The UN Human Rights Council, which was sets up to address human rights violations, is the successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was often criticised for the high-profile positions it gave to member states that did not guarantee the human rights of their own citizens. International human rights groups have expressed concerned that the council may be emulating the practices that discredited its predecessor.
The WAN resolution called on the council president and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "to protect the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and to ensure that international standards of freedom of expression are fully supported by the UN Human Rights Council and not undermined by it".
WAN and WEF issued six other resolutions including a condemnation of widespread press freedom violations during presidential elections in Zimbabwe. The two groups invited recently-elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to "decisively support and promote freedom of the press in Russia".
The groups also called upon Chinese authorities to release all imprisoned journalists and Internet reporters ahead of the Olympic Games and to honour the press freedom commitments it made in its successful bid for the 2008 Olympics.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, says its mandate is to defend and promote press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers worldwide.
Representing 18 000 newspapers, its membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and global press groups.
Source: Ecumenical News International www.eni.ch Printed with permission
