Issue No. 16 of the Assembly and Association Briefing, the newsletter of Maina Kiai, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. In this issue: • Kiai calls on Chile to eliminate “vestiges of dictatorship” detrimental to assembly rights • UNSR presents report to General Assembly, urges States to promote civil society by elevating its treatment to the same level as business • Experts urge Latin America and Caribbean: adopt trend-setting environmental agreement • UN expert urges Angola… Continue reading →
GENEVA – Special Rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Maina Kiai have held three final consultations in Geneva on their joint project to develop practical recommendations for the proper management of assemblies, as requested by the Human Rights Council in resolution 25/38. Heyns, who is the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Kiai, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, are scheduled to present the recommendations to the Council at its 31st session in March… Continue reading →
NEW YORK/GENEVA – Civil society’s contributions to a nation’s wellbeing are just as important as those made by businesses, UN expert Maina Kiai told the UN General Assembly today. He called on States to give the same level of respect and create enabling environments for civil society groups, just as they do for companies. Speaking during the presentation of his latest report, which compares the operating environments for commercial and civil society sectors worldwide, Kiai said that it was clear that businesses generally operate in better… Continue reading →
NEW YORK – United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai will appear before the UN General Assembly on Oct. 27 to present his latest report, which compares States’ treatment of businesses and civil society, with an eye towards elevating conditions for the latter. Kiai’s presentation is scheduled to begin at approximately 11 a.m. (US Eastern Standard Time), and will be broadcast live on webtv.un.org. The report, which is available here, compares the so-called “enabling environments” that States, multilateral organizations and other… Continue reading →
GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, today urged the Government of Angola to release fourteen activists arrested in June after taking part in peaceful meetings to criticize lack of good governance in the country. Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai joined Forst’s call, along with three other UN experts. “Deprivation of liberty on the sole ground of having promoted good governance and exercised the rights to free expression and peaceful assembly may be considered arbitrary,” Mr…. Continue reading →
