General Assembly

The Human Rights Committee today adopted the report, as orally amended, of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-Up on Concluding Observations, which provides a country-by-country update on correspondence with State parties on implementation of the expert body’s recommendations on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

VIENNA, 22 March -- The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People at the United Nations Office at Vienna, on 24 and 25 March 2010.

Noting that the number of complex peacekeeping operations has increased in recent years, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations encouraged, in the final report of its 2010 substantive session, which concluded early Saturday morning, the continuation and finalization of the ongoing restructuring of peacekeeping at United Nations Headquarters and indicated that it intended to follow up on the steps already taken.

Continuing a read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which deals with the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Human Rights Committee today set language for six more paragraphs in the “first reading” draft of the 54-paragraph text.

This statement was issued today by the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the situation in occupied East Jerusalem:

The General Assembly’s Special Committee on Decolonization approved today plans to hold its 2010 Pacific Regional Seminar in Noumea, New Caledonia, from 18 to 20 May.

The United Nations expert panel monitoring worldwide implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today continued the work of its ninety-eighth session with a read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the treaty, which deals with “the right to freedom of opinion and expression”.

The Palestinian Authority had embraced proximity talks to revive Middle East peace negotiations, but they had been spurned by Israel through the announcement of additional building plans in East Jerusalem and other provocations, the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine told the Palestinian Rights Committee this afternoon.

While praising New Zealand’s self-critical attitude and constructive engagement with protecting the fundamental rights of its citizens, experts on the Human Rights Committee today raised concerns about possible breaches of the rights of the Maori people and expressed alarm that the country’s age for criminal responsibility was 10, as they wrapped up their two-day consideration of the country’s fifth periodic report on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

While affirming his country’s “unique but robust constitutional structure”, which afforded opportunities for engagement with human rights protections across all Government institutions and among all citizens, the Minister of Justice of New Zealand, addressing a panel of United Nations rights experts today, nevertheless acknowledged several issues of ongoing concern, including the use of “tasers”, the private management of prisons and the disproportionate number of Maori in the country’s prisons.