OMCT’s Special Procedures Seminar, 2008: call for nominations (Geneva, 23 – 27 June 2008)

“By knowing each other, we learn from each other, are encouraged, stand for each other

and use the useful tactics of different countries in different situations.”[1]

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) invites nominations for participation in the Special Procedures Seminar 2008 that will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 23 to 27 June 2008 at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of the University of Geneva.

The purpose of this five day seminar is to support national NGOs in using the United Nations Special Procedures System to address the economic, social and cultural root causes of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. OMCT research has demonstrated the strong links between failure to respect economic, social and cultural rights and violence, including torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, summary or arbitrary executions, forced disappearances, violence against women and violence against children. And it has also shown that acting on those root causes can reduce violence.[2]

Fifteen NGO representatives will be invited to take part in the seminar to work with international experts and Special Procedures Mandate Holders to address questions such as:

What are the policies, programmes and project in the participant’s country that are causing or risk causing the poverty and inequality that leads to the violence described above?

What needs to be done on the national level to effectively address those root causes and what can the Special Procedures Mandate Holders do to help?

(For the mandates see http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/index.htm)

The objectives of the seminar are to:

• Provide national NGOs with the basis to address the poverty – violence link, in particular, through the UN special procedures system;
• Dialogue with mandate holders to determine what they can do to address the poverty – violence link, what input they need and how NGOs can help;
• Design a strategy and timetable for action to address the poverty – violence link through the UN special procedures system.

To facilitate exchanges with Special Procedures Mandate Holders, the seminar is held in parallel with their annual meeting. The seminar will take place in English.

This is the second Special Procedures Seminar. The first took place in June 2007. During that seminar, NGO representatives from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Egypt, Gambia, Georgia, India, Liberia, Nepal, South Africa and Zambia held in-depth discussions with leading special procedures mandate holders responsible for issues relating to torture, indigenous peoples, the right to health, arbitrary detention, protection of human rights defenders and violations of human rights by private security forces. The seminar report is available here at www.omct.org .

Participants will be selected from the NGO nominations received by OMCT on the basis of the relevance of the seminar to the situation in their country and the activities of their organisation. Participants selected will be asked to prepare and submit in advance a paper of from 5 to 10 pages analysing the situation in their country with regard to questions set out above and the objectives of the seminar. OMCT will cover travel costs and living expenses in accordance with OMCT’s established practice.

If your organisation would like to nominate a participant, please submit the nomination to OMCT as soon as possible, but no later than 16 May 2008, and include a short explanation of the relevance of participation in the seminar to your organisation’s work long with a brief curriculum vitae of the person nominated. Organisations that are working in the fields of economic, social and cultural rights and development are encouraged to apply. Participants who have been selected will be informed by end-May 2008.

Nominations should be sent to Tom McCarthy by e-mail tmc@omct.org or by fax to +41 22 809 49 29.

Geneva, 22 April 2008

The European Union through the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights has provided substantial support for this seminar

[1] Rosaline Costa, Hotline Human Rights, Bangladesh. Participant in the 2007 Special Procedures Seminar

[2] See the OMCT publication “Attacking the Root Causes of Torture, Poverty, Inequality and Violence: an Interdisciplinary Study” (Geneva, September 2006), and the Report of the International Conference “Poverty, Inequality and Violence: Is there a Human Rights Response?” (Geneva, 4 to 6 October 2005) both available at www.omct.org.