Call for Nominations - UN Human Rights Experts - Mandate Holders

Urgent Call to Nominate Candidates as United Nations Human Rights Experts

In March 2008 the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to appoint up to 16 human rights experts to serve as Special Procedure mandate-holders. The Special Procedures in question deal with issues such as the right to adequate housing, the right to food, human rights defenders, indigenous people, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, contemporary forms of slavery, extreme poverty and the human rights situations in Myanmar and Somalia.

The appointment of independent, impartial, competent and expert men and women from all regions of the world to the Special Procedures mandates is crucial to a well-functioning system of Special Procedures and to the ability of the Human Rights Council to protect and promote human rights.

The basis of the new appointment process is a public roster of eligible candidates, maintained by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR.) A Consultative Group has begun to review the candidates on the roster. By 2 February 2008, it is expected to make recommendations on suitable candidates for 16 mandates. Based on these recommendations and broad consultations, the President of the Council will then proceed with the appointments, with final approval by the Human Rights Council expected during the 7th regular session in March 2008. Additional appointments – to other Special Procedures mandates - will be made at the 8th and 9th regular sessions of the Human Rights Council in June and September 2008.

Although the establishment of the Special Procedures roster has the potential to expand the pool of persons qualified to hold Special Procedures’ mandates, as of 10 January only 51 candidates were included in the public roster. Of these, only 15 are women.

For the most competent candidates to be appointed it is crucial that the Special Procedures roster, which will constitute the primary pool of eligible candidates, is extensive and broadly representative with many potential candidates from all regions and both sexes.

Amnesty International, therefore, renews its call on Governments, NGOs and relevant professional associations to send names of eligible candidates to the OHCHR for inclusion in the roster. Particular urgent attention should be dedicated to nominating candidates for the 16 vacancies that require appointment in March....

Special Procedures - Nomination, Selection and
Appointment of Mandate Holders

General criteria

According to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, Annex, the following general criteria will be of paramount importance while nominating, selecting and appointing mandate-holders:

(a) expertise;
(b) experience in the field of the mandate;
(c) independence;
(d) impartiality;
(e) personal integrity;
and
(f) objectivity.

Due consideration should be given to gender balance and equitable geographic representation, as well as to an appropriate representation of different legal systems. Eligible candidates are highly qualified individuals who possess established competence, relevant expertise and extensive professional experience in the field of human rights (paras. 39-41).

Public list of candidates

Further to Council decision 6/102 the Secretariat has prepared a standardized form, on the basis of the technical and objective requirements stipulated in the decision, for candidates to fill in, so as to facilitate the selection of relevant candidacies from the public list as soon as appointments for particular mandates are necessary.

Form (English)	Form (French)	Form (Spanish)
Form (Arabic)	Form (Chinese)	Form (Russian)

As called for in Council resolution 5/1, Annex, the Secretariat will maintain a public list which shall be regularly updated. The public list of candidates is now available on the Human Rights Council Extranet.

Those entities which may nominate candidates as special procedures mandate-holders according to Council resolution 5/1, Annex, are:

(a) Governments;
(b) Regional Groups operating within the United Nations human rights system;
(c) international organizations or their offices (e.g. the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights);
(d) non-governmental organizations;
(e) other human rights bodies;
(f) individual nominations (para. 42).

Candidatures to special procedures mandates may reach the Secretariat at the following address: hrcspecialprocedures@ohchr.org or HRC Secretariat, c/o Orest Nowosad (Mailing address: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Room 4-093, Palais des Nations, 8-14 avenue de la Paix, CH-1211, Geneva 10; Tel: +41 (0)22 917 9223; Fax: +41 (0)22 917 9011).

List of vacancies

The Special Procedures mandate holders list of vacancies will be continuously updated.

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Special Procedures - Nomination, Selection and Appointment of Mandate Holders

Special Procedures - Nomination, Selection and
Appointment of Mandate Holders