Within the framework of the of the 26th annual meeting of Special Procedures, a meeting between the mandate holders of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and the Member States took place today at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
On that occasion, the Italian Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado, intervened with reference to the Joint Communication addressed to Italy by six special procedure mandate holders on May 15 addressing the cases of the “Mare Jonio” ship and a draft law-decree, the so called “Security Decree bis”.
Ambassador Cornado, explained that Special Procedures did not refrain from severely criticizing a merely draft law-decree not yet even presented for discussion to a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Italy and stressed the decision of the Special Procedures to send such a Communication in a very inappropriate time, just some days before the last European elections. In addition, the text was leaked appearing on Italian media before the UN official release.
Acting in this way, the Ambassador said, the Special Procedures fuelled a fired political debate on the merits of Italy’s longstanding commitment to the whole United Nations system and, particularly, to the Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ambassador Cornado therefore underlined the importance for mandate holders of special procedures to inspire their behaviour by the utmost ethical and professional standards, principles that have not been respected in this particular case.
The Ambassador also highlighted the need to proceed to an in-depth assessment of the methods and criteria for the selection and appointment of the Special Procedures mandate holders, in terms of both professional qualifications and guarantees of impartiality, in order to grant more transparency to their activity, also with reference to the costs afforded for them, and to enhance their independence beyond any reasonable doubt.
