Commonwealth Secretariat Human Rights Update

Human Rights Update May/June 2007

www.thecommonwealth.org/humanrights

This Update, previously a hard copy publication, is intended to feature news of some of the projects, advice and activities carried out and offered by the Human Rights Unit in fulfillment of its mandate to assist member governments to promote and protect human rights. It is also intended to continue to provide some of the information service previously provided by the Commonwealth Human Rights e-Newsletter produced for Commonwealth National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) by the British Council, following the end of that important project in December 2006. The Update will continue to disseminate information of interest to Commonwealth NHRIs and to support networking between them. It will continue to comprise news of projects, publications and important training and other events in the field of human rights, collated from NHRIs and other sources in the Commonwealth. HRU welcomes information and contributions from NHRIs and others that might be of interest to recipients of this newsletter.

UPDATE ON THE FORUM OF COMMONWEALTH NHRIs

The Steering Committee established by the Commonwealth Conference of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) met in London on 21 & 22 May to carry this initiative forward and determine the structure, membership and mandate of the Commonwealth Forum of NHRIs which the Conference agreed to establish at its meeting in February 2007. The Steering Committee is composed of the Members of the bureau of the Conference representing the four regions of Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, as well as a senior representative of the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Steering Committee agreed a way forward on the Forum, in relation to principles, objectives, structure, membership issues, etc. It also agreed to work in close concert with the Ugandan HRC to organize the first meeting of the Forum on the sidelines of the Kampala Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

The formal outcome of the Steering Committee meeting is to be found on the HRU website (click Here)

FORTHCOMING EVENTS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS UNIT

Commonwealth Colloquium on Gender, Culture and the Law
The Gender Section, Justice Section and the Human Rights Unit will be working jointly with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in Bangladesh to convene the Commonwealth Asia Colloquium on Gender, Culture and the Law in August 2007. This colloquium would be second in the series being convened across the Commonwealth. For more details of the initiative contact the Gender Section, Commonwealth Secretariat.

UPDATE ON RECENT ACTIVITIES OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS UNIT


Expert Group on developing the Commonwealth Model National Action Plan on Human Rights, London 21 & 22 June
	The HRU convened a group of experts from around the Commonwealth, and from government, academia, the UN OHCHR, a national human rights commission, and regional human rights bodies, in order to discuss the development of a model National Action Plan for Commonwealth countries. This is intended to provide a resource for countries, in particular small states, to develop their own coherent and comprehensive national plan to promote and protect human rights and to ensure maximum coordination of government, civil society, and donor efforts and advantages. MORE…

Commonwealth Workshop on Human Rights for Pakistani Police Trainers, Islamabad, 4-8 June 2007
	In cooperation with the National Police Bureau, Ministry of the Interior, Pakistan, HRU organised a 5 day workshop on human rights for police trainers from all provinces of Pakistan. The 30 senior training officers considered how best to integrate international human rights standards on policing into their existing training curricula. This was an extension of the police programme by HRU that has so far reached police trainers from nearly 30 Commonwealth countries. In August, the training will be extended to the Bangladesh Police. MORE…

Commonwealth Workshop for new Commissioners, Cameroon National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, Yaounde, 4-6 June
	A 3 day workshop was held bringing all 30 newly appointed Commissioners and senior staff of the Cameroon NCHRF together to share knowledge and experiences on how best to discharge their mandate of protecting and promoting human rights. The Commonwealth Secretariat assisted the government of Cameroon in reconstituting the NCHRF through review of the enabling legislation which was passed by Parliament two years ago. As well as NCHRF, human rights experts from the UN Regional Human Rights Office, Rights and Democracy of Canada and the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights participated. MORE…

GENERAL

The future publications of the e-newsletter Human Rights Update of the Human Rights Unit (HRU) of the Commonwealth Secretariat will include reports on activities of the HRU, conference and workshop announcements and reports, human rights developments on an international, regional and national basis (with a particular focus on the human rights developments of Commonwealth nations). In order to make the e-newsletter Update a useful and valuable information forum, we would strongly invite contributions from national and international human rights institutions, human rights NGOs, experts and readers. Ideally, contributions would be most welcomed in the form of short articles on human rights.

Please note that this is not an invitation for the submission of communications that deal with particular human rights situations.

Please send your comments and contributions to the HRU at:

Human Rights Unit,
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House Pall Mall,
London SW1Y 5HX

Fax +44(0)2077476418
Email:hru@commonwealth.int

The Commonwealth Secretariat continues to fund the Commonwealth Human Rights Law Digest which is published by INTERIGHTS. See: www.interights.org

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