News Archives » United Nations
Resolution Supported by Vatican Adopted at UN HR Council June 27th, 2014
A resolution calling for establishment of a process to look into making the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights and Corporations enforceable was adopted yesterday by the UN Human Rights Council. Among other things, the resolution establishes “an open-ended intergovernmental working group on a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, the mandate of which shall be to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises…
Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI, who represents the Oblates in dialogs with major multinational corporations said: “This resolution from the UNHRC is an important milestone in advancing the protection and promotion of human rights and provides transnational corporations with both the opportunity and the framework to participate in this essential endeavor.”
The full text of the UN Resolution is available here….
Vatican Issues Statement on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights June 25th, 2014
His Excellency Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva submitted a statement on the UN Guiding Principles at the 26th Session of the Human Rights Council on June 11th. The statement, titled “Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises” is excellent, calling for the need to broaden dissemination of the principles, attain scale in implementation, build trust among stakeholders and overcome barriers to effective remedy.
The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles) were endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 16 June 2011. The Guiding Principles provide an authoritative global standard for addressing adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity around the world.
The Guiding Principles set out, in three pillars, principles concerning the State duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and access to remedy for victims of human rights abuse.
The following gives a flavor of the statement that reflects fully the Vatican’s concern for the impact of powerful economic structures and activity on the lives of ordinary people:
“The ability of international corporations to partially escape territoriality and carve for themselves an existence “in-between” national legislation is rightly one of the concerns of the International Community. Their mobility in terms of their country of incorporation, management, production, and financial flows allows them to navigate national legislations, take advantage of regulatory arbitrage and choose the jurisdictions that may offer the best return in terms of profits. Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel”, and other religious leaders in the International Community have repeatedly pointed out that profit cannot be the only rationale of business activity. Transnational corporations are part of the human family and as such their activity should abide by the standard of human rights.”
“Another point of concern to the International Community is the inherent complexity of the transnational corporations regarding their diverse operating models (modus operandi) which makes them very hard to monitor and supervise. The resulting absence of robust and timely transparency makes it very difficult to measure compliance with rules and legislations. Human rights violations all too often occur out of utter neglect toward consequences that would have been foreseeable had anyone cared to think about them. These sorts of “neglects” are not casual, but systemic.”
UN HR Council Mandates Sri Lanka War Crimes Investigation March 28th, 2014
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution mandating an international inquiry into allegations of major human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the last seven years of the war, with 23 countries voting in favor of the document in the 47-nation strong body. While 12 countries including Pakistan, Maldives, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia voted against the Resolution, 12 member-states abstained from voting, including India and Indonesia.
The Resolution that passed this year’s session of the HR Council is stronger than those of previous years, largely due to the recent report on Sri Lanka by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her report concluded that the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which identified the need to ensure independent and credible investigations into past violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, had failed in this. The UN estimated that 40,000 people – mostly Tamil civilians – were killed in the final stages of the war. Other estimates run as high as 80,000. Both sides have been accused of war crimes.
The International Crisis Group, the Chair and CEO of which is Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asserts that the “… government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has failed to comply with two successive Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions. Failure is most obvious with respect to accountability for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final phase of the civil war, but also by the lack of devolution of power, ongoing militarisation of the north and east, and deepening authoritarianism throughout the country. Decisive HRC action now is required in light of GoSL’s repeated failures to undertake the necessary steps alone; it is necessary also in order to decrease the risk of a return to deadly conflict in Sri Lanka.”
Read the resolution here…
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Supports UN Resolution on Sri Lankan War Crimes Investigation March 19th, 2014
Catholic Nuns in northern Sri Lanka protest the arrest of human rights defender, Balendran Jeyakumari
Senator Robert Menendez, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter earlier today addressed to Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The letter supports the US-sponsored Resolution before the UN HR Council in Geneva calling for an international investigation into crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war. In his letter, Chairman Menendez also said: “Over the past year, this committee has noted with concern the deteriorating environment for the democratic process and human rights in Sri Lanka. While this is particularly acute in the north, there are also disturbing reports of an increasingly authoritarian approach across the South and East.”
Read Chairman Menendez’s letter here…
Fr Praveen OMI and Ruki Fernando Released! Ms Jayakumari Still Held. March 19th, 2014
Rev. Fr. Praveen Maheesan, OMI
Fr. Praveen Mahesan OMI and Ruki Fernando, both staunch human rights defenders, were released from custody of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Sri Lankan government late Tuesday night. The two had been following up on the arrest of Ms Balendran Jayakumari, an outspoken critic of numerous ‘disappearances’, when they themselves were arrested. Ms Jayakumari, an activist who has vigorously protested the ‘disappearance’ of Tamils (including her son) since the end of the civil war in May 2009, is presently being held under a detention order in Boosa prison. By using a DO, she can be held for up to 18 months without formal charges. The Oblate JPIC Office is deeply concerned for her safety and well-being and joins an international demand for her unconditional release. Torture is alleged to be common in Sri Lanka.
Ruki Fernando, Catholic lay worker, and human rights defender
The arrests have taken place in the context of an alarming crackdown on human rights defenders and others protesting various abuses by government military forces, especially in the past five years.
Please read our statement of the recent events here…
Please find background information on Ms Balendran Jeyakumari here…
