RES/30/3 Regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights

Human Rights Council Thirtieth session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 1 October 2015

30/3. 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, 18/14 of 29 September

2011 and 24/19 of 27 September 2013,

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;

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,A/HRC/28/31. held on 8 and 9 October 2014 in Geneva, including its conclusions and

recommendations;

3. Further welcomes the holding of the meetings of focal points for cooperation

between United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms, and takes note with

appreciation of their outcomes;

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 and of the consultation on the review of the Addis Ababa road

map held between special procedure mandate holders of the Council and of the African

Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Luanda on 27 April 2014;

5. Also takes note with appreciation of the holding of a dialogue between the

chairs of United Nations human rights treaty bodies and African human rights mechanisms

in Addis Ababa in June 2012; the joint declaration on the reinforcement of cooperation

between the Secretariat of the Council of Europe and the Office of the High Commissioner

signed on 26 September 2013; the strengthened cooperation between the Office of the High

Commissioner and the International Organization of la Francophonie, including with a view

to providing support for French-speaking countries in the context of the universal periodic

review and other human rights mechanisms, and the renewal on 9 October 2013 of the

cooperation agreement between the two organizations for the period 2014-2015; the two-

day Workshop on Regional Mechanisms: Best Practices on Implementation of Human

Rights, organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Intergovernmental

Commission on Human Rights and held on 17 and 18 November 2014 in Bangkok; and the

dialogue between the chairs of the human rights treaty bodies and representatives of the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and all judges of the Inter-American Court

of Human Rights, in San José, during the annual meeting of chairs of human rights treaty

bodies in June 2015; and encourages all of them to continue to enhance their cooperation;

6. Further takes note with appreciation of the critical role played by the Office

of the High Commissioner in advancing cooperation between international and regional

human rights mechanisms;

7. Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide the

necessary resources 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 2016, a workshop on regional

arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights to take stock of

developments since the workshop held in 2014, including a thematic discussion on

interactions with civil society and human rights defenders, 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 Member 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 thirty-fourth 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.

40th meeting

1 October 2015

[Adopted without a vote.]