Liberal parliamentarians and members of Liberal International’s Human Rights Committee (LI HRC) – spanning 19 countries and 5 regions of the world – have convened  for a third consecutive year at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Geneva, to debate the advancement of human rights in an age of disruption.

Discussions were grounded in the causes and consequences of internal displacement of people, the role of secularism in society, as well as debates on the prevention and elimination of violence against women in international human rights law.

In his opening remarks LI President, Dr. Juli Minoves, emphasised the importance of the annual meeting as a way of

gathering liberal decision makers in order to strengthen the spread of global governance and sensible human rights policies around the world.

Chairman of LI HRC and vice-president on the LI Bureau, Markus Loening, reminded delegates that liberals from across the globe need to work together in order to fight extremism and terrorism, emphasising that LI can serve as a global network where ideas and best practices in human rights policy-making can be exchanged.

In his keynote speech to the meeting, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights of Internally Dsipalced People, Dr. Chaloka Beyani, asserted that liberal parties should push to consolidate democratic gains from 1990s.

Liberal political parties are key to liberal democracies around the world… at the very heart of the concept of human rights sits tolerance, respect and individual liberties to which liberalism is central.

The first panel debate saw LI HRC members Tamara Van Ark MP (VVD, LI full-member) and Boris Van Der Ham (D66, LI full-member) elaborate on the need to build and strengthen democratic institutions and civil society as a way of preventing conflict-driven migration. President of the People’s Justice Party (PKR, LI member), Dr. Wan Azizah MP, affirmed her view of a moral responsibility of Malaysia towards the on-going refugee crisis in the South-East Asian waters.

LI HRC Member and Member of the European Parliament, llhan Kyuchyuk (MRF, LI full member), steered the question and answer session in a debate on religious prosecution as a driving force behind the displacement of people. During the working lunch session on the role of LI HRC in the daily work of liberal parliamentarians, Mr. Kyuchyuk made practical proposals for the advancement of the Human Rights Committee including sponsor the next LI Human Rights Committee meeting on the premises of the European Parliament.

The second panel debate, co-hosted by the International Network of Liberal Women (INLW, LI full-member), looked at the current gaps in international women’s rights law and presented the views from Lebanon, Guinea and Andorra featuring Mrs. Assiatou Bah MP (UFDG, LI full-member), Mr. Khodr Habib (Future Movement, LI full-member) and Judith Pallares MP (Liberal Party of Andorra, LI full-member).

The delegation was welcomed to Geneva with an evening reception at the Bulgarian Mission to the United Nations, hosted by Permanent Representative His Excellency Ivan Piperkov. The meetings concluded with a bilateral meeting between the delegates and the forced labour branch of the International Labour Organisation.

This was the first official meeting of the LI Human Committee meeting following the selection of its entirely new composition of serving members by the 193rd Meeting of the LI Executive Committee in Hong Kong in November 2014. The event was co-sponsored with the generous support of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament (LI full-member).

A copy of the programme for the event can be found by clicking here.

If you would like to find out more about this meeting or the work of the Committee, please contact Tamara Dancheva: Tamara@liberal-international.org