ATTN: Ambassadors,
Permanent Representatives of UN Member States to the General Assembly
Paris, Geneva, New York, April 12th 2007
RE - May elections of 14 members of the Human Rights Council
Excellencies,
In a few weeks time, as a member of the UN General Assembly, you will have to vote to elect 14 members of the UN Human Rights Council.
General Assembly resolution A/RES/60/251 that establishes the Human rights council provides for a number of considerations that should be taken into account by UN member States when electing members of the Council, as well as obligations for members:
− Indeed, paragraph 8 states that "(...) when electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto (...) ", and
− Paragraph 9 states that "(...) members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, shall fully cooperate with the Council and be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism during their term of membership."
We would like to invite you to ensure that these requirements are respected and thus, inter alia :
1. ensure that there is a larger number of candidates than vacant seats to fulfill within your own geographical group, so that the selection process foreseen through the election actually takes place (i.e. no "clean slates");
2. encourage the early publication by candidates of solid and substantial pledges (as recommended by Para. 8), and vote for candidates that have made these substantial pledges;
In this respect, FIDH recommends the following inclusions in substantial pledges:
• the level of ratification, by the country, of the principal Human rights instruments and of their additional protocols, as well as the steps taken towards the ratification of the instruments which remain to be ratified, and towards the lifting of reservations that are considered by the Treaty bodies to be contrary to the objectives and principles of these conventions
• the submission of periodic reports to the treaty monitoring bodies and the commitment to followup on their recommendations;
• the commitment to cooperate fully with the procedures and mechanisms of the Council, including through the extension of a standing invitation to the Special procedures, on the basis of their own terms of reference, to reply to all letters of allegatio received from them, and to implement the recommendations that they will have addressed to you;
• the commitment to submit to the periodic review procedure and, while operating on the Council within the periodic review procedure, to act in line with UN human rights mechanisms’ recommendations;
• the commitment, while serving on the Council, to ensure that the Council provides an adequate response to human rights crises, whenever and wherever they occur, based on an independent assessment and qualification of the situations, as well as not to oppose any procedural obstacle (such as noaction motions) to the due examination of these situations, to further ensure that the Council provides a sustainable investment of the international community in situations where human rights crises persist,
• the commitment, while serving on the Council, to promote the development of human rights norms where required and relevant.
3. encourage the full cooperation of members of the Council with the Council (as requested by Para. 9), and thus vote for candidates that have a satisfactory record of cooperation with the mechanisms that derive from the Council.
In this respect, we draw your attention to the attached table, which sums up the level of cooperation with the Human Rights Council’s Special procedures, a mechanism providing independent expertise and evaluation on human rights situations, of candidates to the May
2007 elections, as well as of current members of the Human Rights Council. We would like to encourage you to vote only for those countries that cooperate satisfactorily with these mechanisms.
In applying this qualitative selection, your country will help promote a membership of the Council that lives up to the expectations that are enshrined in GA Resolution 60/25, and fully implements its mandate to ensure a worldwide promotion and protection of human rights.
Thanking you for your attention to this matter, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Sidiki KABA,
President,
FIDH
Pemanent delegation to the UN in New York
666 Broadway, NY10012 New York, USA tel + 121 26 14 64 20, fax +121 26 14 64 99 / ctixeire@fidh.org amadelin@fidh.org
Permanent delgation to the UN in Geneva
15 rue des Savoises, CH1205 Genève, Switzerland tel + 41 22 700 12 88, fax + 41 22 321 54 88 / sahmadi@fidh.org
apomeon@fidh.org