The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
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(serious music up)
GFX: Eleanor Roosevelt, 1948
On the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (ARCHIVAL 1948)
We have much to do...
World War II footage
to fully achieve and to assure the rights set
forth in this Declaration.
World War II footage
NARRATION:
current day footage
ROOTED IN THE PAST, THE UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS WAS
LAUNCHED INTO THE FUTURE.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (ARCHIVAL 1948)
Footage of key current key
moments: shots of violence, war,
poverty...end on jail door slamming
shut – images that reflect the
“unfinished task”
As we here bring to fruition our labors on this
Declaration of Human Rights we must at the
same time rededicate ourselves to the
unfinished task which lies before us.
Shots from the Detroit Mission
CATARINA DE ALBUQUERQUE – SR WATER (in English)
CATARINA DE ALBUQUERQUE
ONCAM
SOT: Hi, my name is Catarina. Nice to meet you.
NARRATION:
B-roll of opening jail in CAR
Marie-Thérèse KEITA BOCOUM on
cam
GFX: Central African Republic
TODAY, THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL TASKS A SMALL GROUP OF EXPERTS
WHO CONDUCT COUNTRY VISITS WORLDWIDE
TO INVESTIGATE AND REPORT ON A WIDE
RANGE OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.
(cut to black)
GFX: Turin, Italy
SOT JOY NGOZI EZEILO – SR Human Trafficking (in
English)
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
JOY NGOZI EZEILO on cam
How long have you stayed here?
GFX: Turin, Italy
JOY NGOZI EZEILO on cam
NARRATION:
2
Shot of placards of disppeared
persons
THE GLOBAL REACH OF THESE EXPERTS HAS
GROWN IN RESPONSE TO THE WORLD'S
AWARENESS OF INJUSTICE.
Argentina's Military Junta
JUAN MENDEZ – SR TORTURE (in English)
GFX: Argentina
00:45 I was a young lawyer in Argentina during the military
dictatorship. I was one of more than 125 or so lawyers who
were arrested because of the defense of political prisoners.
Juan Mendez ONCAM
GFX: Juan Mendez,
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
and Inhuman Punishment
(opening music fades)
Argentina archival footage
GFX: 30,000 people were
“disappeared” in Argentina from
1975-1983
(Latin American music up)
[optional] Archival footage of dirty
war
JUAN MENDEZ – SR TORTURE (in English)
During interrogation I was subjected to electricity and other
forms of torture. And then I spent a year and a half in prison
as a political prisoner.
Juan Méndez ONCAM
JUAN MENDEZ – SR TORTURE (in English)
GFX/Photos
Adhoc committees
S. Africa, Israel, Chile
For years the United Nations had a procedure that was
strictly confidential – they only covered the violations in
South Africa, in Israel and in Chile. And no other country
was ever considered.
(music fade out)
Juan Mendez ONCAM
JUAN MENDEZ – SR TORTURE (in English)
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
Archival Shots of Special
Procedures (Theo van Boven)
3
But it was the situation in Argentina that broke through. In
fact the first of the Special Procedures as they are now
called, is the Working Group on Disappearances.
GFX Working Group on Enforced
Disappearances (1980)
Shots from DeGreiff Mission to
clandestine gravesite in Uruguay
GFX: Uruguay, Exhumation of a
clandestine gravesite
LS of group by exhumation site
NARRATION:
MORE THAN 45 YEARS LATER UN SPECIAL
PROCEDURES CONTINUES TO INVESTIGATE FORCED
DISAPPEARANCES WORLDWIDE.
MEMBER OF THE EXHUMATION TEAM (in Spanish
explaining to DeGreiff)
This is the floor of the excavation, and if you look at this
black outline, and these small spots, are from bullets.
