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UN to boost its support for human rights protection in numerous countries

UN to boost its support for human rights protection in numerous countries

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The United Nations is set to launch a new initiative tomorrow to strengthen its support in promoting and protecting human rights in countries around the world.

Known as "Action Two," the plan is a response to a report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on ensuring that the world body devotes its attention to the priorities identified by its Member States.

The scheme ultimately aims to develop a common understanding of the linkages between human rights and development or humanitarian actions, establish thematic groups to deal with human rights issues in UN country teams, and have UN agencies develop cooperative programming arrangements to support national efforts to foster a culture of human rights, including through education.

The initiative also seeks to encourage the ratification of the seven principal human rights treaties, which deal with racial discrimination, civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, discrimination against women; the prohibition against torture, child rights, and the rights of migrants and their families.

The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, is scheduled to launch the reform measure in New York, along with Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Mark Malloch Brown; the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland; and the Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy.