31 October 2013
RESOLUTION ON THE WPHRE
Human Rights Council resolution 24/15 on World Programme for Human Rights Education (WPHRE) was adopted without a vote on 27 September.
The resolution had been drafted by the Platform for Human Rights Education and Training (comprising 7 Member States: Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, Slovenia and Switzerland), and Costa Rica took the lead on this resolution. On the day when it was adopted, the resolution was cosponsored by 81 Member States, including Australia.
(1) The focus for the third phase
HRC has determined, by this resolution, the focus for the third phase of the WPHRE. Operative paragraph 3 of the resolution states that the Human Rights Council “decides to make media professionals and journalists the focus group of the third phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education, with a special emphasis on education and training in equality and non-discrimination, with a view to combating stereotypes and violence, fostering respect for diversity, promoting tolerance, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and social inclusion, and raising awareness of the universality, indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights among the general public.”
Accordingly, “media professionals and journalists” will be focused during the third phase. The period of the third phase is set for five years from 2015-2019 (para.6).
Three informal consultations on the draft resolution on this subject were held prior to the date of the adoption. NGOs also attended these intergovernmental open meetings. In this intergovernmental consultation process, a strong emphasis was placed on the thematic approach as described in operative paragraph 2 with regard to:
– education and training in equality and non-discrimination;
– combating stereotypes and violence;
– fostering respect for diversity;
– promoting tolerance, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and social inclusion; and
– raising awareness of the universality, indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights among the general public.
The importance of this thematic approach, in addition to “media professional and journalists”, was stressed when Costa Rica, on behalf of the Platform Member States, delivered their statement to introduce this draft resolution at the plenary. During the informal consultations, the Platform Member States referred to the content of the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Views of States, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders on the target sectors, focus areas or thematic human rights issues for the third phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education” (A/HRC/24/24). The Platform Member States clarified, in response to questions from other Member States, their suggestion of the selected focus for the third phase – (i) The focus of each phase should be as concrete as possible and not to be too wide covering many various sectors at a time; and (ii) “Media” was suggested for the third phase in many views submitted to the OHCHR and reflected in this Report.
(2) Plan of Action for the third phase
Operative paragraph 6 of the resolution states that “the Human Rights Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare, from within existing resources, a plan of action for the third phase of the World Programme (2015-2019) in consultation with States, relevant intergovernmental organizations, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, national human rights institutions and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and to submit the plan of action for consideration by the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session.”
Taking account that the WPHRE is to be implemented in all countries, one challenge for certain stakeholders in a number of countries would be how the plan of action would ensure the independence of media professionals and journalists free from “unreasonable” interference with by State authorities. In this regard, the “consultation process” of drafting the plan of action by OHCHR is expected to be effective to meet the expectation, particularly taking into consideration the views of civil society stakeholders including NGOs and “media professional and journalists themselves”.
The draft plan of action should be ready sometime by the end of summer (possibly around the end of June), presumably in English first so that there would be enough time for translating it into the all United Nations official languages and submit it to the Human Rights Council 27th session (scheduled for 8-26 September, 2014).
(3) First and second phases
Operative paragraph 2 of the resolution states that the Human Rights Council “encourages States and, where appropriate, relevant stakeholders, to, during the third phase of the World Programme, strengthen efforts to advance the implementation of the first and second phases (�).” This was the point stressed about the first phase when the WPHRE was shifting from its first phase to second. In the same operative paragraph, several points in this regard are emphasised including “educators in formal and non-formal education and training, in particular those working with children and youth”, etc. Through the process on this resolution, it was re-confirmed that the efforts for human rights education in all areas and on all sectors must continue and be initiated while each phase of the WPHRE casts a “light” on a specific sector(s) to highlight it in order to pragmatically facilitate national efforts.