CHRI joins 10 partner NGOs to deliver an oral statement under Item 10 General Debate at HRC43
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The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) joined 10 partner NGOs in delivering an oral statement under Item 10 (Technical Assistance and Capacity-Building) - General Debate at the recently resumed 43rd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The statement, delivered by Mr. Nicolas Agostini from DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders' Project), underlined that scrutiny, dialogue and cooperation are integral parts of Item 10. It reiterated that 'cooperation' includes understanding the complementary role of other stakeholders, such as civil society organisations and human rights defenders and underlined the importance of their participation and engagement with the Council without any hindrance or fear of reprisal.
It also raised concerns about the draft resolution on 'promoting mutually beneficial cooperation on the field of human rights' tabled for consideration by China as it pushes forward a singular vision of the direction of the human rights pillar at the cost of consensus built by States over decades and overlooks the reality that serious violations of rights may often be political in nature.
It urged China to reconsider the draft resolution in the light of the concerns raised during the informal negotiations and called on the Council Members to reject it as it seeks to undermine its balanced mandate.