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National Conference on Ethiopia’s Reporting Obligations under International and Regional Human Rights Instruments- Progress and the Way Forward
 Press Release National Conference on Ethiopia’s Reporting Obligations under International and Regional Human Rights Instruments- Progress and the Way Forward The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, are organizing a 2-days Conference on the theme “Ethiopia’s Reporting Obligations under International and Regional Human Rights Instruments-Progress made and Way Forward”.
The National Conference will provide a forum for the consolidation of draft government reports prepared by the National Inter-Ministerial Ad-Hoc Committee, legal experts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the drafting committee and to be submitted to the United Nations Treaty Bodies, i.e. to the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Committee Against Torture, as well as Ethiopia’s draft report to the UN Human Rights Council to be considered during the 6th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session to be held in December 2009.
The National Conference will also provide an opportunity to evaluate the implementation of the recommendations adopted by the National Conference that took place in October 2007 on “The reporting obligations of Ethiopia to United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies”, of which this Conference is a follow up.Several efforts have been made within the framework of the ¨Project for the Implementation of Ethiopia’s Reporting Obligations under the International and Regional Human Rights Instruments”, a joint project between the Ministryof Foreign Affairs and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission with the technical support of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the United Nations Country Team. Submission of the Common Core Document, the combined report to the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and initial and combined report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples´ Rights can be cited as some of the achievements of the Project.
In addition, more than 500 women and men representing various governmental and nongovernmental institutions, benefited from human rights training programs organized in the context of the Project. More importantly, this National Conference will evaluate achievements and challenges faced in the implementation of the Project based on the recommendations of the 2007 National Conference. The current National Conference is expected to make concrete recommendations on the way forward and on further strengthening the excellent cooperation between the Government of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other stakeholders including the civil society.The National Conference which will be held on 23 and 24 April 2009 at the United Nations Conference Center, Conference Room 3 (UNECA Compound) in English and Amharic languages. Participants will include representatives from federal and regional government bodies, national institutions, the civil society, the United Nations Agencies, the African Union and observers from the diplomatic community.The National Conference is being organized with financial contributions mainly from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission’s Democratic Institutions Programme (DIP) sub-programme. DIP is a five year multi-donor programme that supports seven key governance institutions in Ethiopia such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.For further queries on the National Conference, contact Ms. Danayt Beyene, 911 177060 or danaytb@gmail.com- Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
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