ISLAMABAD: Christine Chung, Human Rights Officer at the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights in Geneva, gave a briefing on the Universal Periodic Review at the UN Information Centre (UNIC).
Talking to lawmakers, media, civil society representatives and university students, Chung said the Universal Periodic Review is a unique inter-governmental mechanism of the Human Rights Council aimed at improving the human rights situation in the 193 United Nations member states. Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of all member states is reviewed every 4.5 years. Pakistan is among the 42 members which are being reviewed in 2017 during three working group sessions.
Explaining the process, she said that as part of the 3rd cycle of the review, Pakistan has submitted its report that will be part of the review on November 13.
Pakistan went through the review in 2008 and 2012.
Chung also shared very useful information on how civil society and lay people can contribute to the reviews of the review and other treaty bodies and also to the implementation of the related recommendations.
Following the briefing, the participants interacted with Chung about the human rights issues, state’s responsibilities and obligations that need to be fulfilled to ensure effective protection of human rights.
She said, “I want to emphasize that these different sets of recommendations are complementary, and implementing them, or making the changes that they call for means there is a lot of hard work ahead. Universal Periodic Review doesn’t end with this interactive dialogue in Geneva.”
National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights Chairman Babar Nawaz Khan said, “Universal Periodic Review is an excellent opportunity for Pakistan to review and improve human rights situation with the help of the international community.”
UN Information Centre Director Vittorio Cammarota said, “Access and right to information is a fundamental human right. The briefing provided an exceptional opportunity to the Pakistani people to have a direct interaction with an expert from the office of the high commissioner for human rights and to learn about the core international human rights treaties and as how the government, civil society and other stakeholders can contribute to improving the human rights standards.”
Tahira Abdullah, a development worker and human rights defender, observed, “Civil society organisations and human rights defenders are playing a proactive and vibrant role in the promotion of human rights, for instance through submitting shadow/alternate reports on the Universal Periodic Review and human rights conventions, to which Pakistan is a State Party.”
Muhammad Junaid Naseem, a student from the International Islamic University Islamabad, said, “It was great to learn as how the human rights issues are discussed and reviewed at the global level. It was also encouraging to know that, we as the civil society members also can play a participatory role in the consultation process.”
Published in Daily Times, September 21st 2017.