PHM-Exch> UN’s Mandate to Protect Human Rights Takes Another Hit

Fri May 24 09:48:32 PDT 2019

HI Alicia and welcome to this great group.  YES, I so agree with you...the
damaging of multilateral institutions will lead to future problems for sure
and will further divide the world in camps against each other.

Best,
david

*David Zakus, BSc, MES, MSc, PhD*
*Publisher & Editor, Planetary Health Weekly*
*Principal, D&D Education Services Inc.*
*Professor (Adjunct), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of
Toronto*
*Director and Committee Chair, Canadian Coalition for Global Health
Research*
*Professor of Global Health and Preventive Medicine (ret.)*
*+1-647-465-1132*
*dzakus at ryerson.ca <dzakus at ryerson.ca>*
*Twitter: @planetaryweekly  and   @dzakus*

For the* latest issue* of the *Planetary Health Weekly*, Vol. 5, No. 20,
May 16, 2019 see:
https://planetaryhealthweekly.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/
phw-volume-5-number-20-may-16-3.pdf

*Freely Subscribe or Access all Back Issues and Comprehensive Yearly Story
Indexes of the **Planetary Health Weekly at:  planetaryhealthweekly.com
<http://planetaryhealthweekly.wordpress.com/>*

On Fri, May 24, 2019 at 9:12 AM Yamin, Alicia Ely <ayamin at hsph.harvard.edu>
wrote:

