A/HRC/17/24
operationalize the adopted framework. An expert meeting organized by OHCHR in June
2010, and attended by members of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
and other treaty bodies, help to validate the preliminary draft of a practical guide on the
methodology for developing indicators. OHCHR's methodology for developing human
rights indicators also contributed to the framework for action of the High-Level Task Force
on the Global Food Security Crisis, which provided illustrative indicators for assessing,
monitoring and evaluating food and nutrition security situations.
10.
Further to Human Rights Council resolution 11/8, OHCHR prepared a thematic
study on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights
(A/HRC/14/39), which was considered in a panel discussion on 14 June 2010. Following
During the discussion, 108 countries issued a joint statement requesting the High
Commissioner to take the study to the High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) to demonstrate the need to integrate a human rights
perspective to achieving all MDGs, in particular Goal 5 on maternal health. On 30
September 2010, the Council adopted, by consensus, a resolution welcoming OHCHR's
report, and requesting the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare an analytical
compilation on good and effective practices to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity.
That request, which was supported by 96 co–sponsors, indicated the international
community’s increasing responsiveness to the issue which previously had been addressed
outside the human rights arena.
11.
The year 2010 marked an important milestone in the process towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goals, which are intimately linked and instrumental to the
progressive realization of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights. The
OHCHR substantively contributed to the General Assembly’s High-level Plenary Meeting
on the MDGs (MDG Summit) by advocating a stronger position for human rights in the
deliberations and in the outcome of the Summit, and promoting greater understanding of
the linkages between human rights and development. As part of its communication strategy,
the United Nations and OHCHR have developed complementary and linked
communications tools, including websites.2 In August 2010, an article on human rights and
the MDGs, entitled “MDGs: Time is Running Out”, signed by the High Commissioner, was
published in 16 media outlets in 13 countries in 8 languages. Such efforts have succeeded
in the earning recognition by Heads of States of the central importance of human rights for
achieving the MDGs, by spelling out human rights commitments in concrete terms to
illustrate how commitments can be translated into action. These commitments highlight the
practical implications of key human rights principles, such as equality, non-discrimination,
participation, accountability and transparency, in both national development strategies and
international development partnerships. Furthermore, the outcome document of the MDG
Summit made more explicit the alignment of MDG targets with specific sets of human
rights standards as a pre-requisite for formulating and implementing more integral human
rights-sensitive development strategies.
12.
On 20 October 2010, the High Commissioner delivered her statement at the 65th
session of the General Assembly, in which she referred, inter alia, to the financial crash, the
economic recession and the MDG Summit. With regard to the latter, she noted that the
outcome document provided “a framework for filling gaps that invariably open up when
abuses of human rights take place, including economic, social and cultural rights
violations.”
2
Such as http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/ and
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/MDGIndex.aspx.
5
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