UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OHCHR Press conference : CCPR

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for attending the press conference this afternoon hosted by the UN Human Rights Committee.

Today, the Committee is going to present its findings on Iran, Kuwait, Korea, Trinidad and tobacco, the United States of America, and Venezuela.

These are the six states parties that the Committee reviewed in the current session.

Joining us today, we have Mr Santos Pais, Vice Chair of the Committee, Mr Gomez and Mr Gruja, members of the committee.

As we have a very heavy programme today.

Without further delay, I'll pass the floor to Mr Santo Pais and then we'll take your question after the presentation.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon to you all.

We had conducted a quite an intense session that it's closing today and we have reviewed 6 periodic reports and adopted the concluding observations for which we'll be talking now.

The countries covered with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kuwait, the Republic of Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States of America and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The review of Haiti was postponed by the Committee upon the request of the State party due to the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country.

In all reviews, in which the delegations generally engaged with frankness and the desire to achieve a meaningful dialogue, we have noted positive developments since the last reviews of the states appearing before us, while at the same time identifying areas of concern and making recommendations to the State parties.

The concluding observations will be and published later today.

We also adapted following the eight-year predictable cycle for the review of state parties, one list of issues on Pakistan and two list of issues prior to reporting on San Marino and Slovakia.

Regarding individual communications, we dealt with 55 communications, 25 were decided on the merits so-called views, 16 were declared inadmissible and 14 were discontinued.

Regarding the communications decided on the marries, we found violations in 22 of them on the follow up procedures, which is a procedure that we undertake not only following up concluding observations on state parties reports but also on views that you have each it.

We have prepared follow up report on concluding observations and a follow up report on views going directly to the countries analyse that will begin with Korea.

While acknowledging the various measures taken by the State party to prevent suicides, the Committee remained concerned that suicide rates remain **** among the elderly, youth and particularly within the military.

The Committee was concerned by claims that large numbers of military personnel suffer from mental illness linked to the **** levels of pressure in their service.

It called on the State party to address the social root causes of suicide, including the very **** level of pressure in educational, working and military environments and with regard to individuals in particularly vulnerable situations.

It's stated that the Republic of Korea should also increase financial resources and allocate appropriate budgets to strengthen the suicide prevention centres network and provide psychological support at the local level.

The Committee was also concerned about restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly, noting that the banning of a significant number of getwinks to ensure smooth traffic flow, particular near the President's office, did not comply with the principles of necessity and proportionality.

It also flagged its concern at reports of heavy-handed policing the protests staged by disability rights activists in Co Subway, including using excessive use of force to block and remove protesters and applying criminal law to arrest and prosecute protest organisers and participants.

The Committee called on the Republic of Korea to guarantee the right of peaceful assembly and ensure that limitations on that right comply with the Covenant and the principles of necessity and proportionality.

Coming to the United States, the Committee was disturbed by the increase of state level legislation and barriers that impede women's access to safe and legal abortion, notably the criminalization of healthcare providers, family members, and pregnant women themselves.

It was also deeply concerned with restrictions to Interstate travel, bans on medication abortion, and digital surveillance of abortion seekers for prosecution purposes.

The Committee highlighted the disproportionate impact of these measures on women and girls with low incomes from vulnerable groups and ethnic and racial minorities, and it called on the State party to provide legal, safe, and confidential access to abortion throughout its territory.

It further asked the states, the United States, to end the criminalization of abortion, to remove and refrain from introducing new barriers impeding access to abortion care, and to protect women seeking abortion care from digital surveillance.

The committee also raised concern about the increase of legislative initiatives and practises that limit the exercise of the right to vote.

These include partisan gerrymandering, restrictions on voting by mail and ballot collection, and burdensome voter identification requirements.

The committee highlighted the disproportionate impact of these measures on low income voters, pupil with disabilities, and racial and ethnic minorities, and expressed concern at harassment and attacks against election officials.

It recommended that the State party ensure that all voters can exercise their rights and that polling stations are accessible, particular in states with weak election infrastructure and for people with restricted accessibility.

It further asks the State party to ensure that the electoral districts are designed by non partisan commissions subject to cheques and balances and do not have the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on racially discriminatory grounds and to conduct effective investigation on harassment and attacks against election officials and to punish those responsible.

[Other language spoken]

Now we have Mr Gomez for another two countries.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, and good afternoon, everybody.

