UN Human Rights Council Website, 27 Sept 2011 – The Human Rights Council this morning held its general debate on the implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
During the general debate speakers indicated that the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in 1993, constituted a milestone in many respects. It reaffirmed the importance of fighting impunity in expressing its concern about the issue and in calling on States to abrogate legislation leading to impunity for those responsible for grave violations such as torture and to prosecute such violations, thereby providing a firm basis for the rule of law.
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirmed the universality of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Some speakers expressed concerns about countries that had not persecuted perpetrators and failed to hold them accountable and said they had therefore fully supported the recent action of this Council to appoint Special Procedures and dispatch Commissions of Inquiry when Governments were unwilling to investigate human rights violations. Concern was also raised about persistent cases of persecution of human rights defenders and speakers condemned all acts of intimidation and violence against them. Democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms were interdependent and mutually reinforcing.
GIANFRANCO FATTORINI, of Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples, in a joint statement with Women’s Human Rights International Association, International Educational Development and France Libertés – Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, said that the World Conference in 1993 reiterated people’s rights to self-determination and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development. This was a core right enshrined in the Charter and the human rights covenants, and was not subject to restrictions by governments or occupying powers. The popular uprisings witnessed this year brought to the forefront people’s rights to self-determination and to enjoy democracy within their own boundaries. They welcomed the decision by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to consider the demands for asylum put forward by the inhabitants of Camp Ashraf in Iraq; and appealed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send a mission to Ashraf to investigate the massacres that took place in July 2009 and April 2011.
