Press info: Human rights in Iraq: Humanitarian law and human rights experts to examine role of UN and international community

World Council of Churches - Geneva Info
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release: 15 March 2005

Human rights in Iraq: Humanitarian law and human rights experts to examine role of UN and international community

A seminar on the responsibility of the UN for human rights in Iraq, to be held at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on Tuesday 22 March 2005 (13:00-16:00), will focus on the norms and principles that should apply to the situation in Iraq, and facilitate a dialogue on the responsibilities of the international community and UN human rights machinery.

Main speakers at the seminar will be:

Salim Lone

, former UN director and senior advisor to Sergio de Mello at the time of the attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad),

- Theo Van Boven

, former UN special rapporteur on torture and professor of international law, and

- Louise Doswald-Beck

, director of the Centre for International Humanitarian Law, former secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists, and former head of the legal department of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Scheduled on the occasion of the second anniversary of the strike against Iraq, the seminar is open to participants in the current (12 March-22 April 2005) 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights and members of diplomatic missions in Geneva.

The seminar organizers - the NGO Working Group on Iraq and the UN with the World Council of Churches - hope to contribute to a well-informed discussion on the grave situation in Iraq and the obligations of the international community to stand up for human rights wherever they are violated.

22 March programme at the Ecumenical Centre
Beginning at 13:00 and ending at 16:00, the programme will consist of c.40-minute presentations, followed by a discussion:

- "The right to self-determination in Iraq" - Salim Lone

- "Torture and human rights in Iraq" - Theo Van Boven

- "Humanitarian law in Iraq" - Louise Doswald-Beck

- Discussion

Press representatives are welcome to attend this event.
Please contact WCC Media Relations office in advance: 022-791-6153, 079-507-6363 (mobile), media@wcc-coe.org

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland..