Prawa człowieka w krajach Partnerstwa Wschodniego UE z ...

Human Rights in the EU’s Eastern Partnership Countries
from the perspective of the UN Treaty Bodies and Organs
This paper is a brief review of comments made by the UN treaty bodies and
specialised agencies concerning human rights protection in the EU’s Eastern
Membership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and
Ukraine. The impulse for the paper was the end of the first three-year period of the
UN Universal Periodic Review, which is one of the mechanisms introduced in the
course of the reforms of the UN system for human rights protection. The review
serves as a tool to present, in a credible manner, the human rights situation from
the perspective of the reviewed States, other UN member States, bodies and organs
as well as the stakeholders, such as national human rights institutions and NGOs.
The assumption of the review is to help identify the most pending issues associated
with human rights protection in the reviewed states, and in particular the problems
that are common for all the Eastern Partnership countries.
1. FOREWORD
The process of reforming the UN systems to protect human rights and freedoms
conducted in the middle of the first decade of the 21 st century was an attempt to restore the
credibility and effectiveness of the UN efforts in the field of human rights. At that time, the
crisis of the existing system was no longer only an argument raised by critics, but rather it
became a diagnosis openly expressed by experts working to develop proposed changes 27 as
well as by the UN Secretary-General, K. Annan 28 . The culmination of the changes was the
establishment in 2006 of a new UN organ: the Human Rights Council, which replaced the
former Commission on Human Rights. It was undeniably the most spectacular and the most
discussed element of the reforms that attracted a lot of attention both in the local and
international literature. However, the composition, mandate and functions of the Council were
27
Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Changes, A More Secure World: Our Shared
Responsibility, 02.12.2004, A/59/565.
28
In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all, Report of the Secretary-General,
26.05.2005, A/59/2005/Add.3.
33