Release from FIDH – At the conclusion of the ninth session of the Human Rights Council, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) remains deeply concerned by the lack of mobilisation of a majority of Member States to protect victims of human rights violations in countries where they are the most vulnerable.

Although satisfied by the renewal of the mandate on the situation of Human Rights in Sudan, FIDH deplores the reduction of the length of the mandate to six months (instead of one year), interpreted by the Ambassador of Sudan as a sign of the “improvement” of the situation. For Souhayr Belhassen, President of the FIDH, “we haven’t seen any improvements on the ground, certainly no improvements on the victims’ side.”

FIDH also welcomes the renewal of the Council’s mandates on Cambodia and Burundi, but regrets that the subsistence of the latter be conditioned to the establishment of a national human rights commission, while the human rights challenges, notably the persecution of human rights defenders, require today far greater actions.

Finally, FIDH regrets the Council’s absence of action on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in spite of the continuous deterioration of the situation, the rise in the repression, and the application of death penalty to juveniles. FIDH also regrets the lack of action on Turkmenistan, in spite of the confidentiality of the procedure for which the country was examined.

As regards thematic issues, FIDH welcomes the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on racial discrimination on the concept of “defamation of religion”, recommending to move away from the sociological concept used in various Council resolutions, to use instead the legal notion of ‘incitement to hatred’. FIDH calls on Member States to fully endorse this recommendation and reflect it in resolutions adopted and declarations made within the Human Rights Council.

Geneva, Paris, 24 September 2008