UN Subcommission

Former attorney general of India and expert on human rights Soli Sorabjee was unanimously elected chairperson of the 56th session of the United Nations Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which is the main subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights. It comprises 26 independent experts in the fields of human rights: seven from Africa, five from Asia, five from Latin America, three from Eastern Europe and six from Western Europe and other countries. This year it was the turn of Asia to head the Subcommission which holds its regular sessions in July/August for three weeks in Geneva, it was reported in the national dailies.

In addition to the members, the annual session is attended by over 1,000 observers from different countries, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations having consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. "The main functions of the Subcommission are to undertake studies on human rights issues, to make recommendations to the Commission concerning the prevention of discrimination of any kind relating to human rights and the protection of racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities, indigenous people and other valuable groups,” notes a write-up in the Mid Day of July 27.

"Listening to horrific accounts of man’s inhumanity to man at the current session...is depressing. One wonders whether the only thing universal about human rights is their universal violation,” wrote Sorabjee in his column in the Sunday Express of August 1, 2004.