IPU AND OHCHR PUBLISH HANDBOOK
The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will publish Wednesday 19 October a handbook for parliamentarians on Human Rights.
In the words of the President of the IPU, Chilean Senator Sergio Páez, "human rights have pervaded much of the political discourse since World War II. While the struggle for freedom from oppression and misery is probably as old as humanity itself, it was the massive affront to human dignity perpetrated during that war and the need felt to prevent such horror in the future, which put the human being back at the centre and led to the codification at the international level of human rights and fundamental freedoms".
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, considers that "since 1948, human rights and fundamental freedoms have indeed been codified in hundreds of universal and regional binding and non-binding instruments, touching almost every aspect of human life and covering a broad range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the codification of human rights has largely been completed. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has recently pointed out, today's main challenge is to implement the adopted standards".
In previous years, attention has increasingly turned towards parliament as the state institution through which people exercise their right, enshrined in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to participate in the conduct of the public affairs of their country. As the Secretary General of the IPU Anders B. Johnsson has stated, "indeed, if human rights are to become a reality for everyone, parliaments must fully play their role and exercise to this effect the specific powers they have, namely: legislating, adopting the budget and overseeing the government".
The task of drawing up the handbook was entrusted to Mr. Manfred Nowak, currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture. In carrying out this task, he drew on the input and guidance of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians and officials of both OHCHR and the IPU.
At its 111st session, held during the 113th Assembly of the IPU in Geneva, the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians considered 26 public cases involving 115 parliamentarians from the following countries: Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Honduras, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Israel/Palestine, Rwanda, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
Established in 1976, the Committee sits four times a year and its sessions are held in camera. It is composed of the following parliamentarians: Mrs. Ann Clwyd (President of the Committee, MP, House of Commons, United Kingdom), Mrs. Veronika Nedvedova (Deputy, Czech Republic), Mr. Mahamane Ousmane (President, National Assembly of Niger), Mr. Fernando Margáin (Senator, Mexico) and Mr. Franklin M. Drilón (President of the Senate, Philippines).
Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 141 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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