NARRATIVE REPORT 2009 - The ICHRP

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International Council on Human Rights Policy - Narrative Report 2009 This serves two purposes. It will enable the Council to continue its work on accountability in a fresh manner that will free the discussion from some of the constraints that have burdened the Council’s research process on this theme, because of the Council’s consultative approach and the rather sharp differences of opinion that exist between human rights actors. Secondly, it will enable the Council to test models of interactive and electronic consultation that may become a core element of our work in the future. During 2009, assisted by James Douglas, the Secretariat drafted a short text and commissioned a new section of the Council’s Web site that is designed to manage interactive dialogues. The new discussion was opened in February 2010. Hina Jilani, Chair of ICHRP’s Board, contributed an introductory message, and additional comments and contributions were prepared for the launch by Juana Kweitel, L. David Brown, Michael Edwards, and Maggie Beirne. A wide range of additional commentaries will be commissioned as the e-discussion proceeds; the webpage enables readers to post comments and opinions. Moderated by the Secretariat, the electronic discussion will continue into the second half of the year. After the discussion is closed, the Secretariat will prepare a report of the discussion which will be posted electronically. We hope the discussion will also enable the Council to frame the debate usefully and analytically. This exercise will enable the Secretariat to gain first-hand experience of setting up an interactive electronic discussion, moderating the process, and managing and designing it technically. We hope that we can run similar interactive discussions regularly on some of our research projects. On April 16-17 the Council’s Executive Director attended a meeting convened annually by the heads of human rights agencies in Latin America. In 2009 the meeting was hosted by Conectas in Sao Paulo. Human rights accountability was one of the main themes agreed for discussion and he presented the arguments on accountability that ICHRP has developed in the course of its work on this issue. Research director: Vijay Nagaraj from March 2009. Start: May 2009. Discussion: Quarter 1 to Quarter 3 2010. Working title: Accountability of NGOs: an electronic discussion. In English, French and Spanish. Publication: Quarter 4, 2010. Research team: Co-ordinator: Vijay Nagaraj. Advisory group: Maggie Beirne, Fateh Azzam, Hina Jilani, Robert Archer ADD. Background papers: Vijay Nagaraj, James Douglas; Hina Jilani. 12
International Council on Human Rights Policy - Narrative Report 2009 Corruption and human rights: : Integrating I human h rights in anti-corruption agendas (131B) Due for publication in May/June 2010 This report complements a first report on corruption which the Council published in February 2009 (See section A, project 131A). It examines anti-corruption procedures and institutions and discusses where use of a human rights framework can strengthen national and local anti-corruption programmes and help to address obstacles and conflicts that inhibit effective cooperation. It seeks to be a practical tool that public officials and practitioners can use and, in contrast to the first report, is designed primarily for use by anti-corruption specialists. The second report will be published in English by the Council, very probably in cooperation with Transparency International which also co-published a second edition of the first report. Also like the first report, it will be translated into Spanish and distributed in Latin America in association with the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. Other translations are in discussion. A Summary of both ICHRP’s reports on corruption (see section A, project 131A) will be published with the second report, in French, Spanish and English, and will be widely distributed. Christian Gruenberg prepared an initial draft of the report in 2008 and contributed to work on the text in 2009 by researching a range of practical examples and illustrations. Julio Bacio Terracino, one of the project’s lead researchers, wrote a new legal chapter for the second report in 2009. The report also benefited from the advice and input of Silke Pfeiffer, an independent consultant with considerable experience of anti-corruption institutions, who was asked in 2009 to help the Council make sure that the report would be understood by anti-corruption professionals, and adopted an appropriate tone. Follow-up activities will continue through the second half of 2010 into 2011, drawing on both reports. The first report’s reception has already shown that this work is relevant to a wide range of organisations, including UN agencies, national government programmes, national human rights institutions, international and national civil society organisations that campaign against corruption, human rights organisations, and women’s organisations (which are beginning to develop specific anticorruption campaigns). The Council is discussing with Transparency International and with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights whether there might be opportunities for cooperation in the report’s publication and dissemination. An ambitious follow-up plan has been prepared, involving several regional workshops for a range of institutions. The first of these will take place in Mexico in April 2010, sponsored by the University of Monterrey, the Government of Mexico and ICHRP. These meetings will generate several short documents, focused on the specific policy issues the workshops will address. This programme’s design reflects the Council’s desire to expand and focus its dissemination and outreach activities, and produce a range of focused secondary documents, with policy applications, based on the Council’s initial research. For additional project information: see project 131A in section A. Research director: Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona. Draft report: January 2009; February 2010. Publication: June 2010. Working title: Integrating Human Rights in Anti-Corruption Agendas. In English and Spanish. Summary in English, French and Spanish. Other translations to be confirmed. Research team: Lead writer: Christian Gruenberg. Additional writing: Magdalena Sepùlveda, Julio Bacio Terracino, Silke Pfeiffer. Advisers: Chong San Lee, Sandra Coliver, Stuart Gilman, Colin Goncalves, Nihal Jayawickrama, Ivan Krastev, C. Raj Kumar, Philliat Matsheza, Eduardo E. Rodriguez Veltzé, Ibrahim Wani (Shervin Majlessi, alternate). 13
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