I'm going to inform you about our concluding observations.

First about the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The first kind of concern refers to violence against women and specially we are worried about the law to support the family by promoting the culture of custody and hijab.

This law has already been passed in the Parliament and the spending of the approval of the Guardians Council and it foresees severe punishment for the women who breached the dress code that amount until 10 years of prison and flogging.

And of course, we recommend the state party to repeal these the new law and avoiding it's coming into force.

Consequently, we also recommend the state party to disband the morality police, which in fact is in charge of the implementation of this law by monitoring the dress code in public and our recommendation is purely to disband these morality police.

And finally, on this issue of violence against women, we are worried also about the lack of investigation of violence against women, including the so-called honour crimes that are partially enabled by the Islamic Penal Code and we ask the state party to undertake duly investigation, impartial, independent on these crimes.

On death penalty, which is another main issue of concern, we have find that there has been an increase in executions since 2021.

Then there is a large number of of offences eligible for death sentences that do not qualify as most serious crimes.

For instance, drug trafficking, crime against God are spreading corruption on earth.

We are also concerned because of disproportionate application of the death penalty to members of minorities such as Baluch, Awasi, Arabs and Kurdish minorities, and for the absence of Fair trials in this process that finish with the death penalty and normally or very often in close proceedings before the revolutionary courts.

We are also concerned that families and lawyers are not informed about the execution.

Therefore, our recommendations on this issue is to consider establishing a de facto and immediate moratorium so that no death penalties are executed.

2nd, to ensure that no person under 18 years is subjected to death penalty under any circumstance and assure of a fair trial procedures and revise the least of criminal offences qualified for death penalty.

The third main issue we've we've been dealing with is the excessive use of force.

Our concerns is that after Jina Masha Amini death, 2, excuse me, 550 protesters died have been murdered, including at least 68 children and there had been lack of investigation of all these deaths.

Our recommendation is to ensure that the use of force is in line with international standards in these cases.

And in accordance with that, with our general comment 36 on right of life, we recommend the State party to investigate all these allegation of excessive use of force.

Thirdly, independently and within and with impartiality.

And we recommend also to ensure a plant impartial and in a dependent investigation on the death of Mashamini, because we've known that there have been 6 investigations that have been undertaken, but none one of them has been transparent, nor the the the participation of the family of Mashamini in those procedures.

Also on Iran, we are no, yes, we, we have been no, excuse me, I'm going to pass to Trinidad and Tobago, which was another other country that we have revising.

And there the main challenge has been the, well, the, the treatment of aliens, including refugees and asylum seekers.

Because we must remember that Trinidad and Tobago is very close to Venezuela.

In fact, it's only 10 kilometres from one coast to the other.

And we are worried because there is there's a lack of a comprehensive legislative and institutional framework for the protection of refugees.

[Other language spoken]

The migrants coming from Venezuela are directly classified as economic migrants and therefore they can be deported at any time.

The migrants, including children are often held in detention centre for for extended.

And sometimes with other person which are convicted persons.

And we are also worried because of reports of migrant women sexually abused in the so-called Elliport immigration facility.

Therefore, our recommendation is to strictly adhere to the principle of nonrefullimant in the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and to provide them with an independent judicial appeal mechanism and to ensure that the conditions and treatment are in the accommodation of these migrants fulfil also are in conformity with international standards.

Finally, we ask also the State party on this issue to guarantee that allegations of discrimination and violence against asylum seekers and refugee are duly investigated.

The second big issue in this country refers to the administration of justice.

We are concerned about excessive delays in trials resulting in lengthy periods of pretrial detentions.

We are concerned also the limited resources for legal aid and for the lack of objective criteria for the appointment of judges and prosecutors.

These results in a mistrust on justice administration and a lack of channels for accountability for judicial misconduct.

Therefore, our recommendations on this issue are to take measures to reduce the backlog, to take measures also to prevent and investigate judicial corruption and to ensure that the appointment of judges is in line with the basic principles on the independence of the judiciary and the guidelines for the prosecutors.

Finally, the last issue on on Trinidad and Tobago refers to juvenile justice because we are very much concerned for the fact that there is a very low wage for criminal responsibility.

In fact, legal responsibility.

