The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, urged world governments to develop and sustain effective legal aid systems as an essential component of a fair and efficient justice system founded on the rule of law.
“Legal aid is both a right in itself and an essential precondition for the exercise and enjoyment of a number of human rights, including the rights to a fair trial and to an effective remedy,” said Ms. Knaul, presenting her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council. “It represents an important safeguard that contributes to ensuring the fairness and public trust in the administration of justice.”
“Legal aid should be as broad as possible,” she said, stressing that its aim “is to contribute to the elimination of obstacles and barriers that impair or restrict access to justice by providing assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system.”
“Demands for sexual exploitation, cheap labour and domestic workers, organ removal, illicit adoption and forced marriages, begging or exploitation by armed groups all fuel human trafficking,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, said in a special report* to the UN Human Rights Council.
“However,” the human rights expert underscored, “the demand side should not be understood merely as the demand for sexual, labour or other services of victims of trafficking, but rather more broadly, as an act that fosters any form of exploitation that, in turn, leads to trafficking.”
“Measures taken by States to discourage demand have often focused exclusively on demand for commercial sexual exploitation, particularly of women and girls, and neglected other forms of demand, such as demand for exploitative labour and sale of organs,” Ms. Ngozi Ezeilo noted.
The Paris Principles, a set of international standards which frame and guide the work of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) mark this year their 20th Anniversary. Drafted at an international NHRIs workshop in Paris in 1991, they were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993.
The Anniversary of the Principles coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993.
“This provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the NHRIs’ achievements and to reiterate the importance of ensuring that NHRIs attain and maintain credibility at the national, regional and international levels by remaining in compliance with the Paris Principles,” said UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay at the 26th session of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights (ICC) (6-8 May 2013).
Post-2015 development agenda
A high-level U.N. panel recommended an ambitious roadmap Thursday to tackle the world’s major challenges, from climate change to equality for women, with a key goal of ending extreme poverty everywhere by 2030.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed the panel last year to recommend a new development agenda after the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, expire in 2015. World leaders agreed in 2000 on anti-poverty goals including cutting extreme poverty by half, halting the HIV/AIDS pandemic and increasing the number of people with access to clean water and sanitation.
Неодамна CIVICUS – Светска алијанса за граѓанско учество го објави извештајот за состојбата на граѓанското општество под наслов: Состојба на граѓанското општество 2013: Создавање на поволна средина. Во извештајот се содржани размислувања и ставови на повеќе од 50 граѓански организации кои дале придонес во подготовка на истиот, по однос на контекстот во кој работи граѓанското општество; клучните аспекти за создавање на поволна средина за негово егзистирање; најновите трендови по однос на овие клучни аспекти; и препораки за натамошното работење на граѓанското општество.
