Human Rights Commission starts session

The human rights situation in the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea will be examined by the UN Commission on Human Rights during its 55th session, which begins in Geneva today. According to the provisional agenda for the five-week meeting, the 53-member commission will also address the issues of child soldiers, mercenaries, traffic in women and girls and the effect of structural adjustment policies on the full enjoyment of human rights, among other topics.

In a press conference in New York on Friday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said another issue to be addressed by the Commission was the prevention of racial and ethnic tensions, which were the “seeds of conflict” and resultant violations of human rights. Incitement to hatred and xenophobia, including via the Internet, was a problem in every region and was becoming more serious, she said. UN special rapporteurs and other UN field personnel should be heeded when they gave indications of early warning signs of gross human rights violations, Robinson added.