GS/SHC/3958
Sixty-fourth General Assembly
Third Committee
26th & 27th Meetings (AM & PM)
Address Religious Freedom, Adequate Housing, Extreme Poverty, Violence against Women, Human Trafficking, Human Rights Defenders
States would better serve their societies -- particularly vulnerable groups like women, the extreme poor and trafficked persons -- if they took a human rights-based approach in designing and implementing social, economic and cultural policies, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today as it rounded out its first week of discussions on the promotion and protection of human rights.
Hearing from six Independent Experts and Special Rapporteurs on a number of issues that ranged from human trafficking and violence against women to the right to adequate housing and freedom of belief, the Committee continued to engage with some of the most difficult and complex challenges facing their countries.
As one expert -- Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living -- stressed, States must ensure that, in their efforts to protect people from one threat, such as the effects of climate change, they did not unintentionally violate other human rights.
She suggested that negotiations on how to combat climate change would be much different if a human rights angle were introduced. In particular, people needed to be informed, in order to participate in decision-making on any adaptation, reconstruction or relocation process. In turn, this participation would strengthen the resilience of their communities.
Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, touched on this delicate balance between different rights in her comments on the introduction of stricter counter-terrorism, security and anti-extremism laws following 9/11, which had often had a significant restrictive impact on civil society. She stressed that, while the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights did allow for the restriction of the right to freedom of association because of national security, such restrictions must fulfil other conditions.
Magdelena Sepulveda Carmona, Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, called on the Third Committee to encourage Member States to incorporate a human rights perspective into their responses to the global financial crisis. Lessons of past crises showed that States could address the negative impact of the current one on the poor by establishing and expanding social protection systems.
To be successful, however, the misconception that social protection systems were not affordable, or that they created dependency, must be overcome. In that regard, she highlighted far-reaching studies from the International Labour Organization (ILO) showing that most countries could not only afford a basic package of social security, but that such schemes actually contributed to a country's economy.
The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, also urged Member States to fight that surreptitious transnational crime in a sprit of cooperation and with a human rights perspective. She proposed a global action plan with quantifiable time-bound targets to galvanize the political and economic will of Members States. In particular, such a plan should facilitate sustained technical assistance for identifying and protecting victims and should link anti-trafficking initiatives to the Millennium Development Goals to address the root causes of human trafficking.
Rashida Manjoo, the newly installed Special Rapporteur on violence against women, explained that her predecessor's 2009 thematic report to the Human Rights Council argued that the primacy accorded to political and civil rights -- or "first generation" rights -- had perpetuated a bias towards violations of human rights in the public sphere. Indeed, the report looked at the link between violence against women and women's access to economic and social rights -- or "second generation" rights -- like the right to housing, land and property, food, water, health, education and the rights to decent work and social security.
She said the report demonstrated that economic and social security was crucial for empowering women and preventing violence against them. The report also made a strong appeal for the adoption of an integrated perspective that combined the obligations set out in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Earlier in the day, the Committee heard from Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, who said that in the five years since she took up her mandate, it had become clear that religious intolerance was not a natural outcome of diverse societies, but once the roots of intolerance took hold, it was hard to contain. In that context, prevention was key to creating an atmosphere of religious tolerance. The structure of the State, its governance methods, educational policies and commitment to basic human rights were central ingredients in either preventing or contributing to friction.
During the interactive portion of her presentation, many delegates requested more information on educational methods that would promote tolerance of beliefs. Jordan's representative asked how society could teach children to respect their peers irrespective of religion and to see beyond religious symbols, such as a headscarf, turban or cross. Several delegations also raised questions about the double discrimination of race and religion, with Malaysia's delegate pointing out that there was an instrument to address discrimination based on race, but not on religion.
Ms. Jahangir agreed that the links between race and religion were not widely understood, with laws frequently confusing the two. But she did not believe the international community was ready to have a convention on religious freedom. Instead, she reiterated the need for education, as well as heightened public awareness.
Education was also important in teaching tolerance to children, particularly by orchestrating meetings between children of various faiths and communities, which had shown some success.
The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Monday, 26 October, to hear statements from the Special Rapporteurs on the right to education, the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism and on the human rights of migrants. It was also expected to hear from the Secretary-General's Representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
The Committee will also hear the introduction of the remaining reports related to human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives. It was also expected to begin its general discussion on these topics.
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