WG, Review of Mandates, 16.4.07 (afternoon), report by A.F.

Continued discussion of the WG on Review of Mandates under the facilitator, H.E. Ambassador Husak of the Czech Republic:

Main Ideas: in order to harmonize mandates,
- overlaps of mandates need to be removed
- existing gaps need to be filled


1. remove overlaps of mandates:

- most States asked the Secretariat to provide them with a new clustered matrix of all the existing mandates, ordered according to subjects. This would allow them to identify overlaps.
-> The secretariat will publish such a matrix before the next meeting of the WG

- proposals for a unifying of similar mandates have been made. this was however strongly opposed by the Western States, since they fear that through such an fusion the specificities of each mandate would get lost.

- discussion around the advantages and disadvantages of individual or group mandates (ex: special rapporteur vs working group)


2. Identify gaps: what problems exist that do not yet have a special rapporteur to cover it?
Proposals were made by several States:
- mandate for cultural rights (by the Russian Federation, Iran)
- mandate on contemporary forms of Slavery (supported by UK, Iran, Belarus, CH, etc and several NGOs)
- mandate on effective acces to justice (introduced by Argentina)
- mandate on economic sanctions (introduced by DPRK and supported by Iran


=> general observation: this WG does not seem to get anywhere. rather than discussing about the mandates themselves, the WG is stocked in discussing procedural matters.