Appendix I: The 47th Session of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities

Published date01 December 1995
Date01 December 1995
DOI10.1177/016934419501300412
Subject MatterPart C: Appendices
Part C: Appendices
Appendix I: The 47th Session of the UN Sub-Commission on
Prevention
of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
David Weissbrodt' and Jennifer Prestholdt"
Introduction
InAugust 1995, the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention
of
Discrimination and
Protection
of
Minorities convened for its forty-seventh session in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Sub-Commission is a subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights,
composed
of
twenty-six individuals who are elected to four-year terms by the
Commission. Sub-Commission members are expected to be independent and do not
represent the governments which nominate them. The twenty-six Sub-Commission
members include seven members from Africa, five from Latin America, five from Asia,
three from Eastern Europe, and six from 'Western Europe and Other' (including the
United States).
The Sub-Commission promotes and protects human rights through working groups,
studies
of
significant issues, standard-setting, and review of country situations in all parts
of
the world. Because
of
its role in initiating action within the
United
Nations human
rights system and its accessibility to non-governmental organizations, each year hundreds
of
human rights activists from dozens of countries travel to Geneva to participate in the
session of the Sub-Commission and its Working Groups.
I Working Groups of the Sub-Commission
The Sub-Commission accomplishes several of its most important objectives through three
thematic inter-sessional working groups (Minority Rights, Indigenous Populations, and
Contemporary Forms
of
Slavery) and one sessional working group (Administration of
Justice and Question
of
Compensation). The Sub-Commission in .1994 recommended the
establishment of the Working Group on Minority Rights, which was created by the
Commission on Human Rights in March 1995 and met for the first time in August 1995.
The goals
of
the five-member Working Group are to (1) review the promotion and
practical realization
of
the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or
Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities; (2) examine possible solutions to problems
involving minorities; and (3) recommend further measures, as appropriate, for the
promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to minorities. I
The Working Group on Minority Rights met from 28 August to 1 September 1995.
Unlike the other working groups, the Working Group on Minority Rights met after the
Sub-Commission session. This timing, which surprised many potential participants,
resulted in a smaller attendance and less attention to the Working Group than would
otherwise have been the case. Due to the lack of participants the Working Group held
Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law, University of Minnesota.
University of Minnesota Law School, class of 1996.
UN Doc.
E/CNAI1995,
at p. 94.
481

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