HRT
The United nations office at Geneva Photo: Fred Burnand 7 April 08 – Sixteen countries are getting ready on Monday for the universal periodic review (UPR). They are concerned about the teething troubles plaguing the new mechanism. At the top of the list is Bahrain that is coming with a 27 strong delegation.
Carole Vann/ Human Rights Tribune – For the first time in the history of the UN, member states are each going to be examined in turn on their human rights records. The inaugural session of UPR, the big new thing at the Human Rights Council, opens on Monday.
HRT
The United nations office at Geneva Photo: Fred Burnand 7 April 08 – Sixteen countries are getting ready on Monday for the universal periodic review (UPR). They are concerned about the teething troubles plaguing the new mechanism. At the top of the list is Bahrain that is coming with a 27 strong delegation.
Carole Vann/ Human Rights Tribune – For the first time in the history of the UN, member states are each going to be examined in turn on their human rights records. The inaugural session of UPR, the big new thing at the Human Rights Council, opens on Monday.
For two weeks, 16 delegations – Bahrain, Ecuador, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Finland, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Philippines, Algeria, Poland, Netherlands, South Africa, the Czech Republic and Argentina – are going to be scrutinised by the 47 member Council. A troika made up of diplomats of three countries drawn by lots is responsible for making each review easier and for writing a report on the human rights record of the country under examination.
But in the last few days panic has swept through the UN. Although this new exercise is supposed to make up for the deficiencies of the former Human Rights Commission by putting everybody on an equal footing, there is total confusion on the steps to be followed.
On Friday, the president of the Human Rights Council, Doru Costea, was presented with a letter signed by African and Arab countries and those belonging to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, asking that each stage of the procedure is fixed in advance and that the sessions –although public – are not filmed.
An emergency meeting was held. It is important to remember that the filmed sessions are an important tool for small countries that do not have the money to send diplomats to the Council. As for the procedure, Doru Costea, explained that it was impossible to foresee everything in advance and that it would take one to two years for this new review to find its footing.
But several NGOs believe that this stormy debate is a new attempt by some countries, in fact the same countries as those who want to get rid of the special rapporteurs in order to weaken anything that resembles a review of their own human rights record.
The first countries to test out this new exercise are the most concerned. First off is Bahrain whose 27 strong delegation will include several government Ministers. Human rights activists and government opposition have also come to Geneva in force to condemn the human rights abuses in their country.
But representatives of 7 NGOs from Bahrein, under the umbrella of the International Federation of Human Rights, were in for a nasty surprise when they asked on Friday to meet troika members – Slovenia, Great Britain and Sri Lanka – who are tasked with evaluating their country.
“We had a shock when the president of the Council, M. Costea, told us that we had to get permission from our government” explained Nabil Rabjab, vice president of the Centre for Human Rights in Bahrain. “A country like ours is never going to agree to that!”. Even it they were able to hand over their report, the Bahraini human rights activists were not able to meet the three countries responsible for assessing their government. They learnt however that “fake NGOs” approved by the Bahraini delegation would meet the troika on Monday just before the review.
