of the Human Rights Council the outcome of its deliberations on the code of conduct regulating the work of the Special Procedures.

In a decision on human rights and unilateral coercive measures, the Council decided to request the Secretary-General to bring the present decision to the attention of all States and to seek their views and information on the implications and negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on their populations.

In a resolution on the right to development, the Council decided to act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances sustainable development and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and to agree on a programme of work that would lead to raising the right to development to the same level and on a par with all other human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the core human rights instruments.

In a decision on enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights, the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to consult States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations on ways and means to enhance the international cooperation and dialogue in the United Nations human rights machinery, including the Human Rights Council.

In a resolution on globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights, the Council emphasized that development should be at the centre of the international economic agenda and that coherence between national development strategies and international obligations and commitments would contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for development, which was conducive to the full realization of all human rights for all.

In a resolution on strengthening the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council reaffirms that the tasks of the High Commissioner include promoting and protecting the realization of the right to development, and requests the High Commissioner to enhance international cooperation for the promotion and protection of all human rights.

In a resolution on rectification of the legal status of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Council decided to initiate a process to rectify the legal status of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with the aim of placing the Committee on a par with all other treaty monitoring bodies.

In a resolution on follow-up to the decision of 13 December 2006 adopted by the Human Rights Council at its fourth special session entitled “Situation of human rights in Darfur”, the Council calls upon all parties to the conflict in Darfur to put an end to all acts of violence against civilians, and decides to convene a group to ensure the effective follow-up and to foster the implementation of resolutions and recommendations on Darfur.

In a resolution on combating defamation of religions, the Council urged States to take resolute action to prohibit the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement to racial and religious hatred, hostility or violence, and also urged States to provide adequate protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions.

In a resolution on elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief, the Council decided to continue substantive consideration of this matter at its sixth session; and requested the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to report on this issue to the Human Rights Council at its sixth session.

The Council also adopted a decision according to which it decided, without a vote, to take note of the deferral of draft proposals on: the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination; incitement to racial and religious hatred and the promotion of tolerance; World Programme for Human Rights Education; Israeli violations of religious and cultural rights in Occupied East Jerusalem; and human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It also decided to defer to coming sessions of the Council texts on the rights of the child; Sri Lanka; and the rights of indigenous peoples. Deferred until further notice were texts on impunity and on freedom of opinion and expression.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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