Shots of DeGreiff speaking with
exhumation team
GFX: Pablo de Greiff, UN Special
Rapporteur on the Promotion of
Truth, Justice, Reparation and
Guarantee of Non-reoccurance
Francois Crépeau ONCAM
GFX: Francois Crépeau, UN
Special Rapporteur on the Human
Rights of Migrants
Francois Crépeau ONCAM
FRANCOIS CRÉPEAU, SR MIGRATION (in English)
The fact that they are independent experts. That they're not
on the payroll of the UN, they don't represent the UN and
they are appointed by the States of the Human Rights
Council, I would say that most States are actually quite
welcoming of Special Procedures
My contribution is mostly advising governments, putting good
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
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practices, lessons learned from other countries on the table
for them to get inspiration.
Shot of DeGreiff with soldiers
waiting behind
FRANCOIS CREPEAU, SR MIGRATION (in English)
ESTABLISHING SHOT: MYANMAR
YANGHEE LEE – SR MYANMAR (in English)
YANGHEE LEE ONCAM
Myanmar is in a transforming process moving away from
decades...5 decades of military rule.
Myanmar gov't building
b-roll monks
I some cases Special Rapporteurs are seen as a threat,
they should not be.
NARRATION: UN SPECIAL PROCEDURES CONDUCTS
COUNTRY VISITS BY GOVERNMENT INVITATION. YET,
THREATS AGAINST ITS HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS
PERSIST.
YANGHEE LEE – SR MYANMAR (in English)
YANGHEE LEE ONCAM
Avery famous Buddhist extremist Monk, who has a very
large gathering, a very large following, he has called me
GFX: Yanghee Lee, UN Special
names, very, very personal gender-based violence and
Rapporteur on the Situtaion of Human three months ago he said, “Patriots, let's find ways and
Rights in Myanmar
means to teach this beastly woman a lesson.”
CNN article
JOY NGOZI EZEILO on cam
JOY NGOZI EZEILO – SR Human Trafficking (in English)
Because if you are not bold, if you are not courageous, you
can't even do this work.
Shots from prison in Turin Italy
Prisoner SOT
And some were beaten up for just no reason...
JOY NGOZI EZEILO – SR Human Trafficking (in English)
I can't even think about that, I just go to do my work
Shots of sex workers at night in
Italy
Yes, there are times when they advise you don't go here
because it is not safe.
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
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(sad music up)
Sometimes we do listen, sometimes we go on our own
(laughs). So far, we have survived all of that and I'm grateful
to God.
(quickly-paced music up)
Fast-paced animation of SRs on
the move, meeting people, talking
with officials, conducting
interviews.
(quickly-paced music)
Collage Rapporteurs
End with Catarina with people
CATARINA DE ALBUQUERQUE – SR WATER (in English)
CATARINA DE ALBUQUERQUE
ONCAM
GFX: Catarina de Albuequerque, UN
Special Rapporteur on the Human
Right of Safe Drinking Water and
Sanitation
Then the nice thing, when you go in these missions and you
meet these people, is the, how they fight and how they
believe that they will get a better life.
For me my missions are about faces. And it's the faces that
then um, may, that then guide me when I'm preparing
recommendations, What is this all about? What is human
rights about? It's about the people.
GFX: Brazil
Catarina and family, mostly a
mother explains, Catarina listens,
kids
(music picks up)
Rapporteurs on the move,
meeting officials, shaking hands
Marie-Therese with Prime Minister
CAR
CHALOKA BEYANHI – SR ON IDPS (in English)
Each time you have a visit, you meet with very high ranking
ministers, sometimes Presidents or even Prime Ministers
GFX: Chaloka Beyani, UN Special CHALOKA BEYANHI – SR ON IDPS (in English)
Rapporteur on the Human Rights
Its very agile in the sense that you are an individual
of Internally Displaced Persons
operating in circumstances that you deem...that you think are
the best. So you're not fettered by any bureaucracy.
Cuts to SRs looking intently with
(serious music)
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
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local people, meetings
Marie-Thérèse KEITA BOCOUM on
cam
Marie-Thérèse KEITA BOCOUM (in French):
B-roll of religious women in native
dress in Myanmar
Farida Shaheed (in English) :
Farida Shaheed ONCAM radio
interview
GFX: Farida Shaheed, UN Special
Rapporteur on Cultural Rights 20092015
I feel that I am in my element as an Independent Expert
because it gives me independence and credibility and
demands that I do my work with a lot of responsibility and
objectivity.
