LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES TO MEET IN ECUADOR TO CONSIDER A REGIONAL STRATEGY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Press Release
HR/4442
LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES TO MEET IN ECUADOR TO CONSIDER A REGIONAL STRATEGY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
19991126(Quito, 29 November - 1 December 1999)
(Reissued as received)
GENEVA, 26 November (UN Information Service) -- Representatives of Governments from Latin America and the Caribbean will be meeting in Quito, Ecuador from 29 November to 1 December in order to review and discuss priorities in the following elements of a possible regional strategy: national plans of action for the promotion and protection of human rights and the strengthening of national human rights capacities; national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights; national Human Rights education; strategies for the realization of the right to development and economic, social and cultural rights; promotion of children, women and indigenous people rights as well as those of vulnerable groups.
Governments from the region will be considering a regional framework for cooperation in the Latin American and Caribbean region and identifying next steps for regional/sub-regional and national action.
The meeting will also be attended by representatives of regional organizations, national human rights institutions, NGOs, UN agencies and programmes.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, will open the meeting together with the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Benjamin Ortiz. During her visit to Ecuador from 28 to 30 November, the High Commissioner will be meeting President Jamil Mahuad, the President of the National Congress and other senior Government officials.
She will also have an opportunity to meet human rights organizations, indigenous groups, representatives of civil society as well as with the representatives of United Nations Agencies and Programmes present in Ecuador.
The High Commissioner will be signing -- together with the Foreign Minister and the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ecuador, Ms Aase Smedler -- a technical cooperation project with the Government of Ecuador designed to support the implementation of a National Plan of Action on Human Rights, the strengthening of the Ombudsman's Office ("Defensoria del Pueblo"), the promotion of a human rights culture through human rights education and training programmes for key professions (police, prisons administrations) and to support Parliamentary Commissions in their efforts to reform domestic legislation with a view to bring it in conformity with international human rights norms.
The main objective of the project is to enhance national capacities and infrastructures in the field of human rights and to
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support civil society, in particular indigenous populations, women, and children.
The project is part of the technical cooperation programme of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is provided to 40 countries worldwide.
For more information please contact Gianni Magazzeni at 917- 9212 or visit the OHCHR Web site (www.unhchr.ch - programme - technical cooperation).
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