Human rights

Indigenous peoples must be involved “every step of the way”, and only with their free, prior and informed consent, in all efforts to define priorities and programmes for their sustainable and culturally appropriate development, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said this morning, opening the eleventh session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

A high-level event convened by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be part of a two-week meeting beginning at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday.

The Meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today elected Yadh Ben Achour (Tunisia) to the Human Rights Committee, replacing one member who had passed away before completing his four-year term of office.

The Human Rights Committee concluded its 104th session today, with a discussion about how to transform the “unwieldy” process under which States updated Geneva-based treaty bodies on their adherence to international human rights instruments into a rational, predictable system that motivated them to submit fewer — and more timely — reports.

The Human Rights Committee today adopted its annual report to the General Assembly, deciding to include — as an annex — a request for additional resources to deal with a backlog of communications received under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, pending a revision of that document’s language.

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon examined the progress report of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-up on Concluding Observations, which provides a country-by-country update on correspondence with States parties between the Committee’s 103rd and 104th sessions on implementing the expert body’s recommendations on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Human Rights Committee today adopted its report on follow-up on individual communications, containing an update on individual communications filed with the expert body under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Human Rights Committee continued discussion of its working methods today, adopting a paper on its relationship with non-governmental organizations. Prior to the adoption, the Committee carried out a paragraph-by-paragraph review of the document, which had been drafted by Cornelius Flinterman, expert from the Netherlands, and Iulia Antoanella Motoc, expert from Romania.

The Human Rights Committee met today to consider its working methods, including proposals to name a case manager, add a second working group on communications, and draw up a master calendar.

“Cape Verde was one of the rare African countries to have achieved all the Millennium Development Goals,” Antonio Pedro Monteiro Lima, Permanent Representative of Cape Verde, emphasized today, as he updated the Human Rights Committee on the situation in the country, in the absence of a State report.