The situation of human rights violations throughout the world, from both country and thematic perspectives, needs to be effectively assessed and thoroughly debated at the Third Committee. The resolutions that will be adopted this fall must demonstrate the impeccable allegiance of the United Nations system to all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Echo the voices of the victims and condemn human rights violations
FIDH wishes that throughout the work of this session, the Third Committee of the General Assembly, which work focuses on human rights issues, will be led by an untarnished commitment to echo the voices of the victims of human rights violations, the voices of the voiceless. When freedom to defend human rights is repressed, when people are killed or imprisoned solely for having exercised their rights, it is the duty of the international community to condemn the violations and work together on putting an end to them through peaceful means. Adopting resolutions is one of these means. We hope that members of the Third Committee will hear victims’ voices and give full significance to the mandate with which they are entrusted.
Main recommendations
FIDH Position Paper for this session of 2006 documents the human rights situations of some countries where FIDH considers that there has been a significant degradation, requiring a reaction on behalf of the General Assembly.
We would hence require the Third Committee of the General Assembly to condemn inter alia the intensification of the repression of all forms of freedom of expression in Iran, the massive human rights violations that have occurred in Andijan, Uzbekistan, and the repression that followed it.
FIDH also urges the Third Committee to take action on the tragic situation in Darfur, Sudan, and advocate for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in that region; and to address the worsening human and civil rights situation of political opponents and ethnic minorities in Burma, caused by the military junta in power. FIDH further calls for the human rights situation in Belarus to be thoroughly debated and acted upon.
From a thematic perspective, FIDH strongly hopes to see the General Assembly adopt this fall, by consensus, the Draft of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, which is the result of decades of efforts in order to obtain the criminalization of enforced disappearances and the rights of all victims to reparation. This Convention represents an invaluable tool in the world fight against impunity.
FIDH wishes to see the issue of the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and of the Protection of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism to be equally addressed and acted upon by the Third Committee.
Violence against women being desperately a current and serious concern which often undermines all other human rights women may enjoy, FIDH strongly encourages the Third Committee to act upon this issue and to follow the recommendations included in the recent UN in-depth study.
FIDH also advocates for the adoption by consensus by the General Assembly of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a declaration that would finally address the rights of Indigenous peoples to be free from violations of their fundamental human rights which express themselves through systemic discrimination, historic injustices and ongoing marginalization.