The UN and Human Rights

Through UN efforts, governments have concluded hundreds of multilateral agreements that make the world a safer, healthier place with greater opportunity and justice for all. This comprehensive body of international law and human rights legislation is one of the UN's great achievements. Over the past fifty years, the UN has played a central role in developing legal standards that have led an increasing number of individuals and groups to expect fair treatment from their governments. The UN's involvement in the advancement of children's and women's rights and the battle against racial discrimination are a few of many areas worth noting.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1948, and drafted by a Canadian - John Peters Humphrey - sets out the basic rights and freedoms to which all men and women are entitled. Among them are the right to life, liberty and nationality, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to work, to be educated, and to take part in government.

Two International Covenants, one dealing with economic, social and cultural rights and the other with civil and political rights, entrench these rights. Whereas the Declaration is a statement of principles, the covenants are legally binding documents. This means that if governments have signed and ratified the covenants, they agree to uphold those rights and freedoms in their own countries. Together with the Declaration, they constitute the International Bill of Human Rights.

The Declaration laid the groundwork for more than eighty conventions and declarations on human rights, including conventions to eliminate racial discrimination and discrimination against women; conventions on the rights of the child, the status of refugees and the prevention of genocide; and declarations on self-determination, enforced disappearances and the right to development.

The UN High Commission for Human Rights

With the standards-setting work nearly complete, the UN is now shifting the emphasis of its human rights work to the implementation of human rights laws. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour (former member of the Supreme Court of Canada), coordinates all UN human rights activities, works with governments to improve their observance of human rights, seeks to prevent violations, and investigates abuses.

The UN Commission on Human Rights, an intergovernmental body, holds public meetings to review the human rights performance of countries. It appoints independent experts, called Special Rapporteurs, to report on specific human rights abuses or to examine human rights in specific countries.

The UN and Indigenous Peoples

A Working Group on Indigenous Populations was established in 1982 to undertake two formal tasks: reviewing national developments pertaining to the promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples; and developing international standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples. The most important work that the Working Group had done is the elaboration of the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, which it began preparing in 1985, and has become a foundation upon which successive resolutions on the issues and rights of Indigenous Populations are based.

In recent years, based in part on the work of the Working Group, there have been significant advances in international thinking and action on indigenous issues and rights. In late 1993, following a recommendation by the World Conference on Human Rights, the General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004). In April 2000, after consultations with indigenous groups around the world, and with governments, NGOs and UN organization bodies and specialized agencies, the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The mandate of the Forum is to address indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. Specifically, the Permanent Forum:
  • provides expert advice and recommendations on indigenous issues to ECOSOC as well as to programmes, funds and agencies of the United Nations through ECOSOC;
  • raises awareness and promotes the integration and coordination of activities related to indigenous issues within the UN system; and
  • prepares and disseminates information on indigenous issues.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is designated as the "lead agency" to implement the resolution of the Permanent Forum on indigenous issues. The Forum is a unique organization within the UN system that enables indigenous people to become members of the UN body and, as such, allows them to set the Forum's agenda and determine its outcomes.

A NEW AWARENESS

Through the efforts of the United Nations and the Working Group in partnership with indigenous peoples, there is a great awareness of the serious problems faced by indigenous populations around the world. In some places, there is now a permanent dialogue between Governments and indigenous groups. In others, indigenous peoples and Governments are negotiating, with the aim of improving relations and guaranteeing better protection of Indigenous peoples' rights. In Canada, the International Unit of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), identifies international issues of priority to First Nations, and formulates strategies and coordinates political and technical participation at multilateral level. The AFN has been represented at various UN conferences and working groups on indigenous populations, including the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) that took place in Durban South Africa between August 31-September 7, 2001.


Children's Rights

There is no way to thoroughly enumerate the various ways in which children around the world are economically exploited and physically mistreated. But the numbers are great and the suffering widespread. Behind the hideous imagery - of children beaten or sexually abused; ravaged beyond their years by hard living and drug abuse on the streets; maimed by landmines or turned into killers by war; stricken with AIDS - are the all-too-common struggles against disease, hardship, and family or social traditions that compromise children's humanity or subject them to physical and emotional suffering.

While victims of injustice and poverty have always had trouble being heard, none have had more trouble, historically, than children. Whether exploited as child labourers or prostitutes, drafted as young teenagers into armed forces, forced as young girls into a lonely life as domestic workers, deprived of an education to work on the family farm or in the home, or denied adequate nutrition and health care, children need help and protection from an adult world that perpetrates most of the abuse.

It took until the 1990s for all of the pieces to come together in the form of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1989. The Convention's 54 articles cover everything from a child's right to be free from sexual and economic exploitation, to the right to his or her own opinion and the right to education, health care, and economic opportunity.

Today every UN Member State has ratified the Convention, except for the United States and Somalia. This means that they have taken steps to implement the provisions of Convention in their own country.

Much of the power of the Convention comes from mutual example and pressure from the public and from donor countries rather than any real enforcement power. Persuasive pressure may come from those countries that ratify the Convention and, in turn, receive donor funding for various national initiatives, or assistance with the drafting of laws or establishment of child-advocacy bureaus.