The Commission on Human Rights (Commission) has finally been placed in the coffin. The “funeral” to mark the end of the Commission on Human Rights’ 60 years of existence was held in Geneva on 27 March 2006 with a simple, procedural closing ceremony of three hours. FORUM-ASIA’s representative was present throughout the frenzied final session to monitor as well as to inform its constituencies in Asia on its developments.
The Commission on Human Rights (Commission) has finally been placed in the coffin. The “funeral” to mark the end of the Commission on Human Rights’ 60 years of existence was held in Geneva on 27 March 2006 with a simple, procedural closing ceremony of three hours. FORUM-ASIA’s representative was present throughout the frenzied final session to monitor as well as to inform its constituencies in Asia on its developments.
The consensus reached among the Member States of the final session of the Commission was to pass on all of its work and mechanisms to the Human Rights Council (Council), which begins its work on 19 June 2006, thereby deferring any responsibility to tackle urgent human rights issues until more than two months later. Concerned NGOs, including FORUM-ASIA, who lobbied for the Commission to close its history by ensuring that human rights are not suspended merely due to inconvenience, and that justice would be delivered to the victims by considering the reports by the Special Procedures, as well as adopting the Draft Convention on Enforced Disappearances and the Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, were dismayed.
At the same time, due to the resolution of the Human Rights Council that was pending for voting in New York with a tense diplomatic stalemate, as well as the failure of the Commission’s members to agree on the agenda of the session, many NGOs from developing countries in Asia or Africa departed early or cancelled their trips. Their presence was thus missing at the final session of the Commission. Much of the important decisions and deliberations of the Commission, which has a direct impact on the work of NGOs, were not communicated in a transparent manner from the outset.
NGOs did not know what the final session will look like until the very end. Even when the session began on the scheduled date of 13 March, it was abruptly ended in 15 minutes and suspended for one week, without giving NGOs a clue as to what the Commission will actually would do for its final session. When the Commission reconvened a week later, it was again suspended for one week, hinting that it will be “procedural and short”.
Furthermore, it was only through informal means that NGOs were able to obtain information a few days prior to the resumption of the session that the final session will comprise of five statements by the governmental regional groups, followed by a single NGO statement of 15 minutes, lasting in total of no more than three hours.
Nevertheless, despite the information gap between Geneva and the human rights movement in the region, FORUM-ASIA managed to lobby and bring together 12 of its members and partners from Asia, together with 252 other NGOs, in reading a joint statement on 27 March. The statement expressed the common position of NGOs that they can not make a single NGO statement to assess the work of the Commission, as it does not encapsulate the important role that NGOs have played in the Commission, as well as the diversity of NGOs. NGOs emphasised that “we cannot accept that this is an appropriate way to proceed now or in the future and we urge States to acknowledge this”.
Despite the frustration with the entire nature in which the final session of the Commission unfolded, NGOs conveyed through their statement that they are looking forward to the establishment of the Council, while reminding governments of the terms of the recent General Assembly Resolution A/60/251, which committed the Council to “ensuring the most effective contribution” of NGOs to its work “based on arrangements…and practices observed by the Commission”.
Asian Group calls against country specific actions and resolutions in the Human Rights Council
During the three hours of the final session, all of the five governmental regional groups took stock of the work of the Commission in the past sixty years and welcomed the establishment of the Human Rights Council in their respective statements. However, FORUM-ASIA observed that there were obvious differences in the message projected by the groups.
The Asian Group stressed the importance of capacity building, technical assistance and dialogue as the main components of the new Human Rights Council, while emphasising that “efforts should be made to avoid country specific actions and resolutions as it could be counterproductive and may lead to political confrontation”.
Unlike the statements by the Eastern European Group (CEIT), the Latin America and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC) and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), the Asian Group made no reference to the role of NGOs in the Commission’s history or in the future Council, except to note that NGOs can play a role in enhancing dialogue and broadening the understanding among civilizations, cultures and religions.
In stark contrast to the statement by the Asian Group, CEIT, GRULAC and WEOG noted that the Commission’s positive achievement has been the participation of civil society and NGOs in its work, which should be further enhanced in the work of the Council. GRULAC and WEOG also stressed the need for the Council to enter into substantive dialogue when it meets in June, with full and active participation of NGOs.
It is clear that if the Council is to be effective, the mistakes of the Commission’s last session should not be repeated—that is to say, the process of civil society engagement with the Council should be open, transparent, fair and inclusive. NGOs must be informed and consulted throughout the deliberations of the Council, in both procedural and substantive matters, so that they can most effectively engage with the Council.
Nevertheless, as the Asian Group continues to express its suspicion towards the work of the NGOs and is keen to open the Pandora’s Box to redefine the modality of NGOs’ participation, it can be foreseen that there will be a series of challenges awaiting committed Asian human rights advocates when the new Human Rights Council opens its session in June.
