Human Rights -
hotline
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United
Nations
Background Note
24-hour "Hot Line" for
Reporting Human
Rights Violations
The Hot Line fax number in Geneva, Switzerland is
41-22-917-0092.
In 1994, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights established a
Human Rights Hot Line, a 24-hour facsimile line that
will allow the Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva to
monitor and react
rapidly to human rights emergencies. The Hot Line is
available to victims of
human rights violations, their relatives and
non-governmental organizations.
The Hot Line fax number in Geneva,
Switzerland is 41-22-917-0092.
In addition, a Human Rights Database has been
created in Geneva to gather
information for use by special rapporteurs who
are responsible for
investigating questions such as religious intolerance,
torture, racism and
freedom of expression. The new database contains
information that will
eventually be available by modem or other electronic
means to human rights
rapporteurs and experts worldwide.
Both measures
are designed to improve the timely flow of information from
and to special
rapporteurs from anywhere in the world, and form the basis of
an electronic
network linking the globe.
The Hot Line is especially valuableto those
wishing to establish urgent, potentially life-saving contact with the Special
Procedures Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The measures are part of new moves by the United Nations to
enhance the
global flow and exchange of information. Such information is
essential in
addressing five priority areas of the United Nations human
rights
programme:
Human rights emergency situations;
Developing
situations which may require preventive action by the
High
Commissioner;
Investigative missions by special rapporteurs or
working groups;
Follow-up action by the High Commissioner to recommendations
made by special
rapporteurs and working groups;
Implementation efforts,
including the work of treaty-based bodies and the
provision of advisory
services and technical assistance to United Nations
Member States.
The
steps being taken by the High Commissioner represent the
continued
implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted
by the
World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna, Austria, from 14 to
25
June 1993. Mr. Ayala Lasso, who was appointed as the first United
Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights on 14 February 1994, said the
Vienna
Conference was a watershed, marking the realization of an "era
of
implementation" of human rights standards and mechanisms that have
been
developed over the past years.
Published by the United
Nations Department of Public Information
DPI/1550/HRrev.1--August 1998