The undersigning organisations are deeply concerned that, for the first time in the history of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which opened yesterday in Geneva, NGOs are prevented from accessing the floor of the plenary.
By doing so civil society is prevented from interacting with governmental delegates, which is crucial to the advocacy role. Furthermore this is a distressing departure from the long established practice of interaction between the functional commission of ECOSOC and non governmental organizations in consultative status.
We do understand and share the security concerns, however once we have been through the various security checks, NGOs should be allowed into the plenary.
Effective participation of NGOs is key to the working and credibility of the commission as highlighted by most of the speakers, including Minister of Foreign Affairs from Ireland, Germany and Paraguay.
We urge you respectfully to reconsider such unfortunate decision.
Yours sincerely,
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)
Baha’i International Community
Franciscans International
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Special Committee of NGOs on Human Rights (Geneva)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)