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Highlights from the Report

16. The Committee notes with concern that the traditional dispute resolution mechanisms which absorbs more cases of dispute that the formal judicial system, is not compatible with the human rights standards, including the Covenant rights. The Committee regrets the fact that the rights of women and children, as well as those of nomadic tribes and the poorest sectors of society, are particularly affected by the lack of access to formal justice mechanisms.

This is the first thematic report submitted to the Human Rights Council by Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, since her appointment in June 2009. In addition to providing an overview of the main activities carried out by the Special Rapporteur, the report focuses on the topic of reparations to women who have been subjected to violence in contexts of both peace and post-conflict. Most human rights and humanitarian law treaties provide for a right to a remedy. In the context of gross and systematic violations of human rights, the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by the General Assembly in 2005, start with the premise that “the State is responsible for ensuring that victims of human rights violations enjoy an individual right to reparation”. 

Policy advocacy and partnerships for children's rights
Legislative Reform Initiative

Harmonizing National Legislation with International Human Rights Instruments

While virtually every country in the world has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children's rights are frequently not realised. One important aspect of creating an environment within which children's rights will be realised is the creation of an appropriate legislative framework which enshrines their rights. While this is not sufficient to guarantee their rights, and implementation of the law remains a major challenge around the world, getting laws and the mechanisms and institutions for their implementation right is one of the most essential steps to realising children's rights.

Overview and abstracts from UNESCO's upoming publication: The Fourth Wave

Introduction

The HIV and AIDS pandemic is both fuelling and being fuelled by inequalities across gender, race, ethnicity, class and age. e patterns of impact vary across different settings and regions of the world and are also shaped by demographic crises, armed conflicts, natural disasters, environmental degradation, state incapacities, famine and poverty. e pandemic’s refractory impacts on women and girls – and humanity writ large – are nothing short of catastrophic. In the third decade of the HIV pandemic, women and particularly young women and girls have become a growing proportion of those affected and infected. Nearly half of the 40.3 million people living with HIV are women between the ages of 15-49.1 Gender disparities in HIV prevalence are more extreme among young women between the ages of 15-24, globally 1.6 times more likely to be living with HIV and AIDS than young men. And in sub-Saharan Africa overall, young women between 15 and 24 years old are at least three times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men.

Afghanistan is widely known and appreciated for its rich history, culture, literature and
arts as well as its magnificent landscape. It is also widely known that large numbers of
Afghans die, or live wretched lives, because violence is an everyday fact of life. Such
violence is not openly condoned but neither is it challenged nor condemned by society at
large or by state institutions. It is primarily human rights activists that make an issue of
violence including, in particular, its impact on, and ramifications for, women and girls in
Afghanistan. It is also left to a handful of stakeholders to challenge the way in which a
culture of impunity, and the cycle of violence it generates, undermines democratization,
the establishment of the rule of law and other efforts geared to building an environment
conducive to respect for human rights.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published a new, user-friendly handbook entitled “Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society.” The authoritative Handbook reviews United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms, describing how they work and examining the many ways that civil society actors, including NGOs, can contribute to their work.

The United Nations Secretary General launched a database on violence against women on 5 March 2009. The database is the product of a 2006 General Assembly resolution 61/143 calling for more efforts to eliminate violence against women, urging “States to ensure the systematic collection and analysis of data on violence against women”.

The present report, submitted in accordance with General Assembly resolution 62/168, is intended to reflect the broader patterns and trends in the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran on the basis of that country’s international treaty obligations and the observations made by treaty monitoring bodies and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council.

Expert Group Meeting on Good Practices in Legislation on Violence Against Women

Vienna, Austria
26 to 28 May 2008

The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDAW/DESA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are convening an expert group meeting on good practices and lessons learned in regard to legislation on violence against women, to be held at the United Nations at Vienna, from 26 to 28 May 2008.