Committee: General Assembly (GA)

Chair members:

Cristina González Camarena

Santiago Espinoza Montiel

Emilio Servin Nava

Topic: To ensure the protection to human right defenders

I. INTRODUCTION

The General Assembly is the main organ in the United Nations since 1945, it has the

power to make recommendations to States on international complications. It also carries the

ability of taking actions in areas of global economic, humanitarian, political, legal and even

social problematics.

Human right defenders protect and promote human rights all around the world, they

face human rights violations many of them are from the inability to access healthcare,

unemployment, discrimination, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and murder, female genital

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mutilation, forced evictions, and toxic wastes that damage the environment.

Human rights defenders have an important participation in every part of the world. They

look to promote, raise, and protect human rights throughout HIV/AIDS, migration, structural

adjustment policies and political transition even though most human right defenders do receive

help from the UN Declaration on human right defenders, which has the task of helping HRD

financially and by remarking them so they can be heard all around the world. But defenders do

not get the security they need and deserve, as according to reports,in 2015 Global Witness

uncovered that 185 defenders were killed in only 16 countries, which means an increase in 59%

from 2014. Last year there has been a total of 281 human right defenders murdered in 25

different countries. These deaths and threats when reported to the police and most of the were

often ignored and some still are.

The Inter-American Commission reiterates that States have the obligation to prevent any

attempt on the life and physical integrity of HRD, and to guarantee in all circumstances that

rights defenders can carry out their human rights activities without fearing reprisals and feeling

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free of any kind restrictions. States have the duty to guarantee the ultimate safety of groups of

defenders at particular risk and to adopt specific measures of protection created specially to their

needs, for example through some special protocols.

II. HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT

1904 Foundation of The Congo Reform association. Documented terror brought by Belgians in

the course of demanding rubber production in the Congo.

1968 In April 4th Martin Luther King was shot dead after leading a march the day before on

behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers. His assassination prompted major outbreaks of

racial violence resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide.

1995 Nepal was admitted to the United Nations on December the 14th and has since become

part of human rights treaties about economic, social and cultural rights, women's rights and

others.

1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet abused various human rights during its reign, including murder

and torture of political opponents. Around 3,197 people were killed and 29,000 were tortured.

1998-2017 International Protection started its mission to upgrade the security and protection

of hu man rights defenders with non-violent acts.

2008 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders took the initiative to

gather for the first time all the human rights defenders institutional experts to find ways to

improve coordination and complementarities among themselves and with NGOs.

2015 The UN Security Council added the human rights situation in North Korea to its formal

agenda, the HRC and the UN General Assembly have both suggested that the Security Council

consider referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.

2016 DIHR launched a new project that supports the effective work of men and women human

right defenders in all OSCE participating states.

III. CURRENT HAPPENINGS

August 29th 2016 Assault on Cauca, municipality of Almaguer Colombia, three people were

murdered including Joel Meneses a long-standing primitive community leader.

September 5th 2016 Conflict on Cauca leaves one person gravely injured and three more dead,

tho whom were burned inside their own home.

2016 Around 1000 human rights defenders were murdered, harassed, detained, or subjected to

smear campaigns and other violations in 2016.

2016 Colombian human rights organization “Programa Somos Defensores” reported that

between 2010 and 2015 theres have been 346 human rights defender and activists murderers rose

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13 percent, and during the first six months of 2016, there were 35 killings. The departments of

Cauca, Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Nariño and Norte de Santander are the most affected.

2016 The rising number of this rights defenders and community leaders could be related to

armed groups looking to protect existing criminal economies or move into new ones -- a trend

that is intensifying as the FARC prepare to move out of territories they have controlled for

decades.

2015, 2016 Primitive people defending ancestral territories represent upwards of 40% of those

assassinated. Women, and Indigenous women in particular, have to face environmental

devastation, cultural dislocation, and sexual violence and gender based persecution.

2017 So far in 2017, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) has learned

of 14 murders of human rights defenders: seven in Colombia, two in Guatemala, two in Mexico,

and three in Nicaragua.

IV. KEY POINTS

● Creation and planification of protection protocols

Secure the defenders from any lethal harm on public events in case there's an attack.

● Apply solutions

Each country to figure out how can they assure that their solutions will fulfill the task

given.

● Protection to children

Children involved can also be in a huge risk of attacks or imprisonment in certain

countries such as China.

● Country leaders abusing of power

There are a number of leaders that are violating or have violated human rights and are

the responsible for millions of deaths.

V. UN ACTIONS

The elaboration of “The Declaration of Human Right Defenders” ended being adopted by

the General Assembly in the year 1998. Since 1964 The UN has been interested on the

development in human rights. It is looking to reach a universal ratification and implementation

of human rights treaties and standards, have UN bodies to be much more responsive to human

rights and humanitarian crisis and reform institutions to achieve a more effective promotion and

protection of human rights.

VI. BLOCK ANALYSIS

African group

There has been human right abuses as a consequence of conflicts between armed groups

and militias as well as between international peacekeepers and these groups. Conflicts have also

occasioned crimes under international law. More than 434,00 people were internally displaced

and are living in harsh conditions and at least 2.3 depend on humanitarian assistance. The

ACHPR (African Commission on Human Right Defenders) is a project in the eastern region of

Africa, that highlights current human rights issues in the African sub-region. This commission

has a special focus on women and expresses a deep concern at so man governments that fail to

respect obligations under the African Charter on Human rights.