Criminal responsibility begins at seven years, so our recommendation on this point is to significantly, significantly raise the age of criminal responsibility and to promote alternatives to deprivation of liberty for children.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you, Mr Gomez and now we will have Mr Gruja to walk us through the findings on Venezuela and Kuwait.

Good afternoon everyone.

That's my pleasure indeed to present our findings on Venezuela and and Kuwait.

So, in its conclude the observation on the 5th Periodic Report of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, major human rights issues and concerns are raised, such as the fight against corruption and forces, appearances, arbitrary killings, women's rights, states of emergency, administration of justice and the need to fight against impunity.

Among some of the grave concerns expressed by the Human Rights Committee, some focused on the allegation of the restriction of the democratic space through political political disqualification to prevent opposition party members from running public office in general and from participation in the 2024 presidential election in particular.

Therefore, the Human Rights Committee urged Venezuela to ensure that all individuals, including the youth, have full and effective enjoyment of their right to political participation by securing the registration in the National Electoral Register.

And the Human Rights Committee further called on the State party to ensure fair, transparent, inclusive and pluralistic elections at all levels, securing due process and transparency in the administration procedures.

The committee in the same country observations also expressed concerns on the closure of civic space, harassment of human rights defenders, resell blowers and public officials who had talked and denounced corruption cases.

Also, closure of media companies, intimidation of journalists and arbitrary arrest of journalists and these also these concerns also apply to trade union leaders, indigenous leaders among other social worker.

And in this regard, the Human Rights Committee in the congregate observation urged Venezuela to end harassment, intimidation and violence against journalists, human rights defenders, trade union, trade union leaders, indigenous activists and politicians regarding Kuwait and especially the conclude the observations on the 4th periodic Report of Kuwait.

Significant human rights issues are also discussed such as anti corruption measures, hate speech, violence against women and the use of death penalty.

The Human Rights Committee specifically raised the question of the situation of the Bidoons people and their structural discriminatory trade treatment by the state party as stateless persons.

In this regard, the Human Rights Committee called upon Kuwait to ensure that no one becomes or remains a stateless person and provide full protection against discrimination in all spheres to be done and other stateless people in the country.

The Human Rights Committee also expressed concern and formulated some recommendations on the treatment of migrants workers and especially regarding the very **** rate of death among migrant workers.

And the Human Rights Committee also raised the important issue of gender based discriminations and made made specific recommendation to fight against stereotypes, especially patriarchal attitude and stereotypes in the country.

And in this regard, the Human Rights Committee recommended to Kuwait to develop strategies to combat these patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes about the roles and responsibilities and of women and men in the family, in the family, but also in the society as a whole.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you, the three of you.

Now we can open the floor for question.

First of all, let's see whether we have question in the room first or we can also go to the online platform.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, good, good afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Isabel Sacco with FA, the Spanish news agency.

I would like my question is on Venezuela and I would like to ask about the engagement of the of the government of the State of Venezuela with the review by made by the by the committee.

What kind of exchange you had with representative officials from Venezuela and if you have observed an attitude that allows you to think that the government has an intention to implement your recommendations?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for sorry.

Thank you for for your question on, on, on Venezuela.

As Mr Santos by said, the exchange with the with all the delegations, but especially with the delegation of Venezuela was really frank and direct.

So we expressed our concern.

They disagreed with some concerns we we expressed, but they were given the opportunity to reply to the information we received and to provide more information.

And that's what we used then to issue our conclusion observation.

So it was really, I would say a front dialogue.

The positive element is that we, we had this dialogue during the the two days.

And during the first day we, we didn't get the replies to our question.

But during the second part of the meeting, we, we got more information and then we received also replies in in return.

So we were able, I would say to assess the of of the information received.

Now it's on your second question, it's a bit, I would say too early to, to say anything about the implementation because in general we, the rule is to, to leave a space and a period of time to, to the state party to implement.

So now the state has three years to implement what we call in our concrete observation priority recommendations.

And we will see, I would say in the coming weeks, in the coming months and in the coming years, the type of positive, hopefully positive measures state is ready to, to, to adopt, to implement our recommendations.

And the very short, I would say.

Where we will be able to, to see whether or not Venezuela is is willing to engage with the Human Rights Committee.

Is the, the, the next, the next election, I mean the 2024 election.

We may we, we have made in our conclude your observation specific recommendation on political participation and and hopefully it will be considered by the state of Venezuela.

[Other language spoken]

The next question we have great Gabriella.

