RES/24/19 Regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights

GE.A/HRC/23/18. 3-17943

Human Rights Council Twenty-fourth session

Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

24/19.

Regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human

rights

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 32/127 of 16 December 1977 and subsequent Assembly resolutions concerning regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, the latest being resolution 63/170 of 18 December 2008,

Recalling also Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/51 of 9 March 1993 and subsequent Commission resolutions in this regard, and Human Rights Council resolutions 6/20 of 28 September 2007, 12/15 of 1 October 2009 and 18/14 of 29 September 2011,

Bearing in mind paragraph 5 (h) of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, in which the Assembly decided that the Council should work in close cooperation with regional organizations,

Bearing in mind also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, which reiterates, inter alia, the need to consider the possibility of establishing regional and subregional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights where they do not already exist,

Reaffirming the fact that regional arrangements play an important role in promoting and protecting human rights and should reinforce universal human rights standards, as contained in international human rights instruments,

1. Welcomes the progress made by Governments in the establishment of regional and subregional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, and their achievements in all regions of the world;

 The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of

the Council on its twenty-fourth session (A/HRC/24/2), Part One.

2. Also welcomes the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the workshop on regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights,1 held from 12 to 14 December 2012 in Geneva, including its conclusions and recommendations;

3. Further welcomes the holding of the first meeting of focal points for cooperation between United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms in Geneva on 14 December 2012, and takes note with appreciation of its outcome;

4. Takes note with appreciation of the adoption of the Addis Ababa road map on cooperation between the special procedures of the Human Rights Council and the special mechanisms of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in Addis Ababa, on 18 January 2012;

5. Also takes note with appreciation of the holding of a dialogue between the chairpersons of United Nations human rights treaty bodies and African human rights mechanisms in Addis Ababa in June 2012, and encourages them to continue to enhance their cooperation;

6. Further takes note with appreciation of the critical role played by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in advancing cooperation between international and regional human rights mechanisms;

7. Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide the resources necessary to enable the Office of the High Commissioner to support the above- mentioned activities appropriately, in particular the continuous functioning of the Office’s focal point for cooperation with regional mechanisms;

8. Requests the High Commissioner to hold, in 2014, a workshop on regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights to take stock of developments since the workshop in 2012, including three thematic discussions – on (a) the mainstreaming of economic, social and cultural rights, (b) the economic, social and cultural rights of persons with disabilities, and (c) the economic, social and cultural rights of women – based on concrete and practical experience of regional mechanisms, in order to share information on best practices, lessons learned and new possible forms of cooperation, with the participation of relevant experts from international, regional, subregional and interregional human rights mechanisms, as well as Members States, observers, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations;

9. Also requests the High Commissioner to present to the Human Rights Council, at its twenty-eighth session, a report containing a summary of the discussions held at the above-mentioned workshop and on the progress towards the implementation of the present resolution.

35th meeting

27 September 2013

[Adopted without a vote.]