Daily Star - Official clarifies ohchr stance on sayyed's detention, April 19, 2008
The regional representative of the United Nation's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Fateh Azzam, said on Friday that media reports that OHCHR had called for the release of former General Security Chief Jamil al-Sayyed and other individuals were based on "a misunderstanding." "The case of Mr. Sayyed and the other individuals in detention had been referred to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is one of the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights System," Azzam said in a letter to The Daily Star. Azzam added the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is composed of independent experts acting in their own capacity as mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. He added in his letter that the OHCHR acts as a secretariat for the Working Group. "These mechanisms review cases that come to their attention in accordance with their mandate, and make their independent judgments within the framework of international human rights law," Azzam added.
"As the senior United Nations official responsible for implementing and promoting the global human rights agenda, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, does on occasion and in her own name issue statements of concern or interest on various issues and situations around the world," he explained. "In this case, however," he added, "it was the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention who made the determination on the detention of Mr. Sayyed and his colleagues."
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