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Addressee: OHCHR
Full Text
The Permanent Forum requests the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, with the support of the secretariat of the Forum, to expand and strengthen the United Nations response to reprisals and threats faced by indigenous human rights and environmental defenders by enhancing high-level engagement on reprisals, ensuring appropriate action on urgent cases when reprisals occur.
Responses
In a statement on 1 June 2018 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, a group of Chairs, Vice-Chairs and members of the United Nations human rights Treaty Bodies and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders reaffirmed that all individuals should be able to engage with the treaty bodies free from all forms of interference, intimidation, abuse, threat, violence, reprisal, or undue restriction. Experts underline that civil society constitutes a fundamental pillar of the international human rights system. It contributes to promoting and respecting human rights, sustainable development, maintaining peace and security, and acts in line with UN Charter goals6.
There were developments in the working methods and practices of the treaty bodies, including in the implementation of the Guidelines against Intimidation or Reprisals (the San José Guidelines, HRI/MC/2015/6) adopted at their meeting in 2015. During their thirtieth annual meeting, the Chairs of the treaty bodies encouraged rapporteurs or focal points of different committees to work together between sessions, as needed, to address cases, to make information available about reprisals on the website, and for the Secretariat to prepare a document for 2019 on the role of rapporteurs and focal points, including good practices (A/73/140).
Final Report of UNPFII Session 17 (2018)
Area of Work
