GENEVA: The Human Rights Council will convene for a special session next week to address challenges arising from the economic crisis, the president of the UN agency said Friday.
The holding of this session, I believe, is an important sign from the Human Rights Council that it should and can address all emerging challenges, which have implications for human rights, said Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi.
The global financial crisis will have implications for the most vulnerable people in our societies as far as the enjoyment of rights are concerned.
Next Friday s session was spearheaded by Brazil and Egypt and aimed at sending a strong message that human rights should not be overlooked during the crisis, added Uhomoibhi, who is also Nigeria s ambassador to the UN.
Uhomoibhi said it would be productive to look at how countries can meet the needs of the vulnerable and admitted the 47-member council was facing a financial crisis of its own.
The council needs up to $6 million to hold its next two review sessions – which convene periodically to examine the rights records of individual countries – scheduled for May and December.
I didn’t want to make this a big issue, but because we are facing a real possibility that we will not be able to have the fifth and sixth sessions I thought I should say this now, Uhomoibhi said, adding that more details would be released on Monday. -AFP