Yes, thank you very much.

Gabriella Sotomayor for Mexican newspaper proceso.

[Other language spoken]

Do you do you spoke with the with the state about how many women are in gaol right now?

I mean, you, you mentioned death women, but but how many are in gaol that that is my first question.

Then on about USA.

I, I didn't read the conclusions.

I'm sorry.

But the situation of migrants on the country, on the country's southern border, the new laws that allow for walls and other measures to prevent passage of migrants and their right to asylum.

If you spoke about that issue with the state, if you can tell us about that.

And the last one about Venezuela, after your review and your concerns regarding the democratic space in Venezuela, do you think there are strong possibilities of the country failing into a dictatorship?

[Other language spoken]

We have three questions from Gabriella.

The first one is on Iran.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for your question.

No, unfortunately, we don't have exact figures about the, the the women in gaol.

[Other language spoken]

We know that the what the situation is.

We know that I'm referring myself to the violence against women and to the dress code and all the problems with their morality police.

But really we don't have exact figures of, of the women in prison now currently in, in, in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

And the second question is on the US about migrants in the South.

Thank you very much for the question that you have raised.

Yes, we expressed our concern with recent measures adopted by the state party, in particular the administrative rule circumvention, lawful pathways, the CVP 1 mobile application and enhance expedited removal procedure, which excessively restrict effective protection of the rights to seek and enjoy and Salem as they compromise the quality of the assessment of the individual protection needs and increases the risk of breaches of the principle of non reform law.

We're also concerned about reports that the continued use of mandatory and prolonged detention of immigrants, lack of adequate access to legal counsel, poor conditions of detention, including overcrowding, and inadequate access to food, water and medical care, leading to deaths of numerous detained persons, including children, and instances of violence in treatment and ***** in public and private migrant detention facilities, including sexual violence and use of prolonged solitary confinement.

So we asked the state party to ensure that immigration detention is used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time.

Regarding children in migration, we were profoundly concerned about the consequence of the State party's 0 tolerance policy, where more than 5000 children were forcibly separated from their parents at it's southern border.

And while welcoming the wishes and of such policy, in January 2021, the establishment of the Interagency Task Force on reunification families in favour of that year, The committee is concerned that reports that hundreds of children remain separated from their families.

[Other language spoken]

And we have the third question on Venezuela.

Mr Kuja, please, Thank you, Gabriella for your question on, on, on Venezuela.

It's it's of course a very important question.

And, and what we said at the beginning of the dialogue with Venezuela is precisely that it was the perfect moment to have this dialogue with the Human Rights Committee precisely because it was before the election, before we are in this pre electoral situation.

So for, for the Human Rights Committee, it was the right moment to have this conversation on civic space and to have this conversation on the need to, to reinforce the democratic, the democratic society and to, to, to make sure precisely that we are not turning into an authoritarian regime or a dictatorship as you, as you mentioned.

So in the dialogue and in the concrete observations, you, you will see that actually the, the, the concerns and the recommendations we, we made are not only focused on political participation, but we have actually interrelated different aspects of, of safeguard of the Democrat of a democratic regime.

So we have a a big part of the recommendations and a big part of the concrete observations are about the role of the judiciary and the need to have a strong, independent and impartial judiciary.

We have also, of course, very strong paragraphs and recommendation on freedom of expression because the state cannot be democratic without Free Press.

Of course, it's obvious we have a strong paragraph on peaceful protest, we have strong paragraph on freedom of association, plus a strong paragraph on political participation.

So for the Human Rights Committee, it was really important to first expressed different types of concerns, but also to make a precise and detailed recommendation precisely to to to avoid this turn to a non democratic regime and to preserve the the democracy and and the civic space.

One of the things that we observed in the discussion with Venezuela is that the State party is particularly concerned at the international sanctions it has been subjected to, is willing to at least try that these sanctions could be lifted.

And we hope that in this bargaining between the lifting and the sections and the need to abide by the provisions of the covenant, the State party will find the right way to abide by the provisions of the covenant and in the end, that the population under the jurisdiction of the State party would benefit from this review.

[Other language spoken]

And the next question goes to Yuri.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for taking my question.

[Other language spoken]

And obviously I have two questions about the USA.

For the USA, you have noticed any discrimination against, have you noticed any discrimination against the population of Russian or Russian descent after February 24, as it was the case in many European countries?

