The Human Rights Council
Social Media Influence on the Population
The Human Rights Council is an official UN inter-governmental organization and it is also a subsidiary body of the General Assembly. It is composed by 47 States that are elected on a rotary base to staggered three-year terms. The first election of members was held on 9 May 2006, the members are selected in accordance with the UN’s regional group, respecting the following structure: 13 for Africa, 13 for Asia, six for Eastern Europe, 8 for Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7 for the Western European and Others Group. The Human Rights Council was created by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 in order to replace the former UN Human Rights Commission which was composed by 53 members. The Council is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe. As a matter of fact, it was created with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations around the world and make recommendations on them. The General Assembly can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership. The suspension process requires a two-thirds majority vote by the General Assembly.
List of counties:
Angola, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, United States of America, Uruguay.
Chairperson of the HRC
Name: Marta Garbarino
Major: Political Sciences
Hometown: Alessandria (Italy)
Favorite MUN experience: GMUN 2011, MIMUN 2011 and ROMUN 2010
Marta Garbarino comes from Italy, she is a Master Degree student in International Relations and Diplomacy-Extra European Studies at the University of Trieste (Gorizia siege) and she is currently working upon her Master thesis on Human Rights.
MUN-addicted since 2009, during the past 3 years she had a chance to attend many Models UN around the world playing all the possible different roles, such as delegate, head delegate, expert, chairperson and finally secretary general; just to mention a few of them, she attended C’MUN,SOFIMUN, ZAGIMUN, LIMUN, SMUN. Since her first year at the university, she has been an active member of the Italian Movement for the International Organization (UNYA-Italy), where she built the first training course for students attending Models UN.
Her biggest achievement in this field was her appointment as Secretary General of the international Rome Model United Nations for two consecutive years. The conference, which is the most prestigious MUN in Italy, is organized by the United Nation Association in Italy and it is hosted in the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations headquarters in Rome.
Address to future delegates:
Hon. Delegates,
It is my pleasure and greatest honor to serve you as Chairperson of the Human Rights Council at EMIMUN 2012.
The topic on our agenda is “Freedom of press and social media versus censorship”, an issue which is undoubtedly one of the most important and challenging aspects of our time.
Bearing in mind the huge and still growing impact that social media are exercising on our society, the way in which they are shaping current and future generations and the innovation that they are bringing in the field of communication, we believe that this topic requires a high level of awareness by current leaders and those who are to come. Moreover, the availability of new and more sophisticated technological tools for common people is redefining the press and the role of journalists worldwide.
Passion, commitment, enthusiasm and professionalism is what we are expecting from our delegates; on my behalf I can already assure you that I will do everything in my power to facilitate the normal flow of the debate, to preserve the high quality in the discussion and to make EMIMUN2012 the best conference you have ever attended.
Best regards,
Marta Garbarino
Useful links:
- The Universal declaration of Human Rights
- UN relevant resolutions, the Security Council
- Other relevant UN initiatives:
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- UNESCO
- Other international organizations initiatives:
- the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
- the European Charter on Freedom of the Press
- NGOs and other articles:
- Doha center for media freedom
- Berners-Lee on the read/write web
- the Committee to protect journalists
