Monday

Today began with an overview of the UN presented by Lucia Nader, Conectas. She talked about basic human rights, the establishment of the Universal Declaration including the 2 pacts: Civil and Political Rights Agreement, and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which make the Declaration more binding. This was followed by a Q & A session.

Camila Asano then gave a presentation on the Human Rights Council (HRC). She discussed the challenges regarding consensus v.s stronger solutions, the issue of Bloc votes, potential strategies for strengthening the Council and the implementation of recommendations. It is important to work together in order to strengthen human rights activists. Participants were asked to think about 3 questions over the week:
1. Do we understand the functioning of the HRC and its mechanisms?
2. What are the main challenges to strengthen the HRC and civil society participation?
3. What could be proposed both to improve the HRC and NGO participation?

A video of Philip Alston explaining the role of Special Rapporteurs (SR) and their working relationship with civil society organisations was shown. SRs are appointed due to their expertise in a specific area, be it torture, summary killings, armed conflict, and they suggest measures on key issues and make recommendations to the government, writing credible, accurate reports and ultimately placing international pressure on the goverment and undermining its credibility. The visit of a SR to a country is th perfect opportunity for local NGOs to work together.

Some of the challenges faced by SRs include bureaucracy, translation of documents, governments refusing entry. Once the SR has handed over the report, s/he is entitled to call a press conference to share the findings. They will also follow up 2 years later to ensure the recommendations are being acted upon. Responsibility is then handed over to civil society groups to maintain pressure on the government.

3 case studies were presented by organisations which had invited SRs to report on human rights violations in their countries: Renata Lira, Jose Farrera and Luis Emmanuel. They shared their successes and failures and talked about report deadlines and recommendations. A Q&A sessions followed.

Philippe Dam, Human Rights Watch, Switzerland, spoke about the challenges faced by the HRC in working with country-specific situations. These included double standards and politicisation and lack of agenda setting. He suggested some possible solutions for the future: monitoring countries' approaches and positions at the HRC or their lack of engagement and reinforcing domestic accountability; shifting south-south solidarity away from complicity with human rights violators to solidarity with victims and their families; promoting criteria for country-specific engagement of HRC; using the 2011 review context to promote better agenda settings; building up NGO networking for in-country advocacy.

Professor Mustapha Al-Sayyid, University of Cairo, Egypt discussed Arab Countries and the HRC. He highlighted that Arab countries are least affected by the movement towards democracy and questioned whether Arab countries actually advance the work of the HRC or whether they hinder it. 9 Arab countries have been subjected to the Universal Periodic Review and have received 38 visits from SRs with regard to human trafficking, torture and displaced people. Those subjected to UPR tended to accept most recommendations, but some countries were critical of the approach taken by the Working Group.

The final presentation of the day was given by Tamaryn Nelson from Witness USA, an organisation that uses film to draw attention to human rights violations across the world. She described the methodology involved in making and disseminating films, as well as showing some video case studies. She suggested participants visit www.daretoact.net to learn more about how to submit videos.

To end the day, Camila summarised the days presentations and the Colloquium will continue at 9am prompt tomorrow.