(Geneva) - Members of the UN's top human rights body should
support the positive contribution of civil society to the protection of human
rights, and resist attempts to undermine a resolution intended to respond to
the global crackdown on civil society, a group of more than 240 civil society
groups said today.
In an open letter addressed to member States of the Human
Rights Council, the organisations spanning across all regions of the world
called on delegations to support the draft resolution on the protection of
civil society space, to be considered for adoption at the 32nd session of the
Human Rights Council later this week.
The resolution, proposed by Chile, Ireland, Japan, Sierra
Leone and Tunisia was developed through broad consultation with States and
civil society and in the past was adopted by consensus. It is based on the UN
High Commissioner's report on civil society space, and highlights the important
role civil society actors play in contributing to peace and security, human
rights and sustainable development. It also includes a number of positive
measures on promoting and protecting civic space and requests OHCHR to develop
a report on the participation of civil society across the UN and regional and
international organisations.
Despite the important normative standards set out in the
resolution the Russian Federation has presented adverse amendments seeking to
undermine the core international human rights principles articulated in the
resolution. The joint civil society letter calls on States to reject the
amendments, and adopt the resolution as presented.
In March 2016, the Human Rights Council rejected a similar
series of amendments presented by the Russian Federation and other States, at
the time seeking to undermine a resolution protecting human rights defenders
who work on economic, social and cultural rights. During the current session of
the Council, Russia, Pakistan (on behalf of the OIC except Albania), China and
others have also presented a large number of amendments on the resolutions on
sexual orientation and gender identity, on violence against women and the
protection of human rights on the Internet.
'The tactic to present a large number of formal amendments
clearly seeks to problematise issues, such as the protection of civil society
space, and aims at crippling the Council's role in speaking out against human
rights violations, and providing policy guidance to States to correct them',
said Michael Ineichen, ISHR's Director of Human Rights Council Advocacy.
'And the substance of the amendments - including in the
areas of registration of NGOs, access of civil society to funding, and
protecting against reprisals - would serve to justify and perpetuate human
rights violations in many of the States proposing them', Mr Ineichen said.
29.06.2016
http://www.ishr.ch/news/human-rights-council-speak-out-strongly-civil-society-protection
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