> Dear Mira, Claudio and others,
>
>
> I am new to this listserv, but I am a human rights lawyer. The 30% cuts
> are not just the treaty-monitoring bodies, but affect the UN Office of
> the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in other ways too.  A
> political decision was taken to cancel activities to *show the effects*--to
> try to force other states to take some remedial action.
>
>
> We've seen cuts before--not this severe--and OHCHR generally tries to make
> ad hoc adjustments and run things on a shoestring, and is then accused of
> ineffectiveness...
>
>
> The starving of institutions of political multilateralism is part of an
> old neoliberal playbook.  But what is happening now is quite dramatic-- and
> is being replicated in a more bluntly political manner in the
> Inter-American System.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alicia
>
>
>
>
>
> *Alicia Ely Yamin, JD MPH*
>
>
>
> *Global Health and Rights Project*
>
> *Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics*
>
> *at Harvard Law School, and *
>
> *Global Health Education and Learning Incubator *
>
> *at Harvard University (GHELI)*
>
> *ayamin at law.harvard.edu <ayamin at law.harvard.edu>; ayamin at hsph.harvard.edu
> <ayamin at hsph.harvard.edu>*
>
> *Health and Human Rights short videos*
> <http://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/collection/teaching-pack-health-and-human-rights/resource/11589>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Power, Suffering and the Struggle for Dignity: *
>
> *Human Rights Frameworks for Health and Why They Matter *
>
> *with foreword by Paul Farmer (U. Penn, 2016;  available in paperback) *
>
> Ahora disponible en español (Ediciones UniAndes, 2018
> <https://ediciones.uniandes.edu.co/paginas/DetalleLibro.aspx?lid=1163>)
>
>
>
> *When Misfortune Becomes Injustice: *
>
> *Evolving Human Rights Struggles for Health and Social Equality  *
>
> *(Stanford U Press, forthcoming 2019*)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* PHM-Exchange <phm-exchange-bounces at phm.phmovement.org> on behalf
> of Dr MIRA SHIVA <mirashiva at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 21, 2019 11:53 AM
> *To:* Claudio Schuftan
> *Cc:* Fabio Gomes; Flavio Valente; Claudio Sepulveda; Jean-Pierre Unger;
> afro-nets-owner at healthnet.org; geoffreycannon at aol.com; Biraj Patnaik;
> Matt Anderson; phm-exchange; Vicente Sanchez
> *Subject:* Re: PHM-Exch> UN’s Mandate to Protect Human Rights Takes
> Another Hit
>
>  Dear Claudio ,
> This is really serious . Is there any possibility to do anything .  WTO
> related  issues were bad enough  for Developing countries .
> Regards
> Mira
>
> On Tue, May 21, 2019 at 8:47 PM Claudio Schuftan <cschuftan at phmovement.org>
> wrote:
>
> May 20 2019
>
> *By Thalif Deen**
>
> UNITED NATIONS, May 20 2019 (IPS) – The UN’s longstanding mandate to
> promote and protect human rights worldwide –- undermined recently by
> right-wing nationalist governments and authoritarian regimes – has taken
> another hit.
>
> The Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
> (OHCHR) says six of the UN’s 10 treaty bodies are being forced to cancel
> their sessions this year due to financial reasons.
>
> The situation has been described as “an unprecedented consequence of some
> UN member States delaying payments due to the Organisation.”
>
> Anna-Karin Holmlund, Senior UN Advocate at Amnesty International (AI),
> told IPS: “Amnesty is deeply concerned by member states’ delay in paying
> their assessed contributions, which will have a direct effect on the
> ability of the UN to carry out its vital human rights work.”
>
> Without these funds, the UN’s human rights mechanisms and International
> tribunals could be severely affected, she warned.
>
> By 10 May, only 44 UN member states – out of 193 — had paid all their
> assessments due, with the United States owing the largest amount.
>
> “Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a worrying trend of reduction
> in the UN budget allocated to its human rights mechanisms. To put this in
> perspective, the budget of the OHCHR is only 3.7 % of the total UN regular
> budget,” she pointed out.
>
> In addition to the possible cancellation of sessions of the treaty bodies,
> mechanisms created by the Human Rights Council such as Fact-Finding
> Missions and Commissions of Inquiry may be hampered in carrying out their
> mandate of investigating serious human rights violations.
>
> The OHCHR said last week the cancellations meant that reviews already
> scheduled with member states, as well as consideration of complaints by
> individual victims of serious human rights violations — including torture,
> extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances -– will not take place as
> scheduled.
>
> “The cancellation of sessions will also have numerous other negative
> consequences, and will seriously undermine the system of protections which
> States themselves have put in place over decades,” said a statement
> released by the OHCHR.
>
> The chairpersons of the 10 Committees are deeply concerned about the
> practical consequences of cancelling these sessions and have sent a letter
> to the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
> requesting they, together with Member States, explore ways of addressing
> this situation, “as a matter of urgency.”
>
> Alexandra Patsalides, a Legal Equality programme officer at Equality Now,
> told IPS that it is deeply concerned that UN Treaty body review sessions
> have been postponed for financial reasons, including the Committee to
> Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), with its focus on ending
> all forms of discrimination again women and girls.
>
> She said the crisis comes particularly at a time when women’s rights are
