While it was crucial that States comply with their human rights obligations while fighting terrorism, the suffering of its victims and the prevention of terrorist acts must also receive attention from a human rights perspective, a United Nations expert told the correspondents at Headquarters this morning.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
In a press conference at Headquarters this morning, the newly elected Maronite Patriarch, His Beatitude Bechara Peter Rai, offered a message of “communion and love” and heralded the 2,000 years of contribution by the Christian community in the Middle East.
The prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories presented extraordinary problems for the protection of the human rights and required stronger protection measures, particularly for the welfare of children, a United Nations expert told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.
A pattern of violations had emerged regarding Iran’s treatment of civil society actors — including political dissidents – that spoke to unfair trials and the targeting of human rights defenders, and the best strategy for substantially improving those conditions was not to penalize the Government, but rather engage it in dialogue that would evolve over time, said the United Nations special investigator on that country.
Among several concerns about the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman highlighted today the food security situation there, as well as the situation of asylum-seekers from that country.
To create a true environment of religious tolerance and open dialogue, said the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief this afternoon, the method of communication and connection needed to be diverse and multi-faceted.
With a nascent national human rights mechanism and freshly stated commitments to freedom and the rule of law, Myanmar stood poised to end its persistent patterns of rights violations and to consolidate democratic gains, said a top human rights expert at a Headquarters press conference today.
The reported death of former Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi, who had ruled his country since 1969, marked a key moment in the transition to a “new Libya”, and as soon as the National Transitional Council (NTC) formally declared liberation, the path towards the formation of an interim Government would begin, the United Nations special envoy to that country said today at a Headquarters press briefing.
Ion Botnaru, Director of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs Division, announced during a Headquarters news conference this afternoon the names of the nine countries vying for the soon-to-be-vacant five non-permanent seats on the Security Council. He also announced the names of candidates for upcoming elections to fill seats on the Economic and Social Council and the International Court of Justice.
There was no universal standard for the definition of long-term and other abusive forms of solitary confinement, but there was no doubt that it should be banned as torture, three human rights experts said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.