7/51 Report of the Secretary-General on the state of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights
Document Type: Final Report
Date: 2008 Jan
Session: 7th Regular Session (2008 Mar)
Agenda Item:
GE.08-10049 (E) 080108
UNITED NATIONS
A
General Assembly Distr. GENERAL
A/HRC/7/51 7 January 2008
Original: ENGLISH
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Seventh session Item 2 of the provisional agenda
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND REPORTS OF THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER AND THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Report of the Secretary-General on the state of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights
Note by the Secretariat
1. In resolution 2005/73, the Commission on Human Rights requested the Secretary-General to submit to it, at its sixty-third session, a report on the state of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, to formulate concrete proposals and recommendations on ways and means to strengthen cooperation between United Nations and regional arrangements in the field of human rights and to include therein the results of action taken in pursuance of the resolution.
2. The Human Rights Council, in decision 2/102, requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to “continue with the fulfilment of her activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to update the relevant reports and studies”. On the current issue of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, a comprehensive annual report was submitted to the Commission at its sixty-first session, pursuant to resolution 2005/73. A report on the subject was submitted more recently to the General Assembly pursuant to resolution 59/196. The Office of the High Commissioner understands decision 2/102 to preserve the previous biennial reporting cycle in respect of this issue until otherwise decided by the Council.
3. In its resolution 59/196, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General, to submit to it at its sixty-first session a report on the state of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights. Such a report was submitted to the General Assembly in September 2006.1 Subsequently, some developments have occurred, which are covered by the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and follow up to the World Conference on Human Rights submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fourth session.2 These developments mainly related to the establishment of regional offices by the Office of the High Commissioner. Additional relevant information was contained in a report of the Secretary-General on the status of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Asian and Pacific Region submitted to the Council at its fourth session.3
4. The Council in its resolution 6/20 on regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights requested the High Commissioner to convene in 2008 a workshop for an exchange of views on good practices, added value and challenges for such regional arrangements, with the participation of representatives of all relevant regional and subregional arrangements from different regions, experts as well as all interested Member States, observers, national human rights institutions and representatives of non-governmental organizations, based on arrangements, including Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31 and practices observed by the Commission on Human Rights. The Human Rights Council in its resolution 6/20 furthermore requested that the Office of the High Commissioner present to the Council a summary of the discussions of the workshop, at a moment in conformity with the programme of work of the Council.
5. In accordance with Council resolution 6/20, the Office will organize a workshop in 2008 to gather relevant information on regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights and submit a detailed report on the results of the workshop to the Council in 2008. Thus, the submission of a full report on the state of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights does not appear necessary at this stage.
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1 A/61/513.
2 A/HRC/4/49.
3 A/HRC/4/90.