A/HRC/26/34
A.
Interactive dialogue with the Human Rights Council
8.
During the twenty-third session of the Human Rights Council, held in May 2013, the
Independent Expert presented her report to the Council (A/HRC/23/45). She informed the
Council that the reporting cycle of her mandate had been modified, moving her interactive
dialogue with the Council forward by almost four months. As a consequence, her work on a
preliminary text of the draft declaration on the right of peoples and individuals to
international solidarity, as requested by the Council in its resolution 21/10, was still in
progress at the time of the interactive dialogue. The Independent Expert stated that the
preliminary text would be ready by August 2013. It would then be transmitted to Member
States, the Geneva-based United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), experts, academics and other stakeholders, with a view to eliciting comments and
inputs to be considered in the preparation of the draft declaration.
9.
In her concluding remarks, the Independent Expert stated that, as previously
promised during the eighteenth session of the Council, held in September 2011, the draft
declaration would be submitted in time for the consideration of the Human Rights Council
during its twenty-sixth session, to be held in June 2014.
B.
Vienna+20 international conference
10.
The international conference entitled Vienna+20: Advancing the Protection of
Human Rights, held in Vienna on 27 to 28 June 2013, marked the twentieth anniversary of
the World Conference on Human Rights that had adopted the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action. The 2013 conference was hosted by the Government of Austria in
cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The twentieth annual meeting of special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights
Council was also held in Vienna during the three days preceding the Conference in order to
enable the mandate holders to participate in the conference and contribute to its outcomes.
11.
The conference was a gathering of high-level human rights stakeholders from
around the world, including the special procedures mandate holders and human rights treaty
body members, representatives of regional and national human rights institutions, human
rights defenders and representatives of civil society and academia. The conference was
immediately preceded by a two-day international human rights civil society conference.
12.
During the conference, there were three simultaneous working groups on: the rule of
law; realizing the human rights of women universally; and a human rights-based approach
to the post-2015 development agenda. The three working groups were to develop actionoriented recommendations on how to further strengthen the human rights system, giving a
voice to human rights defenders and civil society organizations as crucial agents for global
human rights protection.
13.
The Independent Expert participated in the working group on the post-2015
development agenda, an area in which international solidarity is of critical relevance. The
working group discussed the key challenges for ensuring that human rights were fully
integrated in the post-2015 development agenda, and examined how the new framework
could ensure that human rights principles would be consistently taken into account in all
development measures. It also considered how to ensure that the contributions of the human
rights system and its various mechanisms were systematically integrated into the
development discussion, and how the accountability of States, the United Nations system,
international financial institutions, the private sector and other duty bearers could be better
defined and ensured.
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