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The Human Rights Council held its 24th session in Geneva from the 9th to the 27th of September
2013.
The session was opened by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, who updated
the Council's 47 member States, observers, and other participants from civil society,
on the latest activities of her Office and on recent human rights situations around the
globe.
For the past five years, our world has been suffering the effects of the worst economic
crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, today, millions are without decent
work, adequate food, healthcare, shelter, and the safety net of social security -- and
thus without hope itself. Retrogression in the realisation of economic and social rights
has reached historic proportions in some regions of the world.
One of the main issues of this session was the developing situation in Syria and the
recent use of chemical weapons in the conflict. As the Council was about to hear an update
from its Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the Russian and US Foreign Ministers decided on
short-notice to hold a bilateral meeting in Geneva. At the same time, the Commission issued
its latest report on the human rights situation in Syria, as well as a conference paper on
assault on medical care facilities and presented an oral update to the Council.
In Syria, fighting rages on. Civilians across the country face daily indiscriminate shelling
and bombardment by Government forces. Many towns and villages remain besieged, while
torture is systematically employed in Government detention centres. Extremist anti-Government
armed groups have targeted civilians in attacks across the northern governorates. The methods
of warfare used spread terror among the civilian population. Tens of thousands of lives have
been lost.
The Council also heard an oral update from the Commission of Inquiry on the human rights
situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which recently held public hearings
in the region.
The individual testimonies emerging from the public hearings, of which these are just instances,
do not represent isolated cases. They are representative of large-scale patterns that
may constitute systematic and gross violations of human rights.
We heard from ordinary people who faced torture and imprisonment for doing nothing more than
watching foreign soap operas on DVDs. For holding a religious belief. Former officials
of the DPRK previously involved in the propaganda apparatus related how they had systematically
manipulate free access to information.
The Council adopted 14 additional country reports under its Universal Periodic Review
process, whereby the human rights records of each and every United Nations Member states
are reviewed.
16 special procedures also presented key reports on issues such as children in armed conflict,
toxic and hazardous waste, contemporary forms of slavery and mercenaries.
Participants also heard from the Independent Experts on the Sudan, Cambodia and Somalia.
During the third week of its session, the Council held a high-level dialogue on Somalia,
with the participation of Abdi Farah Shirdon, Prime Minister of Somalia.
A number of country specific reports were also presented: on the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Yemen and the Central African Republic, for which a report on the situation
in the country after the armed conflict earlier this year was presented.
So it is absolutely essential that the Transitional Government takes urgent measures to restore
security, bring about constitutional order and re-establish democratic Governance, all
over the country, including by ensuring a proper functioning, and an accountable functioning
of security and judicial institutions.
With regard to Sri Lanka, the High Commissioner, who had just returned from a visit to the
country in August, gave an update on the promotion of reconciliation and accountability in the
country since the 2009 conflict.
Four years after the end of the war, the military presence in the north still remains considerable.
The communities the High Commissioner met with reported that there is a high level of
surveillance of returnees, rehabilitees and detainees who have been released.
During its session, the Human Rights Council held interactive panel discussions on the
rights of children whose parents are sentenced to the death penalty, on gender integration
in the work of the Council and on human rights of indigenous peoples around the globe.
Over 100 side-events organized by Non-governmental organizations and States took place on the
side-lines of the Council's session, highlighting a number of emerging human rights issues.
At the conclusion of the session, the Council adopted 40 resolutions addressing a wide range
of human rights issues.
Among them was a resolution condemning the continuing human rights violations in Syria
and demanding Syrian authorities to grant access to the Commission of Inquiry.
The Council also decided to create three new mandates on human rights of older persons,
on the Central African Republic, and one to investigate reprisals against human rights
defenders.
The Council renewed the mandates for 11 human rights experts, including those on Somalia,
Sudan, Cambodia, safe drinking water and sanitation; the right to health and the rights of indigenous
peoples.
The Council also elected 6 new members to its Advisory Committee and requested it to
prepare a number of new studies including one on the issue of the rights of persons
living with albinism.