| Dear Friends,
I wanted to express a general concern that I have been hearing from several people about how the human rights caucus has been going on about its work.
The Caucus has chosen, I think rightly, to draw attention to the situation of human rights in the host country. I think it would be helpful to explain that at all UN summits it is normal and correct for civil society to examine the situation of the host country in respect to the issue at hand. For example during the Beijing Women's Conference, many women's groups organized meetings on the situation of women's rights in China. During the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, environment groups drew attention to the pollution and environmental problems in South Africa. Etc.
However I have heard several people ask why the Human Rights Caucus does not devote much work to shedding light on other countries with questionable human rights records. I think for the future that it would be beneficial to the caucus to have a session discussing the human rights situation in many countries, particularly developed countries, i.e. the US, France, Germany, Australia, etc. I am sure we could find activists in Geneva and in Tunis who would be happy to discuss these issues. (And I know our colleague from Nepal would love to have the opportunity to present the situation in her country.)
This would go a far ways towards diminishing the impression that the caucus is only interested in criticizing the host country. And I think lead to very interesting discussions as well.
Respectfully,
Rik Panganiban CONGO
=============================================== RIK PANGANIBAN Communications Coordinator Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524
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