HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS THREE-WEEK SESSION

Press Release
HR/CT/477

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS THREE-WEEK SESSION

The Human Rights Committee this morning elected officers for its current session, with Christine Chanet, a jurist from France, as its first female Chairperson.

The other officers are: Prafullachandra N. Bhagwati (India), Omran El Shafei (Egypt), Cecilia Medina Quiroga (Chile) Vice-Chairpersons; and Elizabeth Evatt (Australia), Rapporteur.

The Committee also approved its agenda, as orally amended, by which it will consider reports submitted by Bolivia, Colombia, Georgia, Lebanon and Portugal (Macau) on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Committee will also examine communications under the Covenant's first Optional Protocol, which provides for confidential consideration of communications from individuals claiming to be victims of a violation of a Covenant right. Its method of work will also be examined.

Opening the meeting, the Acting Secretary of the Committee, Eric Tistounet, announced that a human rights site had been established on the World Wide Web on Human Rights Day, 10 December 1996. On the site, the conclusions of the Committee's session would be posted, thus allowing for their wider and faster distribution worldwide than had been possible in the past. The site would also include the reports now before the Committee, and reports of the Commission on Human Rights, its subcommissions and special rapporteurs.

He also reported that Jose Ayalo-Lasso left the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 15 March, to serve as the Foreign Minister of Ecuador. Additionally, Ibrahima Fall, former Assistant Secretary- General for Human Rights, had recently been appointed as Assistant Secretary- General in the Department of Political Affairs. Until selection of a new High Commissioner, Ralph Zacklin, Director and Deputy to the Under-Secretary- General for Legal Affairs, had been appointed as Office-in-Charge of the Office of the High Commissioner and of the Centre for Human Rights.

Human Rights Committee - 2 - Press Release HR/CT/477 1560th Meeting (AM) 24 March 1997

Also this morning the Committee heard a report on the recent meetings of its working groups on communications and on article 40 of the Covenant, which provides for the submission and consideration of periodic reports by States parties. Nisuke Ando, expert from Japan and working group chairman, said the group held nine meetings from 17 to 21 March. Its work was made difficult by the late provision of documentation and the unfamiliarity of new members in the group's work methods. The working group met representatives of various international organizations, non-governmental organizations and expert groups for an exchange of views. Some of the expert groups came Latin American countries such as Colombia.

He added that the working group adopted five lists of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of various periodic reports before the Committee. With regard to communications, he said that four cases had been considered and three adopted for the final views of the Committee. The Committee later approved the list of issues it would raise in connection with the periodic reports of Bolivia and Georgia.

Nine members of the Committee who were elected or re-elected at the sixteenth meeting of States parties to the Covenant in September 1996 were sworn in this morning. They undertook to discharge their duties impartially and conscientiously -- as provided for in article 38 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Bolivia, Georgia, Colombia, Portugal (with respect to the territory of Macau) and Lebanon, whose reports are to be considered during the current session, are among the 136 States parties to the International Covenant. The Committee, as a monitoring body, periodically examines how the State parties are promoting and protecting civil and political rights. Representatives of the four Governments will introduce their reports and respond to oral and written questions from the Committee's 18 members, who serve in their personal capacity.

(For additional background on the Committee's current session, see Press Release HR/CT/476 of 21 March.)

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue discussion of the list of issues concerning the reports of Colombia, Portugal and Lebanon.

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