Nine leading human rights groups today protested the drastic limitation on the UN Special Rapporteurs, Chairs of Working Groups and experts ability to present their reports on government abuse.
Amnesty International, Association for the Prevention against Torture, Bahá’í International Community, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, International Commission of Jurists, International Service for Human Rights, Médecins du Monde International and the World Organisation Against Torture deplored that at the current session of the Commission on Human Rights meeting here in Geneva, the time given to Commission’s experts had been limited to five minutes each. At the same time, no new restrictions have been placed on governments rights to respond. Yesterday a number of UN monitors{{1}} protested their restriction by refusing to present their reports including their mission reports.
The nine human rights groups noted that at the same time, more than three full working days have been allocated to speeches by high level dignitaries.
“The Commission on Human Rights has become a forum for defending government’s records rather than examining them” said the groups. ” The independent monitors are at the heart of the system and they are being muzzled.”
[[1]] Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, SR on Torture, SR on EJEs, SR on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, SR on Violance against Women, SR on Religious Intolerance, SR on Equatorial Guinea, SR on the right to adequate housing.[[1]]
