Beginning in April 2014, individuals will have the ability to file complaints with the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) concerning alleged violations of children’s human rights by participating States. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPCP), which establishes the new complaints procedure, received its tenth required ratification,
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Amid ongoing sectarian violence in the Central African Republic, including reported war crimes and crimes against humanity, the United Nations has established two expert mechanisms to monitor the human rights situation, but has so far stopped short of authorizing a UN peacekeeping mission to support the French and African Union troops already in the country. Hundreds have been killed and
Read moreLast week, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) opened the trial proceedings against Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra for the Beirut bombing that killed 22 individuals, including the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, on February 14, 2005. See STL, Prosecutor v. Ayyash et al. (Case STL-11-01), Indictment (Public Redacted Version), 10
Read moreFrom January 13 to January 31, 2014, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) will be holding its 65th Session in Geneva, Switzerland at the UN Headquarters. During the session, the CRC will review the status of children’s rights in six countries: Republic of the Congo (Jan. 13-14), Yemen (Jan. 14-15), Holy See (Jan. 16), Portugal
Read moreFrom January 28 to 31, 2014, the United Nations’ open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on the revision of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRs) will hold its Third Meeting in Brasilia, Brazil in order to continue the process of revising the SMRs. [UNODC: SMRs] The review process is intended to modernize the SMRs to reflect developments in
Read moreFrom October 21 to November 1, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will hold its 17th Session in Geneva, Switzerland. Fifteen States are slated to have their human rights records reviewed: Saudi Arabia, Senegal, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Mauritius, Jordan, Malaysia, the Central African Republic, Monaco, Belize, Chad, Israel, the Congo and Malta. This is the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review that
Read moreThis week in Geneva, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is holding its 64th Session to review States’ implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols. Earlier this month two other United Nations human rights treaty bodies, the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons
Read moreFollowing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s formal announcement on Saturday of Syria’s accession to the 1992 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention), the United States and Russia revealed their joint Framework for the Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons. The concurrent release of a UN report containing
Read moreThe United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has launched a new database of information on combatting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance. The database includes examples of existing protections and practices used at the regional, national, and international levels, including: treaties, relevant decisions from domestic and supranational courts, texts of legal provisions (e.g., legislation
Read moreOn the first day of the Human Rights Council’s 24th Regular Session, held in Geneva from September 9 to 27, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay identified a broad range of human rights concerns in her opening statement. She discussed both emerging issues and ongoing human rights violations throughout the world while paying specific attention to the “appalling situation” in Syria.
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