EIDHR - Training on Monitoring International Mechanisms

July 2010

Module 1 Treaties and international mechanisms: history, and

framework

Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks)

http://www.piplinks.org

Plan of presentation

1. Explanation of key words & concepts (in human rights language)

2. 6 major treaties, history & structure of UN human rights mechanisms

3. History of indigenous participation in UN, with a focus on mechanisms for indigenous rights

1a. Keywords and concepts

• Human rights - The rights people are entitled to simply for being human, irrespective of their citizenship, nationality, race, ethnicity, language, sex, sexuality or abilities. Human rights become enforceable as they become codified as conventions, covenants or treaties, or as they become recognized as customary international law

• Declaration - Document that represents agreed upon standards, but which is not legally binding, the UN General Assembly often issues influential but legally non-binding declarations

• Convention – Binding agreement between states (countries) which is used synonymously with Treaty and Covenant. Conventions are stronger than Declarations in that they are legally binding for signatory states and governments can be held for violating them

1b. Keywords and concepts

• Ratification - Process by which a state legislature confirms a government's action in signing a treaty; formal procedure by which a state becomes bound to a treaty

• Procedure - In terms of Human Rights Mechanism procedures are the various ways in which human rights claims (complaints) can be made

• Remedy - In legal terms, the means by which a right is enforced or the violation of a right is prevented, redressed or compensated

2a. UN Human Rights System

• History of UN

• The United Nations system for the promotion and protection of human rights consists of two main types of

body:-

1. Charter Bodies – These bodies are created under the UN Charter (the foundation document of the UN)

2. Treaty Bodies – These bodies are created under the international human rights treaties, in order to monitor implementation of those treaties

2b. Charter Bodies - HRC

• The key Charter Body is the Human Rights Council (HRC), which is the principle UN intergovernmental body responsible for human rights

• The HRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and was established by the General Assembly in March 2006 (as part of a thorough reform of human rights work in the UN). The CHR was subsidiary to ECOSOC, but the HRC is subsidiary to the General Assembly

• It is an intergovernmental body of 47 members states based in Geneva. It meets for at least 10 weeks a year, spread over no fewer than 3 sessions (main in March)

2c. Charter Bodies - HRC

• The secretariat for the HRC is the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR). Their staff offer the main support for human-rights based issues in the UN

• It is responsible for new mechanisms (the Universal Periodic Review, and Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and it inherited other special procedures (such as Special Procedures)

• In module 2 we will look in more detail at the relevant mechanisms

2d. Human Rights Council – mechanisms

Human Rights Council HRC

Advisory Committee

Special/Complaint Procedures

WorkingGroups

Social Forum & Forum on

Minority Rights

Expert Mechanism

(EMRIP)Mechanisms

related to Durban Declaration

UniversalPeriodicReview

2e. Treaty Bodies

• There are nine human rights treaty bodies that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties:

1. Human Rights Committee (CCPR) 2. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) 3. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) 4. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

(CEDAW) 5. Committee Against Torture (CAT) (also a sub-committee on

Prevention of Torture)6. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 7. Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)8. Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD)9. (NB – There will be a Committee on Enforced Disappearances soon)

2f. Treaty Bodies

• The treaty bodies are the independent experts that monitor the implementation of UN human rights treaties by states

• They do this by reviewing reports submitted periodically by states. Most will consider complaints, and some will conduct inquiries. They will accept information from NGOs and other civil society actors

• Any treaty body is only relevant to the particular treaty (area of work) and if the country has ratified it (although NGOs can lobby for ratification)

3a. History of Indigenous UN participation

• Started with appeals to the League of Nations (the body before the United Nations)

• Moved forward after the Second World War, with creation of United Nations, and in the 1970s the growing of more vocal indigenous groups (especially in the USA)

• Led to the creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982

• This phase culminated in the signing of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 1997

3b. Appeals to League of Nations

• In 1923, Haudenosaunee Chief Deskaheh (from USA) travelled to Geneva to speak to the League of Nations

• He went to defend the right of his people to live under their own laws, on the own land and under their own faith

3c. Appeals to League of Nations

• Maori religious leader T.W. Ratana also went to Geneva in 1925 to protest the breaking of the Treaty of Waitangi concluded with the Maori in New Zealand in 1840 that gave Maori ownership of their land

• Ratana first travelled to London to petition King George, but he was denied access. He then travelled to Geneva, but was also denied access

3d. American Indian Movement

• American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed in 1968

• In 1973 Oglala Lakota asked for help with a corrupt and brutal despotic leadership on the Pine Ridge Reservation (related to the strip mining of the sacred Black Hills)

• There was an occupation of Wounded Knee in February 1973, which lasted 71 days

3e. American Indian Movement

• The occupation was brutally broken up, and reprisals followed

• AIM concluded there was no route within US justice system to gain recognition of their rights.

• They expanded their focus to the UN. CERD and later treaty studies gave them support

Russell Means

3f. Entry points to UN (1)

• 1977 - NGO conference in Geneva “Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere”

• 1981 - NGO conference in Geneva on “Indigenous Peoples and Land”

• 1982 - Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) formed under Sub Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities

• 1985 - UNWGIP embarks on the elaboration of a Declaration and completes this work in 1993

• 1993 - UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights adopts the Draft Declaration

3f. Entry points to UN (2)

• 1995 – Working Group on the Draft Declaration (WGDD) under the Commission on Human Rights begin negotiations

• 2005 - Completion of the work of WGDD

• 2006 - Human Rights Council adopts the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as presented by the WGDD Chairman

• 2007 – In September UN General Assembly finally passes UN Declaration

3g. Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP)

• As noted WGIP ran from 1982 to 2006• UN Permanent Forum formed 2002 includes reports on

Human Rights among others• The UNEMRIP(2008) (Expert Mechanism) has taken over

some of the functions of WGIP • UNWGIP loss because an open mechanism for intervention

and it produced numerous positive items:-• Series of important papers• Study on treaties• Study on permanent sovereignty over resources• Studies on FPIC

3h. Subanon leaders attending the WGIP

End thought

• “The only limit to the oppression of government is the power with which the people show themselves capable of opposing it.”

- Errico Malatesta, 1930