Encore Course - Global Revolution in Human Rights
International Institutions and Nongovernmental Organizations
February 28, 2011
I. General Assembly
Sponsorship of conferences and decades (examples include)
UN Decade for Women (1975-85)
World Summit for Children (New York, 1990)
World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993)
World Summit on Sustainable Development (Copenhagen, 1995)
Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995)
World Conference Against Racism (Durban, South Africa, 2001)
Millennium Summit (New York City, 2000)
II. Commissions and High Commissioners
Commission on Human Rights (established 1946)
Human Rights Council (established in 2006 to take the place of the Commission on Human Rights)
HRC r eview of US record on human rights
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (established 1950)
Currently António Guterres of Portugal
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (established 1993)
Currently Navanethem Pillay of South Africa
III. Treaty Monitoring Committees (established by the treaties on these types of human rights)
Committee on Human Rights (monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Committee on the Rights of the Child
Committee on Torture
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
-Receive reports from the parties (ratifiers) to the treaties on steps taken to implement them
-Critically evaluate the reports of the parties and compare them with
other information available oon the relevant human rights performance of the country
-Some of the committees receive complaints from individuals about human rights abuses (from countries
that have ratified optional protocols allowing such communications)
-Make recommendations to individual parties to the treaty and in some cases issue
reports on their performance
IV. Courts and Tribunals
International Court of Justice
International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
International Criminal Court (ICC)
US voted against the 1998 Rome Statute authorizing creation of the ICC, but Clinton signed the treaty in 2000 and Bush "unsigned it it 2002
The ICC is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Jurisdiction of the ICC
where the person accused of committing a crime is a national of a state party (or where the person's state has accepted the jurisdiction of the court);
where the alleged crime was committed on the territory of a state party (or where the state on whose territory the crime was committed has accepted the jurisdiction of the court); or
where a situation is referred to the court by the UN Security Council.[11]
Cases
The court has received complaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, but, as of January 2011, the Prosecutor has opened investigations into just five situations, in Africa only: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Darfur, (Sudan) and Kenya.
V. Nongovernmental Organizations and International Civil Society
“NGOs are the conscience of humanity.”---Kofi Annan (UN Secretary General)
“NGOs are an indispensable part of the legitimacy of the UN.”
Boutros Ghali (former UN Secretary General)
Consultative status (with ECOSOC) and other UN bodies (roster)
(currently 2719 NGOs have consultative status with ECOSOC)
Participation in world conferences and associated NGO forums
(e.g., Millennium NGO Forum—2000)
Monitoring compliance with human rights treaties
VI. Examples of Human Rights NGOs