Rights And Wrongs

A report of the UN Human Rights Council from Geneva

By Ayra Inderyas

Responding to a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 60/251 of 2006 that created a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the year 2007 has witnessed the establishment of a new human rights mechanism as Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to subject 192 UN member states to review human rights records in their respective states within four years.

The institution building package adopted by UNHRC in 2007 gave a concrete shape to the UPR, stating that it should be based on objectivity, transparency, reliable information, and interactive dialogue. As per aforesaid UNGA resolution and UN ECOSOC resolution 1996/31 of 1996 UPR should ensure the participation of all relevant stake holders including NGO and national human rights institutions.

The troika along with the working group of UPR, both composed of members of the UNHRC, is tasked to examine human rights records of member states. The UN working group session for Pakistan UPR took place on May 14 this year, the troika members to Pakistan UPR included Saudi Arabia, Ghana and Azerbaijan. Its report documented proceeding of the review, interactive dialogue and recommendations by council state members calling to improve areas such as women, minority and child rights, freedom of religion, independence of judiciary, media freedom, and supremacy of the law, labour legislation, adherence to international procedures and human rights mechanisms. The major achievements with regard to Pakistan international Instruments included Pakistan's ratification to International Covenant of Economic Social and Cultural Rights in April 2008 and signing a convention on Torture and International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

The eighth session of UNHRC in Geneva was held from June 1-18. The Final adoption of UPR of 32 countries including Pakistan took place in the UN 8th session. The time allocated to speakers in the final UPR adoption was one hour to each state, whose report was scheduled to review in order to speak on its human rights situation, 20 minutes to member states, 20 minutes to national human rights institution and international NGOs, with further division of 3 minutes and 2 minutes to each state and NGOs respectively. On June 8, the session turned quite interesting during the adoption of the first UPR report of Bahrain, the Council proceedings got interrupted by Pakistan and Egypt, who criticised NGOs for making issue specific comments than general remarks on the outcome. On the other side Slovenia (on behalf of EU), Switzerland, Mexico, Canada and France were of the views that NGOs should be allowed to speak on issues lacking in the final report. The President of Council seemed more in agreement with Egypt and Pakistan's position emphasising several times to refrain from deviating the report's content and insisted on keeping the order of point.

The final outcome report of Pakistan's UPR was adopted by the plenary of UNHRC on June 12. Pakistan's Ambassador Mr. Masood Khan, in his statement on the UPR, categorically emphasised Pakistan's commitment to promoting human rights, rule of law and democracy. The statement also highlighted Pakistan's concern to ensuring security, safety and freedom of human rights defenders. During its final adoption, China, Bahrain, Morocco, Kuwait, Algeria, Indonesia and Egypt congratulated and appreciated Pakistan for its commendable actions for promoting and protecting human rights. However, Canada raised concerns on issues such as discriminatory laws and freedom of opinion and expression. Exercising the right to make oral statement, some NGOs expressed concerns over jeopardising independence of judiciary, women rights, discriminatory laws against women and minority, adoption of moratorium of execution and freedom of press. During NGOs interventions on Pakistan, Egypt interrupted the proceedings four times accusing NGOs for making out of context remarks. It clearly manifested Pakistan's as Council member and representative on behalf of OIC members, and enjoyed cordial relation with Egypt in its Geneva mission.

During the general debate on the Human Rights situation on June 5, countries namely Sudan, Zimbabwe, Srilanka, Somalia, Keniya, Democratic Republic of Korea, Congo, Myanmar, Iran and China were highlighted for alleged human rights abuses and violation by the EU member states, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Responding to the international community by exercising the right in reply Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Sudan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, China and Bangladesh camouflaged their position under the pretext of breaching sovereignty by discussing internal issues, calling NGOs bogus with malicious purposes, applying selective justice and accusing south countries of xenophobia.

UNHRC is a state driven body in which states decide, with narrow involvement of international NGOs, who have accredited status with UN. All through the UPR process, NGOs were restricted to submitting only written questions to troika members and making an oral statement at the final adoption of UPR. Apart from limited involvement of civil society, UPR can still be viewed as a significant innovation for at least standard setting for accountability and can be used as an added mechanism for challenging human rights abuses worldwide. During the session, sensitive issues to various cultures such as sexual orientation, maternal mortality were raised; women issues were discussed under a separate agenda item. In a nutshell, stake holders: civil society particularly NGOs had room to engage and participate in the UPR process in the follow-up activities, monitoring and coinciding with country's national programs to improve and promote human rights records.

Courtesy: The News Pakistan