Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands Give Commitments to UNHRC

Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands made significant commitments to make progress on human rights before the UN Human Rights Council last week. The three countries committed to establish national human rights commissions, take steps to combat violence against women, take measures to prohibit all forms of corporal punishment, enact legislation to protect children from child labour and sexual exploitation and ratify core human rights treaties.

In May of this year the international community, through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council, identified a number of human rights issues faced by people in Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands and made recommendations to each country for improvements. Last week, Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands responded to these.

Matilda Bogner, Regional representative of OHCHR’s Regional Office for the Pacific, said:

“Through the UPR, Pacific Island States have had a significant opportunity to discuss their human rights situations with the international community. It is great to see concrete commitments coming out of this process, which should lead to improved lives for Pacific people. OHCHR’s Regional Office stands ready to provide further assistance to support implementation on the ground.”

Some of the commitments made include that Samoa agreed to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to create a national human rights institution consistent with international standards. Samoa is already engaging a consultant to draft the necessary legislation for the establishment of this institution. Samoa also agreed to undertake moves towards ratifying the other remaining core human rights treaties.

Solomon Islands agreed to fully implement its Gender Equity and Women’s Development Policy and the National Policy on Eliminating Violence against Women, to establish a national human rights institution, to improve prison conditions for women and to take measures to combat child abuse and provide free, compulsory basic education. Solomon Islands agreed to ratify all the remaining core human rights treaties.

Palau accepted the recommendation concerning the establishment of a national human rights institution. Palau also accepted the recommendations to harmonize or implement legislation in line with international standards concerning sexual exploitation of children, child labour, sexual relations of consenting adults of the same sex, age of marriage, minimum age of criminal responsibility, refugees and asylum seekers. It also agreed to consider ratification of all core human rights treaties. On 20 September, Palau took its first step in the ratification process by signing eight core human rights treaties at the UN in New York.

In last week’s ‘adoption of the outcomes’ review process, Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands completed the first round of their UPR review. Each country will return to the review in four years to see what progress has been made implementing their human rights commitments.

Notes:

• OHCHR leads global Human Rights efforts and works to promote and protect the Human Rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

• OHCHR is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, who coordinates Human Rights activities throughout the UN System and supervises the Human Rights Council.

• OHCHR Regional Office for the Pacific covers 16 countries: Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

• The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was created through the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by 2011, will have reviewed the human rights records of every country. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.

ENDS

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