WUNRN
Amnesty International
24 March 2009
UN Special Procedures June 2009 Appointments: Help the UN Find Five Independent Experts It Needs
Includes Vacancy of UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
The Deadline for the Submission of
Nominations is 8 April 2009.
In June 2009, the President
of the United Nations Human Rights Council is to appoint five independent human
rights experts to serve as Special Procedures mandate-holders.
The vacancies are for the
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; the
Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; the Western
member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Asian member of the
Working Group on enforced and or involuntary disappearances; and the Western
member of the Working Group on peoples of African Descent.
Amnesty International calls
on Governments, NGOs and others, including relevant professional networks, to
send names of eligible candidates to the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights for consideration for the above-mentioned positions. Governments
should call publicly for candidates, e.g. through newspaper advertisement, and
consult civil society nationally before nominating candidates.
The deadline for the
submission of nominations is set at 8 April 2009. The website of the Office of
High Commissioner for Human Rights offers more information on this process,
including on where and how to send nominations ( visit:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/nominations.htm ). More appointments
are expected to be made at future sessions of the Council.
In line with the provisions
of Chapter II A of the Annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 of 18 June
2007, Amnesty International also reiterates the following recommendations in
the selection of the mandate-holders:
- Member and observer
states of the Council promote the vacancies for Special Procedures mandate-holders
and the nomination of women and men of the highest standards of expertise,
relevant experience, independence, impartiality, personal integrity, and
objectivity;
- The Consultative Group
consult with stakeholders, and in particular the current or outgoing
mandate-holders, to determine the necessary expertise, experience, skills,
and other relevant requirements for each mandate to be filled; the
Consultative Group should determine such requirements before proceeding to
review the list of experts on the public list to make suggestions to the
President;
- The Consultative Group
ensure that it recommends to the President a list of candidates for each
vacancy;
- The Consultative
Group’s public report to the President contain specific information on its
meetings, the consultations held, and the process followed by the Group to
recommend candidates for each vacancy, including the particular
requirements used as a basis to select candidates;
- The Consultative
Group’s public report substantiate its recommendations to the President,
in particular by describing how the candidates it proposes meet the
general criteria for mandate-holders (expertise, experience, independence,
impartiality, personal integrity and objectivity) and the specific
criteria for each mandate to be filled;
- The Consultative Group
ensure that it proposes a list of candidates that includes men and women
sufficiently representative of diverse geographic origin and legal
backgrounds to ensure that the President can give due consideration to
overall gender balance, equitable geographic representation and
appropriate representation of different legal systems across all existing Special
Procedures mandates.
In keeping with
long-established policy, Amnesty International does not take a position in
favour or against any candidate. Consequently, the organization will not put
forward names for special procedures appointments
Background
The new appointment
process, established in the annex to resolution 5/1 of 18 June 2007 has several
stages. The basis of the appointment process is a public list of eligible
candidates, reflecting technical and objective requirements, to be prepared,
administered and regularly updated by the OHCHR.
Resolution 5/1 sets out
general criteria for nominating, selecting and appointing mandate-holders. It
calls for eligible candidates for appointment as Special Procedures to have
demonstrated expertise, relevant experience, independence, impartiality,
personal integrity and objectivity. These criteria are to be reflected in the
“technical and objective requirements for eligible candidates” to have their
name placed on the roster and in the determination of specific requirements for
individual mandates by the Consultative Group. The first set of requirements
were adopted by the Council at its sixth session in September 2007 in decision
6/102, part C, “Technical and objective requirements for eligible candidates
for mandate holders”. Amnesty International has developed a checklist
interpreting each requirement.
In determining the second
set of requirements, i.e. the necessary expertise, experience, skills, and
other relevant requirements for each mandate, resolution 5/1 calls on the
Consultative Group to take into account, as appropriate, the views of
stakeholders, including the current or outgoing mandate-holders. Resolution 5/1
also requires that all the Consultative Group’s recommendations to the
President be public and substantiated. On the basis of the recommendations of
the consultative group and following broad consultations, in particular through
the regional coordinators, the President of the Council is to identify an
appropriate candidate for each vacancy and to present to member States and
observers a list of candidates to be proposed at least two weeks prior to the
beginning of the session in which the Council will consider the appointments.
The appointment of the mandate-holders is completed upon the approval by the
Council of the President’s appointments. (See:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/141/13/PDF/G0714113.pdf?OpenElementat
pages 53-54, pars. 39-53.)
The Consultative Group
consists of Ambassadors Alejandro Artucio Rodríguez, Petko Draganov, Javier
Garrigues Flórez, Dayan Jayatilleka and Babacar Carlos Mbaye . Although they
are respectively the Geneva United Nations Ambassadors of Uruguay (GRULAC),
______________________________________________________________________
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/nominations.htm
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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; 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. 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; Candidatures to special
procedures mandates may reach the Secretariat at the following address: hrcspecialprocedures@ohchr.org
or HRC Secretariat, c/o Meena Ramkaun (Mailing address: Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Room PW 4-037, Palais des Nations,
8-14 avenue de la Paix, CH-1211, Geneva 10; Tel: +41 (0)22 917 9707; Fax:
+41(0)22 917 9011). The deadline for the submission of nominations is set at 8
April 2009. List of vacancies The Special Procedures
mandate holders lists of vacancies for March and June 2009
are now available. Consultative Group recommendations
to the President of the Human Rights Council The Consultative Group,
established in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, submits to
the President, ‘at least one month before the beginning of the session in which
the Council would consider the selection of mandate holders, a list of
candidates who possess the highest qualifications for the mandates in question
and meet the general criteria and particular requirements'. The list of
recommendations is available on the Human Rights Council Extranet. List of candidates for the
Special Procedures mandate holders On the basis of the
recommendations of the consultative group and following broad consultations, in
particular through the regional coordinators, the President of the Council will
identify an appropriate candidate for each vacancy and presents to member
States and observers a list of candidates. The appointment of the special
procedures mandate-holders will be completed upon the subsequent approval of
the Council. Appointments of new mandate holders are scheduled for March 2009,
during the tenth session of the Human Rights Council.
(b) experience in the field of the mandate;
(c) independence;
(d) impartiality;
(e) personal integrity;
and
(f) objectivity.
(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).
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