The Minority Rights Declaration at 20

UN Minority Rights 2012

Every country has national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities within its borders. Persons belonging to minorities aspire to participate in the public, social, economic, cultural and religious life of the societies in which they live, on an equal footing with the rest of the population.

Twenty years ago, UN Member States adopted unanimously the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, an acknowledgment that a gap existed in minority rights protection. This gap persists today.

The Minority Rights Declaration established that States have an obligation to acknowledge and promote the rights of members of minority groups to enjoy their own cultures and identities, to profess and practice their own religions and use their own languages.

The Declaration ushered in a new era for minority rights. It sets essential standards for protection and offers guidance to States as they seek to realize the human rights of minorities.

HRBA Portal - UN Practitioner's Portal on HRBA Programming

Dear all, today I came into across to the HRBA Portal which is a portal for practitioners that pools together both knowledge and experience, making accessible to UN practitioners a variety of tailored Human Rights Based Approach resources.

The portal will focus on providing strategic and practical tools on integrating HRBA into programming and is designed to complement existing resources on broader human rights issues. It offers access to:

§ Database of Resources: virtual access to reports, handbooks, guides and case-studies on mainstreaming HRBA into development programming, searchable by topic area, region or programming cycle;

§ HuriTALK Corner: experiences, lessons learned and examples of good practice shared by UN members through the Human Rights Policy Network. Search consolidated replies and e-discussions by topic area, or browse the insights series.

§ Learning Materials: training and learning materials on integrating HRBA into development programming including the UN Common Learning Package on HRBA.

If you want to learn more about this website and its on-line resources and possibilities, please, click upon the following link:

http://hrbaportal.org/

Best regard and good readings!

HROW

60 years of the European Convention - New website

The Council of Europe has launched a new website dedicated to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The website offers not only regularly updated content but also a very good synthesis of the most important Landmark Judgements delivered by the Court since its creation in 1959.

This very useful tool will remain available and operational, in French and in English, after the end of 2010 - the anniversary year.

For more information click in the following link:

ECHR Anniversary site

HROW

New OHCHR's report on DRC human rights violations

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has published the "DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003" Report which contains the descriptions of 617 alleged violent incidents occcurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between March 1993 and June 2003.

In the own words of the UNHCHR, Ms. Pillay, "[t]his report is the result of interviews with several hundred interlocutors, both Congolese and foreign, who witnessed atrocities in the country: it substantiates their accounts and reflects their aspiration for justice", adding that the report "is intended as a first step towards the sometimes painful but nonetheless essential process of truth-telling after violent conflict."

If you want to know more about it, you will find the entire report at the following link:

DRC: Mapping human rights violations 1993-2003"

HROW

International Day of Peace - new website

On the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Peace, the World Association of School as an Instrument of Peace announced the launching of it's new website.

Click here to go to the website

This user friendly website features :
- A important ducumentary fund
- An constantly up-to-date reseach engine
- A complete access to our strip cartoons collection
- Access to « what's new » in real time throught an RSS reader
- An attractive surfing
- Well fitted illustrations
- A better designed website

This web site is intended to produce and diffuse learning materials with the scope of promoting increasing knowledge of and defending human rights in the fields of formal and non-formal education. I am sure that all of you will find interesting tools for your daily and committed work.

If you want to know more about what the International Day of Peace is I would like to recommend you to visit the web site http://internationaldayofpeace.org/

HROW

Image: "Le visage de la paix (1950)" Pablo PICASSO.

The ECtHR's key case-law issues

For all of those of you that are dealing with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), I recommend you to visit the web site of the Court and review the very useful Key case-law issues prepared by the secretariat with the aim to provide information to persons intending to make an application to the Court.

I hope you will find it very profitable. You will find the web side at the following link:

Key case-law issues

HROW

UNDP Latin-America & Caribbean Countries 2010 Report

United Nations Developing Programme has launched its new 2010 Regional Report concerning Latin-American and Caribbean Countries.

This report mainly focus on the intergenerational transmission of inequality among Latin-American and Caribbean societies, emphasizing the fact that this region is the most unequal region in the world in term of the distribution of the incomes, and offering recommendation in order to break down those mechanisms that perpetuate and reinforce the reproduction of inequalities among the members of the society.

If you want to read more about this topic, or download the report, please click at the following link:

Informe Regional sobre desarrrollo Humano para América Latina y el Caribe 2010: Actuar sobre el futuro: romper la transmisiçon intergeneracional de la desigualdad.

Good readings!

HROW.

United Nations Rule of Law Website

United Nations Rule of Law Unit launched a new web site entire dedicated to this key aspect national and international law and governance. In fact Rule of Law is one of the truly pillars of the United Nations, together with Democracy, Human Rights and Security.

A key aspect of this new website is its accessibility and utility for all practitioners around the world. Until now it has been difficult for them to have access to UN best practices, lessons learned and the various tools developed by the UN on rule of law, elements that now are available in this new website. In addition, practitioners will find extensive list of and links to partner organizations in order to build a strong global rule of community.

If you want to visit this new website, just click on the title above. Good reading!