Human rights defenders – HRC fourth session – Special Rapporteur report (Jilani) (excerpts)

IMPLEMENTATION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 60/251

OF 15 MARCH 2006 ENTITLED “HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL”

Report submitted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General 

on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani

Summary 

  The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, here presents her seventh report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 1/102 in which the Council decided to extend exceptionally for one year the mandate and mandate-holders of all the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights, of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. It follows the report she had submitted to the sixty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights, pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2000/61 and 2003/64, which reviewed the six years of implementation of the mandate entrusted to her.

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  Chapter II focuses on the situation of human rights defenders working in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. It gives an overview of the legal context for the activities of these defenders, followed by a description of the different economic, social and cultural rights defenders are currently working to promote. This chapter also highlights violations against the rights accorded to these defenders by the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders).

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II.   THE WORK OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN THE FIELD

OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

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B.   Human rights defenders and their work on economic, social and cultural rights

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1. Land rights, natural resources and environmental issues

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4. Housing rights and forced evictions

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66.   In her mission report on her visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Special Representative refers to individual defenders and groups who campaign against house demolitions (see E/CN.4/2006/95/Add.3, para. 13). The Special Representative reiterated her concerns regarding the killing of Rachel Corrie who was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer in Rafah refugee camp while attempting to stop the levelling of houses on 16 March 2003. …

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6. The right to health

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71.   Communications concerning defenders working on the right to health have been sent to countries of all regions. Ten communications were transmitted to the Government of Israel and concerned cases where personnel from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society or other Palestinian or international organizations working to promote and protect civilians right to health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have been attacked or threatened.

72.   In this context, the Special Representative recalls a case transmitted to the Government of Israel in 2003, concerning a report from 2002 indicating that the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society emergency medical service in the city of Jenin had been killed in an attack on his ambulance while he was attempting to rescue a 9-year-old girl.

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