NATIONAL MEETING OF CNDH/RHRC MEMBERS: CALL TO HONOR PREVIOUS COMMITMENTS OF FORMER ADVISORY COUNCIL AND OPTIMAL IMPLEMENTATION OF CNDH’S NEW MANDATE, PARTICULARLY AT REGIONAL LEVEL
The curtains came down on the national meeting of the members of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) and the Regional Human Rights Commissions (RHRC), held on 4 to 6 May 2012 in Marrakech.
500 participants (CNDH/RHRC members, human rights experts and institutional and civil society stakeholders) attended this national gathering.
Held three months after the 13 RHRCs were appointed, this meeting aimed to unify the visions of the national and regional members regarding the Council’s areas of intervention, exchange and share knowledge related to these areas, reinforce coherence and harmony between the approaches of the Council and its regional commissions, build strong human relations between the members and strengthen the feeling of membership and adhesion to the institution.
The participants indicated that it’s strategically important to honor and fulfill the commitments of the former Advisory Council on Human Rights and to implement, optimally, the new mandate and prerogatives of the institution, particularly at the regional level.
They opened debate and exchanged ideas and points of view on the work of the National Human Rights Council and its regional commissions. They discussed their prerogatives, objectives, rulers of procedure, organization and required resources to achieve the objectives.
Several interventions stressed the need to honor the Council’s legacy and heritage. They highlighted that the Council should keep on monitoring and following-up the implementation of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, contributing to providing basic infrastructure for the preservation of archives, memory, and conditions of scientific writing of present history in addition to ensuring the implementation of the Platform for the promotion of human rights culture and the national plan of action on democracy and human rights, as well as the implementation of the constitutional provisions related to human rights.
The success of the Council, with its new and broader mandate, its reinforced pluralism and independence and its new composition depends, they said, on the procedures and measures to be taken to rationalize the management of the institution and ensure its professionalism and effectiveness, particularly through the following:
creating harmony between the strategic program of the Council and the plans of action of the regional human rights commissions;
developing a consistent system of internal communication between the various components of the Council that can help share information, capitalize the experience of the institution and develop an external communication strategy;
capacity building in the Council’s areas of intervention, at the national and regional level;
coordination;
strengthening partnership with civil society;
keeping up with the advanced regionalization;
reinforcing editing policy of books and publications that deal with human rights;
promoting and exchanging best practices between the regional human rights committees.
The Council’s strategic orientations and plan of action, the outline of its central working groups (Working Group on parity, non discrimination and new generations of human rights, Working Group on the monitoring of human rights violations and protection of human rights, Working Group on the development of international relations, partnerships and cooperation, Working Group on the promotion of human rights culture and democratic consolidation, Working Group on the evaluation and monitoring of public policies and harmonization ) and the outline of the regional human rights commissions’ plans of action were presented and discussed during this gathering.
Nine workshop were scheduled for this meeting: protection of human rights, promotion of human rights and enrichment of dialogue and debate on human rights and democracy, communication and public relations, penal legislation, right of access to information, architectural heritage and human rights, implementation of the platform for the promotion of human rights culture, reading and enrichment of debate and dialogue on human rights and democracy.
It was decided thus to hold a national meeting of CNDH and RHRC members every year to discuss the outcome and prospects of the institution. The Council will hold several national thematic meetings related to the environment, immigration, cultural diversity and parity will with the directly concerned regional human rights committees.
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