UNDP Turkmenistan holds seminar on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for government officials  Ashgabat, 27 February 2007- A seminar on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including information on its content and state’s monitoring obligations was held today at the National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights (NIDHR) within the framework of the UNDP project “Building of reporting capacities in Turkmenistan”. Participants included the members of the Interdepartmental Commission on monitoring the implementation of international human rights commitments Working Group, representatives of the law enforcement agencies and national experts from the NIDHR.
The seminar emphasized State party’s obligations to protect, promote and fulfill civil and political rights, monitoring of the implementation of the Covenant, best practices on report preparation, such as coordination and partnership with civil society representatives, public information and awareness of the public on the reporting processes. The seminar also covered the functions of the Human Rights Committee, the organ that monitors the progress made in realization of civil and political rights by state parties, and information on the overall reporting process and follow-up. As a result, government officials in charge of preparing the initial report on the implementation of the Covenant are equipped with information and know how that will assist them with this process. Documentation outlining the contents of the Covenant and its Optional Protocols, monitoring, reporting guidelines and examples of other country reports were disseminated in hardcopies and CDs to all participants. At the end of the seminar, the participants agreed that a follow up seminar covering the specific general comments issued by the Human Rights Committee, including in-depth discussion of the guidelines for reporting to be held in the near future. Turkmenistan acceded to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1997 and to its two Optional Protocols in 1997, and 2000 respectively. The Government of Turkmenistan aims to submit the initial report to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights later this year. *** “Building of Reporting Capacities in Turkmenistan” project aims to support and strengthen the capacity of the Government of Turkmenistan to fulfil its obligations under the human rights treaty bodies which it has acceded to, in particular, the periodic development of state reports to the UN human rights treaty bodies and implementation of recommendations made by these treaty bodies in legislation and practice in Turkmenistan. |
