World Tibet Network News Thursday, June 25, 1998

OTTAWA, June 25, 1998 (CTC) On Tuesday, June 22, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister addressed the conference and released what will become an annual Human Rights Report based on the UN system. This report, entitled For the Record: The United Nation Human Rights System, compiles UN ratifications etc. by country and provides an overview of the internaional human rights situation by country and region, as documented by UN experts. The report will be an important resource for all organizations involved in advocacy at the UN or doing research for other projects. The 6 volume document is available on the web in English and French at www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Day 3 of the conference featured a special consultation with the Bureau of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Several special rapporteurs, regional vice-chairs and other experts were available as well as government representative from Austia, Canada, Norway and Australia. The bureau outlined

the procedure and timeframe for its review of the CHR mechanisms. NGOs are invited to submit recommendations by the 20th of July.

A final conference declaration was scrapped because of lack of consensus and instead all working group reports were compiled as proceedings and forwarded to the CHR as a preliminary submission to its review process. This meant that the Asia Pacific NGO statement was not edited nor debated in plenary and therefore reference to Tibet was maintained. An additional country statements on Tibet, Burma, East Timor, Kashmir and Hong Kong were also adopted in this way.

The conference delegates were asked to sign on to a joint letter to the International Criminal Court conference currently underway in Rome, asking that the independence of the ICC be respected.

Human Rights Internet was selected to coordinate follow up to the conference.