I mean with the closing of banks and at school.

And my second questions is, do you have a record of civilians killed in drone strike outside the territory of the USA as you are talking in your report, are we talking about hundreds, thousands, if you have any idea?

[Other language spoken]

Mr Centrepiece, you want the state of question now.

So thank you very much for the question.

I'll begin perhaps with answer to the second question.

I I suppose that you're talking about the targeted killing using human operated ARL devices called drones.

We of course have been concerned.

The question has been raised during the dialogue.

It seems that the USA has been conducting drones attacks outside its borders at least 56, with eventually provoking casualties of more than 1500 people, most of them civilians.

And of course we we seriously consider that this entitles a violation of the obligations under the Covenant.

We are concerned particularly by the lack of accountability of those that have been conducting these hair strikes.

And of course, when we're talking about the violation of the right to life, which is the supreme life under the government, which we should be concerned.

So the state party has answered as a as a policy that he's acting under the laws of war.

He's attacking particular al Qaeda groups, Hezbollah, and so he's just defending itself.

But one thing is to attack warriors in the battlefield, another thing is to strike civilians.

And so we have asked the state party to come to come to be able to abide by the government and to prevent itself to have recourse to these type of strikes.

Regarding the other, the other question that we have raised, we have it raised under several issues.

First on, for instance, on criminal justice system, the the fact that there is a disproportionate proportionate members of African descent Spano and Latino American origin or migrants or Muslims that are subjected to severe sentences in the state party much more than the white counterparts.

And we're also concerned by.

For instance, one of the concerns was raised by the use of police officers in schools for policing the school and the fact that most of the affected members of the school students are people from underprivileged backgrounds or people from Africa descent Espanol Latino origin and others.

And this would in several cases conducted these students to then line up for conflicts with the law.

And so we tackled the issue for several times for for several perspectives.

And we also addressed the the issue of Indigenous people, which are also affected by this trend.

The United States is facing these structural problems for many, many years, even centuries.

And so the the we asked the state party to be able to conduct serious negotiations with indigenous peoples, for instance, to respect their sacred sites, because many of them are being exposed to projects of mining and others.

And so I think the delegation was particularly concerned about the need to change the situation.

And although it's a structural problem that probably will take still time to overcome, I think they are at least the present administration is fully conscious that they will have to do something much more than has been done up to the current moment.

[Other language spoken]

Maybe also to to add on that question of of drone, one of the problem that was also discussed with the delegation and it's not a new issue because it was already discussed by the Human Rights Committee in our previous conclude.

The observation is that it's about the legal position of the US because the US does consider and does adopt A very broad definition of an armed conflict.

And their position is to say that when there is an armed conflict, the covenant does not apply and it's the body of law that apply is international humanitarian law.

So the Human Rights Committee did recall during the dialogue, but also in the concluding observation that actually the, the, the, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does apply.

So we invite the, the, the US to revise its legal position.

It applies and especially Article 6 of the Covenant protecting the right to lie.

So when we when there is an armed conflict, there is no exclusion of international human rights law and there is of course no exclusion of the International Covenant on civil political right.

So it's very important also that the US revise their position on this on this important question.

So thank you for for raising it.

[Other language spoken]

Just one precision, you are talking about 1500 civilians.

Can you say please which.

It's from 2020, from 2021, and is it up to date or is it up to the beginning of 2023 for example?

[Other language spoken]

The information is we have is that the people I referred to 1500 people the came from 15 from 56 known strikes since January 2021.

[Other language spoken]

Do we have any more question from the Internet platform?

[Other language spoken]

Vivian, I would like to just follow up about the major concerns that you have about the United States, because there is a long laundry list of concerns that you have.

And I, I know that it's hard for you to prioritise, but there was a time during the hearings where some, a number of activists, particularly women's rights activists, indigenous peoples activists, showed a pretty dramatic demonstration of opposition to some of the responses from the United States government.

And I'm just wondering if you could give us a bit more flavour about what you really see is the most pressing issues.

You know, dozens upon dozens of of NGO representatives showed their discontent with the responses from the US government.

And if you could just help us get a better flavour as to where you think specifically the United States should be doing more to help address some of these very pressing concerns in a a number of communities across the United States.

[Other language spoken]

Well, the number of NGOs present regarding the United States was a very huge and impressive 1.

