IIMA Side event on July 4th, 2012 (20th HRC session):”Haiti: two years after the earthquake”

On 4^th July 2012, the Istituto Internazionale Maria Ausiliatrice (IIMA) organized a side event at Palais des Nations, Geneva, with the support of VIDES International. The event was co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Haïti, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Holy See and the NGOs Platform on the Right to Education. The event focused on the current situation in Haïti, with special regards to education, and on results of the humanitarian intervention in the country after two years from the earthquake. The panel consisted of representatives of governments, UN and civil society and as such, the issue was addressed from multiple perspectives. IIMA and VIDES International, represented by Sr Dieudonne Jean Louis (IIMA) and Beltsie Abelard (VIDES), both from Haïti, presented and recommended best practices.

The Rights of Journalists

On the 21st of June, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, presented reports to the Human Rights Council focused upon protecting the rights of journalists.  Both emphasised the unacceptable worldwide level of violence against both professional and unprofessional journalists. They asserted that it was local journalists who were most vulnerable.

Poverty, Transnational corporations and national debt

On the 21^st of June, the Human Rights Council held an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and a clustered interactive dialogue with both the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises and the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights.

Discussion on the Special procedure mandate in the field of cultural rights

On the 20^th of June 2012 the NGO Platform on diversity and cultural rights hosted an event on the subject of cultural rights.

The main speaker of the side event was the Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights, Ms Farida Shaheed.

Rio +20 Conference: “The future we want”

On the 22nd of June the UN conference on sustainable development, Rio +20, came to a close.

191 national delegations produced a final document entitled: “The future we want”. The document contains 283 articles which detail the commitments of the international community to global sustainable development. The document focuses in particular on green economy, which was described as: “one of the important tools available for achieving sustainable development which could provide options for policy making”.