Session of the Human Rights
Council, Palais des Nations,
Geneva. (UN Photo/JeanMarc Ferre)

Twenty-two independent experts and special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council called on the states to incorporate universally agreed international human rights norms and standards with strong accountability mechanisms into the goals to be agreed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012) to be held in June. The appeal coincides with long-standing proposals made by civil society organizations.

The petition includes the setting of “indicators and measures to evaluate implementation of the commitments” to be agreed in Rio de Janeiro “through an inclusive, transparent and participatory process with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society”, wrote the experts in an open letter.

Nabil el-Araby, secretary general
of the Arab League.
(UN Photo/Mark Garten)

The development and reform of the Arab League requires the adoption of serious steps, on top of which a new vision for its relationship with civil society, in line with the traditions and experiences established by similar regional groupings as well as the United Nations, suggested 37 organizations, some of them members of Social Watch, of nine Arab countries.

Roberto Bissio, Leymah Gbowee, Justin Kilcullen, Graça Machel and Kumi Naidoo

Beyond 2015, a global civil society campaign pushing for a strong and legitimate successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals, recommended to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, five civil society representatives onto the UN High Level Panel on a post-2015 development framework when it is established.

The 144th Session of the
Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights. (Photo: HRBrief)

Over the last 30 years, more than 600 aboriginal woman and girls have been murdered or gone missing in Canada. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) addressed this issue for the first time following a petition by Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that country) and the University of Miami’s Human Rights Clinic.

Members of Syrian security forces.
(Photo: FreedomHouse2/Flickr/CC)

The use of military action is intensifying in Syria, and the human rights and humanitarian conditions are deteriorating, warned the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) in a joint statement. Despite the calls of Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Arab League and a UN special envoy, Syrian authorities have failed to halt the use of excessive force and violence, according to these organizations.

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