Manpreet Dhanjal presented the Minnesota Advocates speech on the Peru Truth & Reconciliation in this morning's Sub-Commission session. The speech went well. We all felt Manpreet did a good job of presenting it. [That's him in the photo to the right]
We made over 100 copies of the speech and all were distributed. The Government of Peru was not in the room. The chairperson of the Sub-Commission requested that we provide a copy to the government so that they can reply if they so wish. This was actually what we had hoped to do anyway, so it was nice to get an invitation from the head of the Sub-Commission to do it.
A copy of the speech has been added to the speeches page of this website. It will probably also be reported tomorrow in the UN Press Release for the morning session.
Today was the first deadline for submitting draft resolutions, so several of the Sub-Commission members were scurrying around getting last minute sponsors to their resolutions. We in the observer delegations won't get a chance to see these draft resolutions until later this week. Voting will begin next Monday.
The Sub-Commission heard presentations from several members who had prepared working papers or study proposals under item 3, relating to criminal justice. Mrs. Leila Zerrougui from Algeria presented her preliminary study on discrimination in the criminal justice system. Mrs. Francoise Hampson reported on her research into the accountability of UN peacekeeping and other personnel to human rights standards. Mr. Emmanuel Decaux from France presented his update on a paper on military tribunals.
The Chairman of the Human Rights Committee also addressed the Sub-Commission in the afternoon. This was a useful dialogue since the Human Rights Committee, which monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (one of the oldest and most ratified human rights treaties), and the Sub-Commission share many projects and interests. A closer coordination of the work of these two bodies will avoid overlap and hopefully result in projects which complement and build off each other.
The extended team had a nice dinner together at the end of the day, as you can see from the photo below.
Tomorrow the Sub-Commission will continue discussions under Item 3 of the agenda. It appears we are a little behind, so Mrs. Warzazi, the chairperson of the Sub-Commission, may begin to exercise a little heavier use of the gavel to speed the proceedings along.