Australia is a vibrant multicultural democracy with robust institutions, but in 2020 the global Black Lives Matter movement refocused attention on the severe disadvantage suffered by First Nations people in Australia, particularly the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison and high rate of deaths in custody.
While Australia largely contained the spread of Covid-19, a severe outbreak in Victoria after a mismanaged hotel quarantine scheme led to more than 700 deaths, mostly residents of aged care homes. Police efforts to enforce curfews and lockdowns during the pandemic raised concerns over freedom of expression and the misuse of police powers.
Current Panama Policy
The procedure in Panama for changing an individual’s legal gender is regressive and harmful, requiring transgender people who want legal recognition to undergo invasive and irreversible medical procedures, impacting their right to the highest attainable standard of health.
Under Article 121 of the Civil Registry Law, the National Directorate of Civil Registry can issue a correction of sex in a birth certificate only when the request is accompanied by a certificate from a forensic doctor that determines whether “the sex corresponds to the owner.”[1]
The absence of human rights-compliant legal gender recognition in Panama means that many transgender people, when required to present an identification document, risk being subjected to humiliation, discrimination, and even violence on the part of both public and private individuals and institutions.
Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for China
68th pre-session
This submission relates to the review of China under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It focuses on education policy in Tibet, barriers to education for children with disabilities, family separation in Xinjiang, conversion therapy against LGBT people, protection of education from attack, and shackling of people with psychosocial disabilities.
Education Policy in Tibet (article 13 and 15)
China’s education policy in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is significantly reducing the access of ethnic Tibetans to education in their mother tongue. The government policy, though called “bilingual education,” is in practice leading to the gradual replacement of Tibetan by Chinese as the medium of instruction in primary schools throughout the region, except for classes studying Tibetan as a language.
Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Cambodia
68th pre-session
This submission relates to the review of Cambodia under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It focuses on the right and access to education, the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Lack of Adequate Standard of Living for Over-indebted Borrowers (article 11)
The Covid-19 pandemic sparked an economic crisis in Cambodia, in which hundreds of thousands of people were suspended from work with little or no pay, or laid off outright. Many Cambodians have taken out micro-loans, often using land titles as collateral, but without jobs or income, they are unable to repay the loans.
Thank you Mr President. I would like to thank Special Representative Chambas for his briefing today and for his ongoing work over the past six months,.