{"id":5850,"date":"2016-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/no-action-motion\/"},"modified":"2021-03-30T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T16:02:08","slug":"no-action-motion","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/no-action-motion\/","title":"No-action motion","content":"

In the meeting of the UN General Assembly that took place on November 15, a \u201cno-action motion\u201d was presented by Belarus. It is a mechanism that can be used by any Member State to prevent an item on the agenda from being submitted to the vote. Concerned about the damage that initiatives such as this can have on discussions, civil society organizations wrote a letter addressed to all the representatives of Member States of the United Nations asking for the motion \u2013 which ended up being rejected \u2013 to not be accepted.<\/p>\n

The organizations believe that the use of the no-action motion could signal to individuals around the world that the UN is not a place where freedom of expression is respected or where debate is encouraged. They argue that mechanisms like this should not be used to censor important and legitimate discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen debate and dialogue is at the heart of this process. Respecting and supporting the right to freedom of expression is essential for the General Assembly to fulfil its mandate,\u201d said Conectas and the other signatories of the letter.<\/p>\n

In addition to Conectas, the document was signed by another 15 organizations, including Civicus, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.<\/p>\n