[IRP] FW: States Attack Human Rights Experts at UN Rights Body

[Lisa Horner]

FYI ? following some of our discussions about the enforcement capacity of the UN institutions?

 

Lisa

 

From: ARTICLE 19 [mailto:press at article19.org] 
Sent: 12 June 2009 00:05
To: Lisa Horner
Subject: States Attack Human Rights Experts at UN Rights Body

 



For immediate release - 12 June, 2009

States Attack Human Rights Experts at UN Rights Body

 

In an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council, thirty-five human rights organisations from every region of the world warned that recent ?extraordinary attacks? by states on United Nations human rights experts at the Human Rights Council was ?severely eroding the Council?s legitimacy and credibility.? 

 

According to this global group of NGOs, which included international NGOs such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, as well as regional and national NGOs like the Asian Forum for Human Rights (Forum Asia) and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, state delegations at the Council are carrying out ?what appears to be a coordinated effort to intimidate? human rights experts, ?individually and collectively.? 

Such attacks at the ongoing 11th session of the Council ?have focused in particular on the current Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. These Rapporteurs were subjected to threats of disciplinary action because they offered their expert analysis and recommendations on important human rights issues that they brought to the attention of this Council.?

The group of NGOs contend that these ?political attacks? are ?fundamentally an attack on and threat to the Council itself,? and go on to ?appeal, in the strongest terms? for states at the HRC to refrain from undermining the independence of UN human rights experts, and ?ensure that the long term integrity and credibility of the Human Rights Council itself are not sacrificed to political expedience.?

NOTES TO EDITOR: 


? For more information please contact Nicola Spurr, Nicola at article19.org <mailto:Nicola at article19.org%20> 
? A full version of the letter with a complete list of all NGO signatories can be seen at: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/letters/hrc-open-letter-on-mandate-holders.pdf <http://www.article19.org/pdfs/letters/hrc-open-letter-on-mandate-holders.pdf%20> 

 mini logo<http://www.article19.org/global/images/logo-20px.gif> ARTICLE 19 

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech. For more information on ARTICLE 19 please visit www.article19.org 

 

6-8 Amwell Street London EC1R 1UQ United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7278 9292 - Fax: +44 20 7278 7660 - info at article19.org - www.article19.org 

 

*If you would like to edit your preferences (name, organisation, region, etc) or edit which mailing lists you currently subscribe to, please visit this link <http://www.article19.org/alists/?p=preferences&uid=aa474fddb34eca20a90a7e5451755ce8>  
*If you would like to unsubscribe from the ARTICLE 19 mailing lists, please visit this link <http://www.article19.org/alists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=aa474fddb34eca20a90a7e5451755ce8> 

 <http://www.article19.org/alists/ut.php?u=aa474fddb34eca20a90a7e5451755ce8&m=265> 

 

.


powered by phplist <http://www.phplist.com>  v 2.10.5, ? tincan ltd <http://tincan.co.uk/powered>  

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4149 (20090611) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org/pipermail/irp-internetrightsandprinciples.org/attachments/20090612/a5045eb5/attachment.htm>