By Karen Castellon, UN Rep (AWC Berlin)
Oral update by the High Commissioner, Honorable Michelle Bachelet on the situation of human rights worldwide and on the activities of her office
Highlights:
ISIS aftermath
- 55,000 ISIS fighters and family members are detained in Iraq and Syria in refugee camps.
- 29,000 children n Syria are in need of rehabilitation and integration into society
- “Rendering people ‘stateless’ is not an acceptable option"
- It is “an act of irresponsible cruelty to leave children stateless”-- without adequate housing, education and health care.
Digital Technology
- Cooperation is needed in digital technology, specifically cyber-threats and cyber-crime, against massive and arbitrary surveillance, incitement of hatred, misinformation campaigns, among other issues
- How can the time honored human rights framework be applied?
- UNHRC will assist actors in the digital landscape to develop focused guidance on applying the basic Framework principles for business and state actors, which we hope includes developing effective mechanisms to prevent the use of digital technology to create, encourage, reinforce or exacerbate gender inequalities.
Funding Social Programs
- Shout out to the International Monetary Fund and its leader, Christine Lagarde, for the new strategic commitment to help countries make their own social spending “adequate, efficient and sustainably financed.”
- This is in line with the theme of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) held at UN headquarters in NYC in March 2019, “Social Protection Systems.”
Mexico
- High Commissioner’s team is providing technical assistance to Mexico for the Commission to Truth and Access to Justice. This group will investigate the issue of 43 students who disappeared in 2014 as well as 26,000 bodies uncovered to date. (19:26 in the video)
Portugal: Good news related to migrants
- Shout out to Portugal for its integration of migrants. With various programs, migrants contributed in 2017 to the social security system a net positive of 510 million Euros more than they took out.
- “When their dignity and rights are respected, migrants can be strong drivers of the economy.”