Pakistan highlights flaws in UNHRC’s approach

Pakistan has referred to as on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to shift its consideration to financial, social, and cultural rights as an alternative of “disproportionately” specializing in human rights conditions in creating nations.

“The council and human rights mechanisms also needs to deal with historic and present phenomena, corresponding to racial discrimination, xenophobia, social inequalities, Islamophobia, and hate crimes,” Ambassador Munir Akram mentioned in a dialogue on the way forward for the Geneva-based council.

“Whereas some conditions are prominently projected and amplified on the HRC, different, extra severe conditions, like Jammu & Kashmir, are ignored,” he mentioned, underscoring the necessity to keep away from double requirements in addressing rights conditions on the UN.

The 47-member council, armed with extra powers, was created in 2006 following the failures of its predecessor — the 1946 Human Rights Fee.

“Right this moment, the HRC can be the goal of significant criticism and suffers from lots of the identical deficits because the fee. That is significantly as a result of council’s political biases, selective and partial strategy, and structural points, which critically jeopardize its credibility.

“There’s a higher emphasis on civil and political rights, whereas financial, social, and cultural rights — in addition to the appropriate to improvement — obtain much less consideration,” Ambassador Akram advised individuals.

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He famous that the council’s agenda has been overloaded with some topics that ought to be handled by the UN’s specialised companies.

“There’s a concerted effort by Western nations to impose norms which can be clearly incompatible with the nationwide legal guidelines and cultures of different nations, corresponding to these associated to sexual orientation and gender id,” the Pakistani envoy mentioned, stating that a few of its mechanisms in addition to the Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights are largely staffed by nationals from developed nations.

“There’s a have to rationalize the whole human rights construction — the agenda, conferences and particular periods, mandate holders and the Excessive Commissioner’s Workplace.”

Pakistan, he mentioned, believes that the promotion of human rights is a shared duty that may solely be achieved by way of an goal, clear, non-selective, constructive, non-confrontational, and non-politicized method.

“There’s a have to strengthen cooperation, technical help, and help to the creating states on human rights points at their request, in a non-confrontational and cooperative method,” he added.