treaty ratification

Ending impunity for severe housing rights violations – should domicide be recognized as an international crime?

Virtual side event – 77th session of the UN General Assembly 27 October 2022, 13:15-14:30 EST 

Massive violations of the right to adequate housing continue in unprecedented fashion during and after violent conflict. The attacking, bombing and shelling of civilian targets and the destruction of entire cities and villages – displacing millions into homelessness – have continued unabated despite the development of modern human rights and humanitarian law. While international law outlaws all forms of arbitrary destruction of housing, arbitrary displacement, forced evictions and other serious and large-scale violations of the right to adequate housing, there is an alarming continuity of gross violations of the right to adequate housing in times of conflict. Those severe human rights violations have been largely met with impunity.

In his report to the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal (A/77/190) argues to recognize systematic or widespread violations of the right to adequate housing as domicide, a crime against humanity of its own standing. The Special Rapporteur urges the international community to enhance its efforts to prevent and respond to such egregious human rights violations. Gross violations of the right to adequate housing should be investigated and prosecuted with similar effort as any other systematic or widespread human rights violation irrespectively where they take place. Similarly, Mr. Rajagopal suggested to ban the use explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas through a binding international treaty.

This side event provides will discuss his recommendations to prevent domicide and explore opportunities for ending impunity of severe housing rights violations.

Register here!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on the Family, please visit ngofamilyny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

The Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty: Protocol and the Way Forward

The Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ Treaty) was signed in Bangkok on 15 December 1995 by 10 Southeast Asian States (ASEAN Member States) and entered into force on 27 March 1997, committing the region to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in line with the 1971 Declaration on the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN). The webinar falls under the implementation of Action 5 of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Agenda for Disarmament: Securing Our Common Future, which aims to strengthen and consolidate nuclear-weapon-free zones, including by facilitating enhanced cooperation and consultation between existing zones, encouraging nuclear-weapon States (NWS) to adhere to the relevant protocols to the treaties establishing such zones.

Co-organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, this event aims to raise awareness on the issue of the SEANWFZ Treaty and to generate ideas for accelerating the signing and ratification of the Protocol to the Treaty by the NWS.

The webinar is open for participation by New York, Geneva and Vienna-based diplomats, academia and representatives of civil society. Speakers will engage in a moderated discussion representing different perspectives on the challenges surrounding implementation of the SEANWFZ, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Register here!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

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