The United Nations Human Rights Council is created in March, 2006 and is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which was often criticized for the high-profile positions it gave to member states that did not guarantee the human rights of their own citizens. The Council is considered an international body within the United Nations System and its purpose is to address human rights violations.
The Council assumes all the mechanisms, mandates, functions and responsibilities of the Commission for Human Rights. At the same time, it is tasked with the review, rationalization and improvement of these. This makes up the bulk of the Council’s work in its first year.
Special procedures" is the name given to the mechanisms established by the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights and continued by the Human Rights Council to monitor human rights violations in specific countries or examine global human rights issues. Special procedures can be either individuals who are leading experts in a particular area of human rights, or working groups usually composed of five members. In order to preserve their independence they do not receive pay for their work.
More at:
www.un.org/rights
TOPIC A: Human rights situation in post-war Libya
20th October 2011: Muammar Gaddafi has been killed. This day has ended years of “dictatorship” and has freed the Libyan people from a governance that seemed to have no end. After an intense Arab Spring, and after months of civil war on the Libyan streets, it is now time for restoration.
The situation may seem positive to some, but the human rights violations that are taking place in the country are not to be ignored. The reconstruction of sanitary facilities, the disposal of corpses, the spread of possible diseases and the migration problem are just few examples where the fulfilment of human rights standards is affected. These issues will soon need to be tackled.
It is duty of the Human Rights Council of the MUNUSAL 2012 Conference to address the human rights situation in post-war Libya in all its aspects and finalize recommendations for the promotion and protection of human rights.
TOPIC B: Protection of journalist in armed conflicts
At the UNHRC panel discussion on the protection of journalists in armed conflict in June 2010, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang stated the following: "War reporting is inherently dangerous. Indeed, it could arguably be one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Still, out of a sense of professional duty, many journalists and media professionals make the courageous choice to go to conflict zones, so as to tell the world about the stories of armed conflicts and the human cost they entail. Amidst the so-called fog of war, they play a vital role in keeping the world informed and ensuring that our responses are based on the facts and truths unfolding on the ground."
Over the last decade, the jeopardy for journalists has evolved. Where the biggest risk used to be becoming an accidental casualty in a dangerous environment, journalists are nowadays being directly and deliberately targeted. Murder, abduction, hostage taking and arbitrary detention are just examples of the means that are used to prevent information from being uncovered and revealed.
Journalists are protected both by human rights, within the scope of freedom of opinion and expression, and by international humanitarian law. Because journalists are to be considered civilians during an armed conflict, attacks against them in this context constitute war crimes. However, these mechanisms have proven themselves insufficient. They are not being properly acknowledged, respected or implemented, so the violence against journalists continues. Those responsible are hardly brought to justice. It is clear that new debate on the protection of journalists in armed conflicts is needed, so that the choice of being society’s messenger should no longer equate with choosing martyrdom.
COUNTRIES
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Angola
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Argentina
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Belgium
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Cameroon
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Chile
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China
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Congo
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Cuba
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France
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Hungary
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India
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Indonesia
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Italy
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Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (OBS)
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Mexico
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Nigeria
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Norway
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Philippines
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Qatar
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Romania
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Russian Federation
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Senegal
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Spain
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Switzerland
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Turkey
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Uganda
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United States of America
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Amnesty International
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