Asia Pacific group

In the Asia Pacific region, APF members have initiated a range of practical projects and

developed relationships with key stakeholders - including government, business and civil groups

- in order to hold an ongoing dialogue on business and human rights.

Latin American and Caribbean group

The Commission recommended that the OAS Member States take all necessary measures

to protect the physical integrity of human rights defenders and to ensure they can work under

appropriate conditions. After these recommendations were presented to the Member States, the

OAS General Assembly adopted Resolution 1671, entitled Human Rights Defenders in the

Americas: Support for the Individuals, Groups, and Organizations of Civil Society Working to

Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Americas.

Eastern European Group

The overall human rights situations in Eastern European Group, particularly Russia

continues to remain negative. For example, officials and politicians continue to suppress freedom

of speech and liberal media. Discrimination of minorities remain a significant problem,

especially when it comes to ethnic minorities and the LGBT community. In Belarus, civil and

political rights are heavily restricted and freedom of assembly is constantly violated.

Western European and others

Laws should not criminalise or legitimize the work and activities of human rights

defenders, and their right to enjoy universal human rights, states the resolution 22/6 adopted on

21 March 2013 by the United Nations Human Rights Council on the protection of human rights

defenders. It adds that States should include information on steps taken to create a safe and

enabling environment for human rights defenders in their communications to the international

community.

One year later, the Human Rights House Network published a visual interpretation of the

resolution, highlighting 20 principles which States should abide by to support, empower and

protect human rights defenders.

VII. REFERENCES

• N/A (N/D) Functions and powers of the General Assembly, General Assembly of the United

Nations http://www.un.org/en/ga/about/background.shtml 25/04/2017

• N/A (Jan, 2017) Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2016, FrontlineDefenders.

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/annual-report-human-rights-

defenders-risk-2016 25/04/2017

• N/A (N/D) Who is a defender, UN Human Rights http://www.ohchr.org/SP/Pages/Home.aspx

24/07/2017

• N/A (N/D) WHERE WE WORK, Protection International

https://protectioninternational.org/where-we-work/ 25/04/2017

• Kilbride, E. (Ed.). (2017, April 06). Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2016.

Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-

publication/annual-report-human-rights-defenders-risk-2016

• Yagoub, W. B. (2016, September 09). Colombia's Human Rights Defenders Are Dying for Peace.

Retrieved April 27, 2017, from http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/colombia-s-human-

rights-defenders-are-dying-for-peace

• N/A. (March 2009). Timeline: Human Rights Defenders . 11/05/2017, from Right Defenders In

China Sitio web: http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/371

• Meteor Blades. (March 2017). Open thread for night owls. On Int'l Women’s Day—Honoring

women land and human rights defenders. 11/05/2017, de DAILYKOS Sitio web:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/7/1641078/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-On-Int-l-Women-

s-Day-Honoring-women-land-and-human-rights-defenders

• ABColombia. (Jan 2017). A human rights defender killed every other day in 2017 in Colombia

(between 1 and 23 January 2017). 11/05/2017, de Relief Web Sitio web:

http://reliefweb.int/report/colombia/human-rights-defender-killed-every-other-day-2017-

colombia-between-1-and-23-january

VIII. RECOMMENDED SOURCES

● https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/annual-report-human-rights-defenders-risk-2016

● http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/Defender.aspx ● https://protectioninternational.org/where-we-work/ ● https://www.amnesty.org.uk/human-rights-defenders-what-are-hrds ● https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/ ● https://protectioninternational.org/human-rights-defenders/ ● http://www.ciel.org/human-rights-defenders-life-death/ ● http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Defenders/defenderschap9-10.htm ● https://business-humanrights.org/en/focus-on-human-rights-defenders-under-threat-

attack IX. ANNEXES

Annex 1: Protests against the poor security aimed for human right defenders.

Voule C. (2017) South Sudan harassment, intimidations, arbitrary arrests and assassination of

human rights defenders from:

https://www.ishr.ch/news/south-sudan-stop-harassment-intimidation-arbitrary-arrest-and-

assassination-human-rights-0

Annex 2 Areras were defenders have been affected.

Protect Defender EU (n.d.). News & tweets from Human Rights Defenders. Retrieved May 29,

2017, from https://www.protectdefenders.eu/en/newsfeed.html

Annex 3 : Count of defenders attacked.

ESCR-Net (2017) New index monitors attacks and threats against human rights defenders (online). Retrieved May 29, 2017, from https://www.escr-net.org/n2ews/2017/new-index-monitors-attacks-and-threats-against-human-rights-defenders

Annex 4: Map of harassment of HRD in the world.

OBS Annual Report 2013: Restrictions on Human Rights Defenders' Access to

Funding Bolster Impunity. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2017, from http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/reports-and-publications/2013/02/d22162/

Annex 5: Protests in Colombia. Confidencial Colombia (2016) No hay derecho From: http://confidencialcolombia.com/es/1/actualidad/22336/%C2%A1No-hay-derecho!-Bogota-cali-medell%C3%ADn-defensores-derechos-humanos-colombia-confidencial-paramilitares-Bogota-cali-medell%C3%ADn-defensores-derechos-humanos-colombia-confidencial-paramilitares.htm

Glossary

● HRD: Stands for Human Right Defenders.

● NGO’s: STands for Non-Governmental Organizations.

● APF: Stands for Asian Pacific Forum.

● Detained: To keep from proceeding; delay or retard.

● Harassed: To subject (another) to hostile or prejudicial remarks or actions; pressure or

intimidate.

● Smear: To stain or attempt to destroy the reputation of.