Geneva Institute for Human Rights

On Tuesday, January 17, the Geneva Institute for Human Rights participated in "Violence and Non-Violence in the Arab spring," a seminar organized by Foundation for the Future in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

The seminar pulled together representatives from human rights organizations in Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, and Palestine to establish a consensus about non-violence in the Arab region and to facilitate networking and communication among civil society organizations, especially among the young people working in them.

The Geneva Institute for Human Rights participated in a regional workshop on the legal empowerment of the poor, held in Cairo from January 15-17 and organized by the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme.

Workshop participants aimed to build the concept of legal empowerment of the poor at the Arab regional level, a concept formulated by a high-level international committee - with Arab participation - in 2008. Its "law in the service of everyone" was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on January 6 urged Yemeni authorities to respect international laws prohibiting amnesties in cases of gross human rights violations. Yemeni politicians are currently debating an amnesty law soon to be presented to Parliament.

Joint statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Najat Maalla M’jid and the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jean Zermatten