A blog by Pat Black
Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, invited Non-Governmental Organisations to join her for the virtual launch from Geneva of the UN Human Rights Report 2019 at the beginning of June.
Ms. Bachelet outlined the work of the Human Rights Commission staff which is covered in the report. She indicated it was not intended to cover all the human rights violations around the globe but specifically what the United Nations (UN) staff had been engaged with during the year. She mentioned how staff had worked with civil society in many countries helping to build capacity. In Kenya they had helped CSO to contribute to the Universal Periodic Review. In the Arab region they had worked with 40 organisations to build capacity for women’s organisations especially human rights defenders.
Michelle Bachelet writes in her introduction “With our assistance, fifteen national laws were adopted to combat discrimination in all forms. In North Macedonia, for example, we supported advocacy efforts by civil society organizations, leading to the adoption of a new law by the country’s Parliament in May on prevention and protection against discrimination.
We also supported the development of the first system-wide United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, which aims to bring about structural change in the organization. It is the first UN accountability framework that operates across all UN pillars, without distinction, including climate action initiatives.”
The report is very detailed and contains some excellent infographics and diagrams which visually show clearly the work around the world of the staff of the UN HRC. It also indicates that many of these staff put their lives on the line to assist in some countries.
As with all UN agencies currently the Human Rights Commission is facing financial issues and they are having to adjust their work programme accordingly. This means reducing staff presence in some areas but the other side of the coin is the need for the involvement across so many activities of civil society. Fortunately many of the funds which they administer are still receiving donations so specific programmes on the ground can continue.
Ms Bachelet was very keen to encourage NGOs in every country to engage with the UN Human Rights Commission activities, indicating that their reports were critical to the work which the Commission was able to undertake. She felt that NGOs were able to provide a broader perspective of human rights in their countries especially where there were violations.
Some time was given to NGOs to ask questions most of which centred around specific human rights violations in specific countries such as Greece, Bhutan, Bahrain, Iran. Although she had indicated that the report was not intended to cover current violations of human rights she responded in detail to each question asked.
In summarising, Michelle Bachelet said it would be important to rebuild an inclusive world after COVID-19. Post COVID they would be looking at making priority for children and young people, widows and older people.
The report is an excellent source of information including data for many countries and is well worth at least dipping into.