Franciscans InternationalFI side events at the Human Rights Council
Special Rapporteur Ms. Joy Ezeilo, Ms. Bijaya Rai Shrestha of Nepalese NGO Pourakhi, and Mr. Piyasiri Wickramasekara of the Global Migration Policy Association
The 20th session of the Human Rights Council comes to a close on Friday July 6th. FI has played an active role throughout in engaging with Member States, Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and the various human rights instruments of the Council to bring several of our key human rights concerns to the fore of the dialogue. Over the course of the session, FI organised, in coordination with our partner organisations, three side events with panels of expert speakers, attended by Member States and other CSOs, to discuss certain priority issues.
The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, contributed to two FI side events as a panellist. The focus of the first meeting was trafficking and migration, during which the Special Rapporteur and her three fellow panellists spoke in depth about the many links and overlaps between these two major issues. There was a particular emphasis on the situation of female migrant workers.
The second event was a discussion on a human rights-based approach to prosecuting cases of trafficking. The Special Rapporteur was joined on the panel by representatives of Anti-Slavery International and Amicale du Nid, as well as two Franciscans, Jean-Claude Kazadi-Mwamba of Democratic Republic of Congo and Sr. Namrata Joseph of India, who have worked extensively on the issue of human trafficking. The event was chaired by the Deputy Representative of Mexico to the UN in Geneva.
FI also co-organised a side event on climate change and human rights, the focus of which was the current debate on the need for a Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights, since no such mandate exists. The view that such an appointment by the Human Rights Council is urgently necessary was expressed by many of the participants.