> continuously being undermined and eroded around the world– and civil
> society organisations are operating in a space that is increasingly under
> attack and shrinking.
>
> The UN should strongly call on state parties to prioritise their
> international human rights obligations, she added.
>
> “The UN treaty bodies are vital to holding states accountable to their
> commitments on women and girl’s rights — and now is the time to increase
> the international response, not cut back,” said Patsalides.
>
> These review sessions offer civil society organisations a vital
> opportunity to hold their governments to account for their international
> human rights commitments and raise awareness of human rights violations in
> their countries.
>
> But with the backsliding on women’s rights across the globe, it is now
> more urgent than ever that the various mechanisms stand up to defend hard
> won gains, she noted.
>
> “The UN treaty bodies are often the only mechanism for women and girls to
> hold their countries to account for violations of their rights. We cannot
> allow these voices to be silenced and call on the UN to prioritize the
> protection of women and girls’ rights and ensure these treaty bodies have
> appropriate and sustainable funding.”
>
> The 10 UN human rights treaty bodies are: the Human Rights Committee, the
> Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee
> against Torture, the Committee on Migrant Workers, the Committee on
> Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
> Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women,
> the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of
> Persons with Disabilities And the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.
>
> Meanwhile the budget cuts come at a time when the UN is battling a series
> of setbacks in the field of human rights.
>
> The UN Human Rights Office in Burundi was closed down last February at the
> insistence of the government, with the UN High Commissioner for Human
> Rights Michelle Bachelet expressing “deep regrets” over the closure, after
> a 23-year presence in the country.
>
> A UN Commission of Inquiry has called on Eritrea to investigate
> allegations of extrajudicial killings by its security forces, including
> torture and enslaving hundreds of thousands, going back to 2016.
>
> And under the Trump administration, the US has ceased to cooperate with
> some of the UN Rapporteurs, and specifically an investigation on the plight
> of migrants on the Mexican border where some of them have been sexually
> assaulted—abuses which have remained unreported and unprosecuted.
>
> The government of Myanmar has barred a UN expert from visiting the country
> to probe the status of Rohingya refugees.
>
> On the setbacks in Colombia, Robert Colville, Spokesperson for the UN High
> Commissioner for Human Rights, said May 10: “We are alarmed by the
> strikingly high number of human rights defenders being killed, harassed and
> threatened in Colombia, and by the fact that this terrible trend seems to
> be worsening”
>
> “We call on the authorities to make a significant effort to confront the
> pattern of harassment and attacks aimed at civil society representatives
> and to take all necessary measures to tackle the endemic impunity around
> such cases.”
>
> In just the first four months of this year, he pointed out, a total of 51
> alleged killings of human rights defenders and activists have been reported
> by civil society actors and State institutions, as well as the national
> human rights institution.
>
> The UN Human Rights Office in Colombia is closely following up on these
> allegations. This staggering number continues a negative trend that
> intensified during 2018, when our staff documented the killings of 115
> human rights defenders.
>
> According to a press release from the OHCHR, the 10 United Nations human
> rights treaties are legally binding treaties, adopted by the UN General
> Assembly and ratified by States.
>
> Each Treaty establishes a treaty body (or Committee) comprising elected
> independent experts who seek to ensure that States parties fulfil their
> legal obligations under the Conventions.
>
> This system of independent scrutiny of the conduct of States by
> independent experts is a key element of the United Nations human rights
> system, supported by secretariats in the Office of the High Commissioner
> for Human Rights.
> _______________________________________________
> PHM-Exchange People's Health Movement
> - To post, write to: PHM-Exchange at phm.phmovement.org
> - To view the archive, receive one weekly posting with all the week's
> postings, edit your subscription's options or unsubscribe, please go to the
> PHM-Exchange webpage:
> http://phm.phmovement.org/listinfo.cgi/phm-exchange-phmovement.org
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__phm.phmovement.org_listinfo.cgi_phm-2Dexchange-2Dphmovement.org&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=fUarM1kyO1vmRDlHA3UvUlaAaxyszK5cqZxZ7Kiy11w&m=fenzwvcM1MAfQQ8onwEC0HLxTBPrUKs8ioah7xG4eGs&s=Qo0jOc3oATM7EAEzzgmi8iQ9CVh5XwceDkKyaV8S02E&e=>
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Mira Shiva
> Coordinator
> Initiative for Health & Equity in Society
> A-60, Hauz Khas
> New Delhi - 110 016
> Tel: 91-11-26512385, Mob:91 9810582028
> mirashiva at gmail.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PHM-Exchange People's Health Movement
> - To post, write to: PHM-Exchange at phm.phmovement.org
> - To view the archive, receive one weekly posting with all the week's
> postings, edit your subscription's options or unsubscribe, please go to the
> PHM-Exchange webpage:
> http://phm.phmovement.org/listinfo.cgi/phm-exchange-phmovement.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20190524/1fa7a22a/attachment.html>