THIRD COMMITTEE SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS ON HUMAN RIGHTS

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001091 DEPT FOR IO/HR, DRL/MLGA, PRM/PIP, S/GWI SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SOCI UNGA SUBJECT: THIRD COMMITTEE SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS ON HUMAN RIGHTS ¶1. SUMMARY: As part of the annual discussion of human rights issues in the UN General Assembly, numerous Special Rapporteurs on thematic issues made presentations to the UNGA Third Committee. Below are summaries of the hour-long presentations by the Special Rapporteurs for Right to Health, Right to Food, Housing, VAW, TIP, Migrants, and Right to Education. The summaries for presentations for Special Rapporteurs on Torture, Myanmar, DPRK, Palestine, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, and Extrajudicial Executions are reported Septel. END SUMMARY. RIGHT TO HEALTH -------------- ¶2. Anand Grover, Special Rapporteur on Physical and Mental Health, said on October 21 that guaranteeing informed consent is fundamental to achieving the enjoyment of the right to health through practices, policies and research that are respectful of autonomy, self-determination and human dignity. He said that structural inequalities exacerbated by stigma and discrimination mean that individuals from certain groups are disproportionately vulnerable to having their informed consent compromised. RIGHT TO FOOD -------------- ¶3. Olivier de Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, noted on October 21 that there were a billion hungry people in the world, even though more food was being produced. He said the single most important thing he had achieved in his mandate was his work with the Food and Agriculture Organization to reform the Committee on World Food Security, which created a global strategic framework that would hold states accountable on their achievement of the right to food. The full report is at: www.un.org. ¶4. Responding to Olivier de Schutter, the delegate of Argentina said that extortionist policies from the world's leading producer countries had led to tariff distortions, thus, fuelling food insecurity. He asked about the relationship between the protectionist trade policies and the right to food. Mr. De Schutter said it was not acceptable for the market to be distorted by limited access and subsidies. HOUSING -------------- ¶5. Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, said on October 23 that people of the lowest incomes tended to be located in the most hazard-prone sites in cities. She noted that disasters caused by extreme weather reflected a failure of urban planning. She stated that access to affordable and well-located housing was needed to avoid unplanned settlement expansions and housing for the poor should be placed at the center of urban planning. The full report is at: www.un.org. VAW --- ¶6. Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, explained on October 23 that the 2009 thematic report to the HRC attempted to demonstrate how power operated not only through coercion, but also through the structure that governed the distribution and use of resources, benefits, privileges and authority within the home and society at large. She said the report focused on the feminist critique of the dichotomy drawn between political and civil rights and economic and social rights. She said she also looked at the link between violence against women and women's access to economic and social rights. The full report is at: www.ohchr.org ¶7. Responding to Ms. Manjoo, the delegate of Syria called attention to the situation of women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and asked for her opinion on the serious violations by Israel against women in Gaza, including the occupied Syrian Golan. Ms. Manjoo stated there was a continuum of violence there, where oppression that resulted from patriarchy was feeding into the occupation. She said follow-up work was needed to study violence before, during and after conflict, and to discover what the impacts of continued occupation were on women and children. TIP --- ¶8. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, urged Member States on October 23 to fight the surreptitious transnational crime in a spirit of cooperation and with a human rights perspective. She proposed a global action plan with quantifiable time-bound targets to galvanize the political and economic will of Members States. She said such a plan should facilitate sustained technical assistance for identifying and protecting victims and should link anti-trafficking initiatives to the MDGs to address the root causes of human trafficking. The full report is at: www.un.org. ¶9. In responding to the Special Rapporteur, the delegate of Egypt noted that the number of states that had not ratified the Palermo Protocol was over 60. The delegate further noted that if the world community was not going to come together now, then the whole international effort was going to be a "big fat failure." MIGRANTS -------------- ¶10. Jorge Bustamante, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said on October 26 that over the course of his mandate he had visited Mexico, Guatemala, Romania and the United Kingdom. He commented that during the period between January 2008 and June 2009, he had received communications regarding allegations of arbitrary detention, repatriation to countries of origin where there was threat of torture, threats to life and security, and summary executions. He said most countries had two major protection gaps: 1) lack of specific provisions on children in most migration laws; and 2) the need to take into account the specific conditions and needs of migrant children in public polices in general. He found this year had been particularly alarming with regard to migrant rights, with outbreaks of hostility and xenophobia against the backdrop of the economic slowdown. The full report is at: www.un.org. EDUCATION -------------- ¶11. The Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Vernor Munoz Villalobos, stressed on October 27 that preventing a person from learning was paramount to denying them life. He said the educational systems that were structured purely by a "utilitarian paradigm" could strengthen prejudice and marginalization. He added that states needed to interpret the concept of education broadly and promote a lifestyle of learning, which was the only way to lead to respect and understanding between people. The full report is at: www.un.org. Rice