PHA-Exch> Human rights news

[Claudio Schuftan]

  From  *DIGNITY INTERNATIONAL, MONTHLY NEWSBULLETIN - May 2008*

**** ICESCR Complaints Mechanism: Major Step Forward for Human Rights *

After five years of difficult negotiations, UN member states approved the
text of a complaints mechanism to guarantee the rights of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

No other international legal text guarantees a comparably comprehensive
protection of economic, social and cultural rights as the International
Covenant. The adoption of the Optional Protocol will have repercussions on
national jurisdiction and help strengthen the protection of human rights
worldwide.

The new complaints mechanism will allow victims of human rights violations,
such as violations of the rights to health, education, food and housing, to
address the United Nations if they were not able to obtain relief in their
country. To read more CLICK HERE>>>
<http://www.fian.org/news/press-releases/breakthrough-for-universal-social-justice>
 (FIAN)







 **** Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights
- *At the beginning of April John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the
UN Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational
corporations submitted his views and recommendations to the Human Rights
Council.

The report presents a conceptual and policy framework to anchor the business
and human rights debate, and to help guide all relevant actors. The report
highlights the fact that the current framework relies on public
accountability, transparency and the enlightened self-interest of companies,
labour and civil society to begin and act on the principles outlined in
international Human Rights and labour declarations. The private sector seeks
to minimise regulations and set long-term goals. NGOs, trade unions and the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights call for tougher measures including
independent monitoring, public reporting, a faster response on the part of
business, and measures against member companies that do not comply. To read
the full report CLICK
HERE>>><http://www.choike.org/documentos/corporations_humanrights.pdf>

**** Expert on Family, Women's issues to head UNIFEM - *The appointment of
Inés Alberdi of Spain as the new Executive Director of the United Nations
Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has been announced by UNDP Administrator
Kemal Dervi.
Inés Alberdi has worked for over 25 years on gender issues and in politics.
She comes to UNIFEM from her previous position as Professor of Sociology at
Madrid University where she has taught Political Sociology and Sociology of
Gender since 1993. Prior to that, she was Director for Research at the
Centre for Sociological Research (1992–1993). Ms. Alberdi has published
extensively on family and women's issues. Her distinguished academic career
also included positions as Associate Researcher at George Washington
University, Washington, DC (1988–1989), and Visiting Scholar in the
Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, Washington, DC
(1978–1979), as well as an Eisenhower Fellowship (1998).
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