Civil society requests remote participation at UN’s in-person sessions
Human Rights Council decides to resume meeting normally at headquarters in Geneva
The decision of the UN Human Rights Council to hold its upcoming session of hearings in-person at its headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland) has been questioned by civil society organizations from around the world. Despite the support from civil society for the resumption of the hearings, nearly 20 organizations said in a virtual meeting this Wednesday, May 27, that the decision to return to in-person meetings cannot prevent NGOs, movements and associations from countries still deeply affected by the coronavirus pandemic from being present at the events.
Among the participating organizations were the U.S. NGO Human Rights Watch, CELS (Center for Legal and Social Studies) of Argentina, CIVICUS of South Africa and the Brazilian organizations Conectas and CIMI (Indigenous Missionary Council). “This crisis cannot be used as a way to limit civil society participation and measures taken to ensure the continuity of the Council’s sessions must not restrict nor be a set back to the work carried out by those who support victims of human rights violations,” they said in a letter submitted to the Council.
The measures suggested by the organizations to avoid a lack of representativeness at the events include enabling remote participation in all the debates and panels, an adequate balance of oral statements between in-person and online participants, and simultaneous interpretation into all the official languages of the United Nations.
