PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Press Briefing |
PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Human rights defenders, who were in the front line in defending the right to fair trial and due process, were becoming more and more vulnerable, Hina Jilani, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
Briefing correspondents after presenting her report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), she said that the increasing vulnerability of the defenders was due to their marginalization and the de-legitimization of their role, which was protected by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The Declaration was not being implemented as it should be and measures taken in many States were not in keeping with standard laws and practices, she added.
She said two related issues were at work: the impact of security and counter-terrorism legislation on human rights defenders; and the role of human rights defenders in emergencies. In many States, the scope of security legislation far exceeded the legitimate objective of strengthening security. Lawyers, journalists, and non-governmental organization personnel and political activists had been targeted unfairly for speaking out against existing measures that were being applied more aggressively, or measures adopted more recently to combat terrorism.
Responding to a question about the findings of her report, she said that while abuses were not happening in every part of the world, they were occurring in enough countries and with alarming enough frequency to become a significant issue.
Asked about a proposed mission to Turkey on 1 December, she replied that negotiations were continuing with the Government of that country. Such visits were necessary either because the situation of human rights defenders caused concern, or because a country was at a particular stage in terms of its level of democracy at a particular time. Another reason for requesting country visits was to highlight any good practices adopted.
She described as a welcome step the ruling by the United States Supreme Court regarding the situation of those held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because the judiciary was an important institution for protecting the rights of citizens against excesses by the executive.
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