SI MONTHLY NEWS OCTOBER 2005 Servas and UN
From SI Exco News
Servas at the United Nations
SERVAS INTERNATIONAL AT UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SIXTY-FIRST SESSION
(Geneva, 14 March – 22 April 2005)
During the six-week session, the Commission adopted 86 resolutions, 16 decisions and four statements by its Chairperson, Makarim Wibisono of Indonesia.
The Commission is composed of 53 member States. It is the World’s foremost human rights forum . This sixty-first session was attended by about hundred observer States and more than two hundred Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
The subject of terrorism came up in several resolutions and decisions. Within the c ontext of its agenda item on theprotection of human rights, the Commission adopted a set of Basic Principles and Guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law. Concerning the question of Palestine, the Commission expressed grave concern about the continuing construction, contrary to international law, by Israel of the wall inside the occupied Palestine territory and demanded that Israel comply fully with its legal obligations.
In his address to the Commission on 7 April, United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan elaborated on proposals to reform the human rights machinery of the United Nations: A Human Rights Council could provide conceptual and architectural clarity, in parallel with the existing councils tasked to deal with security and development.
The action plan of the High Commissioner Louise Arbour, to be submitted to the Secretary-General, is said to be based upon three concepts: that human rights were universal and indivisible; that States remained the primary actors in the field of human rights; and that there must be implementation of human rights.
On agenda item “THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION”, SERVAS INTERNATIONAL has associated itself with 13 other NGO’s on a joint oral statement* addressed to the Commission during the plenary meeting, morning of April 18.
The sixty-second session of the Commission will take place from 13 March to 21 April 2006.
- Joint statement on behalf of: Soka Gakkai International; International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education – OIDEL; Servas International; International Association for Religious Freedom; World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women; Institute for Planetary Synthesis; Pax Romana; Women’s World Summit Foundation; Lutheran World Federation; International Movement against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism; African Society of International and Comparative Law; Women’s Federation for World Peace
International; International Council of Jewish Women; and Australian Council for Overseas Aid.
SERVAS INTERNATIONAL AT
UN SUB-COMMISSION ON THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION
(Geneva, 25 July – 12 August 2005)
Created by the Commission on Human Rights and consisting of 26 Experts from five regional groups, the Sub-Commission undertakes studies and makes recommendations to the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission must approve all its resolutions and decisions. About hundred observers States and nearly a hundred Non Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) attended this fifty-seventh session of the Sub-Commission. The Chairperson was Vladimir Katashkin, himself one of the 26 Experts.
During the session 46 resolutions and decisions have been adopted.
Under specific human rights issues, this session of the Sub-Commission adopted texts concerning human rights and the human genome; discrimination against leprosy victims and their families; the World Programme for Human Rights Education; human rights and non-state actors; Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
The Sub-Commission decided on next year’s composition of Experts for its Working Groups on minorities, slavery, indigenous populations, communications, and the Social Forum. The various studies and working papers undertaken by the members of the Sub-Commission had, to a large extent, helped to identify and develop new areas for further consideration.
The fifty-eighth session of the Sub-Commission will be held from 7 to 25 August 2006.
Hilda Burer
Representative of SERVAS INTERNATIONAL to the United Nations in Geneva
inserted by Amelia