And the members of these NGOs were people particularly affected by the problems they were facing and expressing concern.

And I do think that we have to understand that many of the concerns they have expressed come from the fact that they have experienced in their lives very tragic situations.

So the the the NGOs covered almost all issues of the review conducted with the state party.

So it's difficult to see which ones would be the most important ones.

But I could just give some ideas on this.

There were of course many reactions to the set back.

Resulting from the Dobbs judgement on abortion, but of course, many of the questions relating to the criminal justice system, particularly affecting members of underprivileged communities.

Black Americans for people from Africa descent or Hispano Latino origin normally subject to very heavy sentences, much of the time convicted to life imprisonment, which is they called death by incarceration because there is no hope for them to leave.

And many of them being convicted from a very early age.

And also problems concerning solitary confinement is solitary confinement applied to children when they first entered the criminal justice system.

So these are indeed very appalling and concerning situations.

Other situations that were brought to our attention was those concerning voting rights.

Many of the states in the United States have been adopting restricted rights with the change in the way of forming the constituencies for the elections, with some disruption on the way to the access to ballots to ballots.

And this impacts particularly like people from African descent and of course, underprivileged people.

And so we would expect that the state party would continue to make efforts on this particular area.

But nevertheless, I think that one of the reasons why the NGOs expressed more concerns was the fact that the delegation of the United States mainly refer to presidential executive orders by the current administration.

And they felt that these orders have not yet got to the Crown, so could not deal directly with the root causes of the many of the problems that we have been discussing.

I understand this concern.

I think the delegation also understood that concern because they had more than a meeting, I guess with representatives, everyday NGOs that were present at the Vienna.

And the only thing I can say is, considering the previous administration, I think that the the the delegation that came before us did acknowledge a lot of difficulties and shortcomings, which is from the positive, from the view of the committee, is a positive sign that they are indeed willing to engage with the concerned affected persons, namely of the NGOs present, in order to make change in the system.

But we have to take into account the fact that the United States is a federal system.

The federal system is not necessarily in in alignment with positions of States, and many of states have taken legislative actions or adopting policies that go against many of the things that would expect the United States to abide by.

So there's also an internal struggle between the federal state and the states within the Union.

And one of the things that I think was a positive sign was the fact that we have heard from the delegation several examples where the federal system took to the courts several decisions taken or legislative action taken by the states in order to oblige them to abide by rules that would uphold the rights of those leaving in those states.

So although I understand the concern, I really hope that the review came at the right moment and that the United States now going back, because it's one of the purposes of this dialogue.

It's not only to have a three or six hours dialogue, but to allow the delegations that come to reflect on the issues that have been raised on the recommendations that we have issued and use this to change their policies in order to reinforce the protection of the rights of people and their jurisdiction.

So in a nutshell, I hope I've not answered all your concerns, but at least I tried to the best of my knowledge.

[Other language spoken]

And maybe also to to clarify, because it's some sometimes it's not always very clear for a broader audience in the concrete observation, we have three priority recommendation and it does not mean that these recommendations are the most.

We do not to establish, I would say a sort of hierarchy among problems because all problems are really urging problem and precinct problem.

But, but here it's true, as Mr Santos pays say, that we have three priority recommendations, sexual and reproductive rights, voting rights, and also freedom of assembly.

But we and, and we, we have chosen this priority recommendations, of course, because these are important, but also because it's doable in the short period of time, in the, in the period of time of three years.

So it's really important really to to explain to a broader audience that the Human Rights Committee does not establish a sort of hierarchy between problems or between victims or between affected people.

But of course, in the whole conclude observations, we addressed other very significant issues and other very significant problem urging questions such as climate change and access to water, for instance, or structural issues.

But we, the state, will need more time, of course, to address this, this this problem, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, aid crimes, LGBT rights and the regression we are witnessing in, in the US, rights of person, rights of indigenous peoples.

So these are also very urging, urging and pressing issues in the country.

But because it's very difficult for the state to address this, this problems in this short period of three years.

Of course, these are not in the list of priority recommendation, but I just wanted to clarify the idea of priority recommendation.

If I might just jump up again and take two issues concerning the same question.

We addressed 2 issues, which for the state party are very important indeed, gun violence particularly.

And of course, welcome to adoption of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 and the establishment of Federal Office for Gun Violence Prevention in September 2023.

But we are also concerned about the increase in gun related deaths and injuries which disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities as well as women and children.