And cultural rights at the end of the day, to me, is really
about human creativity. As the first mandate holder by the
UN in this area, to try and explore what this all means. And
so, I have had the possibility, which has been absolutely
crucial for me, to bring together experts from regional
diversity, but also from different angles to the same issue,
and also that they are activists as well as academics.
Marie-Thérèse meeting with military
NARRATION:
officials.
WORKING INDEPENDENTLY, THESE EXPERTS
COMMUNICATE UNBIASED, ACTIONABLE
INFORMATION THAT CAN INSPIRE CHANGE.
Photos of Tunisia Revolution
(serious music up)
FRANCIS RADAY, Working Group on
FRANCIS RADAY (in English)
the issue of discrimination against
women in law and in practice
Photos from Int'l women's day in
Tunisia (CC licence from flickr)
Shots of Rapporteurs taking
questions from the press
Before the Arab Spring, Tunisia was the first country to set
out on a path to democratization. And the discussions
about the Tunisia constitution included a wish to remove
women right to equality form the constitution. We
communicated with the Tunisian government at that time,
And our communication was accepted, and the drafting of
the constitution included women right to equality as a basic
right.
CHALOKA BEYANHI – SR ON IDPS (in English)
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
CHALOKA ONCAM
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And civil society runs away with the report and the
recommendations, and they work out how to implement
them, put pressure on governments, they lobby, advocate.
meeting with civil society in Italy
Joy doing presentation, clapping
JOY ON CAM
JOY entering GA in NYC
JOY NGOZI EZEILO – SR Human Trafficking (in English)
So you know you can't sit back, these things are urgent, you
have to follow up, You have to build on the momentum, you
have to build on the work. Our work is not done.
(music picks up)
JOY NGOZI EZEILO at UNGA
GFX: United Nations General
Assembly, New York City
Francois Crépeau, SR on human
rights of Migrants
GFX: United Nations Human Rights
Council, Geneva, Switzerland
JOY NGOZI EZEILO – SR Human Trafficking (in English)
(SOT)
157 countries are state parties to the protocol to prevent and
suppress trafficking in persons.
Francois Crepeau (SOT) (in English):
Migrants often have very few options, if any and must
migrate in order to survive.
Juan Mendez,
Special Rapporteur on Torture
JUAN MENDEZ (SOT) (in English):
David Kaye, unkown rapporteur,
Makarim Wibisono,Leilani Farha,
Ben Emmerson,
NARRATION:
B-roll shots of refugees, etc.
(music up)
The estimate that I have been using is about 80,000 persons
in solitary confinement.
It started as one special procedure over 45 years ago.
Today, the U.N. Human rights council now relies on 79
experts addressing 55 human rights issues, helping nations
create and uphold laws inspired by the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (ARCHIVAL 1948)
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT ONCAM
This Declaration is based upon the spiritual fact that
man must have freedom...
RAPPORTEURS interacting with local in which to develop his full stature and through
people: CAR, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy
common effort to raise the level of human dignity.
The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
GFX:
Featuring
(in order of appearance)
Juan Méndez
Pablo de Greiff
François Crépeau
Yanghee Lee
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo
Catarina de Albuquerque
Chaloka Beyani
Marie-Thérese Keita Bocoum
Farida Shaheed
Francis Raday
GFX:
Produced, Edited and Narrated by
Austin Haeberle
GFX:
Camera & Audio
Austin Haeberle
Joon Park
Andrew Patterson
Antonio Tibaldi
Joaquim Vieira
GFX:
Special Thanks:
The European Union
Mary Ferreira
Gill Fickling
Chaim Litewski
Ben Lybrand
Francis Mead
Maggie Yates
Wendy-Maria Jacques
GFX:
Archival Footage & Photos:
UN Archives
Prelinger Archives at Archive.org
University of Copenhagen
Chris Belsten
Tarek Mrad
GFX:
Office of the High Commissioner for
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The Unfinished Task that Lies Before Us: The United Nations Special Procedures
Human Rights LOGO
OHCHR.org
Logos
(music fade)
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