Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lahore (Fides Service) - Several Catholic organisations in Pakistan have welcomed the institution by the new United Nations general assembly of a standing Human Rights Council hoping it will promote greater respect for human rights everywhere in the world. The new Council will replace the old discredited UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva whose members included several countries with dictatorial regimes.
The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan through their Justice and Peace Commission and NGOs Franciscan International, Dominicans for Justice and Peace, Pax Christi, have welcomed the institution of the new Council. They hope that its activity will improve the situation in Pakistan a country where people still experience violation of basic human rights.
The new UN Human Rights Council will meet for the first time on 19 June in Geneva with a much fuller the agenda than the precedent Commission. It will undertake a systematic survey of the human rights situation in all 191 member countries of the United Nations General Assembly. Instead of one, it will hold three annual sessions and will also have the faculty to convoke emergency meetings. The number of participants will be reduced from 53 to 47 countries elected with a majority vote by the UN General Assembly. The Council will be “subsidiary organ ” of the General Assembly to which it will report every year. (P.A.) (Agenzia Fides 18/3/2006 righe 24 parole 243)
