UN Watch Statement to UN Human Rights Council
Item 10: Technical assistance and capacity-building
Thank you, Mr. President.
UN Watch welcomes today’s report by the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the field of human rights.
Annex 1 lists the 19 countries where human rights advisers have been deployed. One cannot help but notice that these are all located in the South, and in the East. Not a single country from WEOG, the Western group, is included. Yet some stand in clear need of human rights advice and capacity building.
[…]
Another potential beneficiary of human rights advice is Italy. Two weeks ago in Rome, on May 29, more than 50 armed police raided a house in search of a dissident from a foreign country. They did not find him, but they did find his wife and 6-year-old daughter. Both mother and child were swiftly deported to the foreign country, accompanied by its officials, even though that government is known to practice torture against opponents.
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino has reportedly called this incident irregular. Surely, advice on international human rights law is needed.
The names of the unjustly deported were Alma Shalabayeva, and her daughter Aula; and the country they have dangerously been sent back to is Kazakhstan. Although recently elected a member of this UN Human Rights Council, it too appears in need of human rights advice.
Thank you, Mr. President.
