UN Daily News For 12 December, 2008

UN Daily News For 12 December, 2008From The UnitedNations News ServiceBAN Rosetta Stone software URGES UN RIGHTS COUNCIL TORISE ABOVEPARTISAN POSTURING AND REVIEW ALLSTATESThe United Nations Human Rights Council marked the60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of HumanRights in a special session today, with Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon calling on it to rise above partisanposturing and regional divides and review the record ofevery State. We have come a long way since theDeclarations adoption. But the reality is that we havenot lived up to its vision at least not yet, Mr. Bantold the Council in Geneva. Abject poverty, shamefuldiscrimination and horrific violence continue to plaguemillions of people. As we mark this milestone, we must alsoacknowledge the savage inhumanity that too many people inour world must endure. There is no time to rest. ThisCouncil can have a tremendous impact. But you, its members,must rise above partisan posturing and regional divides. Oneway to do this is with continued vigilance in carrying outthe Universal Periodic Review, which assesses the humanrights records of all States. The Council must address humanrights abuses wherever they occur. With childrenreading out articles of the Declaration in their nationallanguages, Council President Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi said60 years on, the text continued to be a living and relevantdocument for all, carrying its fundamental message to peopleeverywhere in the world.Noting that the Declaration wasborn following the utter devastation of the Second WorldWar, Mr. Ban stressed that the General Assembly was stilladding to the human rights edifice with such texts as therecently adopted Optional Protocol to the InternationalCovenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the treatyagainst enforced disappearances and the covenant enshriningthe rights of the disabled. The world did not adoptsuch animpressive list of human rights instruments just toput them on a shelf somewhere at the United Nations, hesaid. These should be living documents that can bewielded by experts who scrutinize country reports or assessindividual complaints. UN High Commissioner for HumanRights Navi Pillay also stressed that the Declaration gaveimpulse to a wide and growing legal architecture as well asadvocacy vehicles. Today, the principles it embodied hadfound an echo in the constitutions and laws of more than 90countries, and dedicated international, regional andnational mechanisms, including her Office and the Council,she said.Mr. Ban praised the role of non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) and the media in helping to upholdhuman rights. Courageous journalists have risked and losttheir lives to report on threats against others. Thisanniversary is a milestone for them, too a day on whichto stress again the need for media to be free to do theirjob, and free of harassment, intimidation and worse, headded.Speaking to the press later, Mr. Ban said that itis necessary and desirable that the United States takes partas a member of the Human Rights Council. I would expectand hope that the next Administration will seriously andpositively consider my call on this matter. He alsonoted his recent conversations with President-elect BarackObama and other US officials, saying that he expects the newAdministration to be much more actively engaged with the UNon climate change, the anti-poverty targets with a 2015deadline known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),and other issues on the world bodys agenda.In Rosetta Stone Spain Spanish hismessage to the commemorative meeting, UN InternationalLabour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia saidthe Declaration placed respect for human rights andfundamental freedoms squarely in the context of the fightagainst poverty and the promotion of social progress.Butits goals and aspirations still remained distant andunrealized for millions of working women and men worldwide,he stressed. The current economic turmoil required all themore a focus on ensuring respect for human rights.Inanother message to the session, the Commissioner-General ofthe UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in theNear East (UNRWA) said fatality figures for the occupiedPalestinian territory had surely to make the world questionits commitment to upholding the right to life, the mostfundamental of all rights. More than 500 Palestinians hadbeen killed this year as a result of the conflict and 11Israelis had lost their lives this year, she noted.Theright to freedom of movement enshrined in the UniversalDeclaration also remained a distant hope for manyPalestinians. With an estimated 10,000 Palestinians inIsraeli prisons, the declaration that everyone had the rightto liberty and security of person and that no one should besubjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment had a sadresonance today, she added.In Gaza, more than half of thepopulation now lived below the deep poverty line. This was ahumanitarian crisis, but one that was deliberately imposedby political actors. Overarching all these rights was theright of self-determination, a right of which Palestinianshad been deprived through 60 years of exile anddispossessions, she declared. The chasm between word anddeed was a matter of puzzlement to manyPalestinians. But this can be reversed and protectionis the place to start, she said. Let us make theprotection of Palestinian rights the byword of all ourinterventions. Let us make the vision of the signatories ofthe Universal Declaration a reality, continued failure to doso is to our universal shame. In New York renownedpianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, a UN Messenger ofPeace who will perform in a commemorative concert in theGeneral Assembly on Monday with the West-Eastern DivanOrchestra composed of Arab and Israeli youth, told a newsconference that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could onlybe solved when each side accepted the rights of theother. And our very modest project of the West-EasternDivan is precisely that. It is not Rosetta Stone English a political project, itis a human project that brings together people that alreadyhave something in common, he said, noting that theperformers would be Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli andSyrian.