Commonwealth News and Information Service (London)
14 September 2007
The human rights challenge in the Commonwealth is to continue to transform our shared principles into practice, the Commonwealth Secretary-General has said: "There is no shortage of declarations, conventions, standards and laws. What is often lacking is the 'doing' of it: the implementation, compliance, and action."
The Secretary-General was speaking at an event in London to mark 20 years since the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a civil society organsiation, was founded by a group of Commonwealth associations. Mr McKinnon congratulated the organisation, noting the important role that an independent, non-governmental and pan-Commonwealth body like the CHRI can play in advocacy work to promote compliance with Commonwealth principles on human rights.
The Secretary-General highlighted the role of 'unsung' human rights defenders, lawyers, officials and others in all Commonwealth countries working within and alongside governments and in the community, for the national good. He reaffirmed his hope that the new UN Human Rights Council will establish itself as a 'representative, effective, credible and accountable institution'. He also underlined the importance of National Human Rights Institutions.
Mr McKinnon encouraged the CHRI as well as other civil society organisations to support and complement, where possible, the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and its Human Rights Unit -- as well as member governments -- to protect and promote human rights at a local level.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Commonwealth News and Information Service. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