And so the idea is to prevent and reduce gun violence by strengthen the legislative and policy measures requiring background cheques for all private firearms and ammunitions acquisition and transfer, and banning ******* weapons and **** capacity magazines and restricting access to firearms by those most at risk of abusing them.

And they also dealt with a problem which in the United States is a recurring 1 excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.

Cases of police brutality, the excessive and deadly use of force by law enforcement officials, including by customs and body protection officers, which has a desperate impact on people of African descent, indigenous peoples, persons in Hispanic, Latino origin, migrants, and exiler seekers.

And of course, we asked the state party to review the federal and state regulations, standards, and operation procedures combining the use of force by law enforcement and bring them in conformity with the basic principles on the Use of Force and Firearms and the United Nations Human Rights Guidance on Less Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement.

[Other language spoken]

I believe Jamie from Associated Press will have a follow up question.

Yeah, sorry that.

Thank you very much.

You discussed a lot of the issues that I, I, I would have also liked to ask about.

So thank you for the very extensive answer.

I'd also like to just talk very briefly about Iran, if you might.

If you you mentioned that you engaged the state party with regard to the United States.

And of course, Iran has made a lot of headlines in the recent months about crackdown on, on women and particularly even within the last week or so about the, the, the, the, the law about women clothing that women have to wear to be able to.

And and I guess I'm just wondering what if anything you have gotten in terms of a response from the Iranian government about whether these, what some people might call repressive laws are in any way being re evaluated by the leadership of the Islamic Republic.

And do you have, is there any sign that the report that you're about you're providing today could have any impact with the decision makers at the at the top of the Islamic Republic?

Thank you very much for the question, Jamie.

Yes, well, we have we've been dealing with this issue because it's a it's a big concern of the committee.

But I think we are these dialogue arrives at the very right moment because this law about the protection of the family and the Cassidy of the women and the hijab is still not theoretically it's not in force.

So we recommend very strongly the state party not to approve it by the **** Council of the Guardians of the Revolution that have the last words on this issue.

So for the committee, it's very important.

And this is one of the recommendations, as my colleague said, that it's feasible.

And this is one of the reasons why we included it in our priority recommendations because they, we can do it.

And we see what they've done after, after three years.

I mean, in three years time, they will be before us and they will be asked about the fulfilment of this recommendation.

And we will ask also civil society.

And then what we do is we great, we the, the, the implementation of the, of the recommendation.

And then we send our report to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

That is what we do.

This is the maximum of the pressure that we can put on on in the state to implement our recommendations.

And certainly this one about the situation of the women and the dress code, etcetera, has, is, is, is really very important for us and has priority in our, from our point of view.

But of course, during the dialogue, we, we cannot perceive which is the attitude of the government because it in fact it did an exchange of information and, and, and then the, the attitude we can only have an idea of, of, of, of what it is like after a certain.

In which we can evaluate whether they are implementing it or not.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any more hands now.

So Mr Central Price, would you like to have some concluding remark?

Yes, thank you very much.

Thank you very much for the questions.

Of course, it's difficult for for us dealing with six countries reviewing the session to be able to address all the concerns that have been raised.

I hope we have been at least met some of your expectations.

I would just like to say to conclude that we are not finishing a cycle.

I mean when we review the state purchase report, we're already beginning the next follow up, the next report.

So we have the follow up on concluding observations as my colleagues have mentioned, which we will deal in the next few years and we will be preparing their next review of the state party that will come in 8-9 years in each one of the countries that we have reviewed now.

And our experience also tells us that most of the time members of delegations and return to their countries reflect on the concluding observations that we have issued and reflected on the many questions and concerns that you have raised.

Many of them have contacts with their own representative of civil society.

And so they hopefully we'll engage in meaningful dialogues with these representatives.

And of course, we'll be watching what each one of these countries will do in the hope that in the end, the aim that we're pursuing and as the people under the jurisdictions of all these states can benefit from better protection, more deepen, respect their rights, and that the state parties find the right way to address their concerns in a way that will abide by the provisions of our government.

Thank you, thank you, Mr Santupais, thank you, Mr Gomez, and thank you, Mr Tiguja.

And thank you everyone for joining us today.

I believe our press conference has come to an end an end.

Have a good afternoon.

OHCHR - Press conference : CCPR - 03 November 2023