as the united nations human rights council continues its conference in geneva there are often discrepancies between what officials tell the un and what happens on the clowns so how committed are governments in respecting human rights this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program husham all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights that's from the first article of the united nations universal declaration of human rights which was signed in one nine hundred forty eight and since then the document has been used as a stand for ensuring fundamental rights and the protection of minorities around the well the united nations human rights council began its annual conference in geneva this week it comes at a time when i'm a see international says world leaders are undermining the rights of millions with gets all the guests in a moment but first david tate's discussion from geneva it was meant to be a celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights but the shadow of conflict was costing a mood of pessimism across the powers of nations as

and seventeen even though it's a very difficult political environment the human rights internationally but the human rights council has nonetheless created for example a fact finding mission into atrocities in man manner and investigation into violence in the size region of the of the d r c an investigation into human rights and humanitarian lauren and yemen as well as many other other situations so while we share the concerns while we we urge the council to speak out more consistently to bring attention to the violations by all its members still there is a lot of good work that is done dilli of greater africa to promote and protect human rights in africa do you believe the organizations like the u.n. or see are there to protect people from being. tortured detained rests in places like africa are are unfortunately i have to say i have i have very little faith in the u.n. for doing that because that we've same what the u.n. hours down over the years and the congo nothing has changed in the congo congo over the lives of the congolese people are saying what the u.n. has done. the average ivory coast so i to be honest

what we are hoping with the human rights council today is that the fa ct rights council today is thatd a re fact that other nations around the world are hearing the evidence of what happened, so our own staff can speakfrom what happened, so our own staff can speak from the floor of the human rights council session, and give testimony, and you will hear in their voices what they have been suffering. we are hoping to place pressure on iran to stop their legal action. and itjust highlights how dedicated these staff are who want to have that voice in the iranian region, so that others can hear their view. that is right. it is immediate climate that is very challenging. but the bbc has a big role there. more than 50 million people are consuming bbc persian on the radio and television. along with all of our new sources, we represent all of our new sources, we represent a variety of sources, and do it in line with our normal editorial guidelines. it is extruded popular and we want to continue doing it. it is absolutely crucial that the staff are able to do without the fear of intimidation. t

us from geneva where where you took part in the thirty seven session of the united nations human rights council which once again chose to focus its attention on the human rights situation in iran meetings like these are fairly regular the critics of your country are all the same their grievances and complains are well rehearsed i wonder though if you found this meeting any different from all the previous ones. you mentioned. we participated in of the sanction to speak of use aboard human rights i'm also the critics which is low of the against us and also the behavior of united as there's a number of european gangs while human rights regardless of them overcome or. european support. by itself is a valuable barometer of civilities so regardless of their position we are going to promote human values in no country no democracy but american type of human rights. it's a corrupt notion in which a human could we swapped with petro dollars in the vision could we swapped with political influence take the example of yemen you see the genocide there were going on with larger scale of millions of people liv

human rights council has lost its legitimacy as a focus as obsessive li on attacking israel instead of working on resolving the real human rights problems plaguing the world your response what must you think when you hear this. well i think that virtually any government that has fingers pointed to it with respect to commit to committing or commissioning a number of serious human rights violations always looks to change the channel with with respect to this you know israel is a is a unique situation in that on the one hand it has a highly democratic forms of government it has a. well respected you just carry it has regular elections it has a relatively free press and on the other hand it's keeping. almost five million palestinians under occupation that is a massive source of human rights violations so the world has to pay attention to that and in terms of being you know the accusations that the human rights council or the united nations is obsessive with israel just look at the work of the human rights council it's sitting for twenty days in and march here in geneva one one session whic

there are other mechanisms that the human rights council, the international community, can call upon,n into those killings. finally, there is the question of whether a special rapporteur should be invited to go to the philippines to investigate other allegations of human rights violations, such as those related to free expression. or allegations related to human rights defenders‘ killings. billy hart importantly that it killings. billy hart importantly thatitis killings. billy hart importantly that it is not about me. it is not about me as a special rapporteur, but about thousands of people in the philippines waiting for an answer, waiting for justice. philippines waiting for an answer, waiting forjustice. —— but let me say importantly that it is not about me. some people have been killed, and it is about their relatives who are seeking accountability and justice, and who are seeking an excavation for the killings. none of that has happened yet. the un investigator determined to probe abuses in the philippines. stay with us — still to come all the sport including the results of europe

take note of this we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting or security council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks and we see this kind of issues being raised by the french or by the british in relation to the issue in syria i believe this kind of pattern takes place just to divert the current peace talks led by the russia into resolving this matter especially in these order issue. we heard from syria's deputy foreign minister saying that the report's been filed on terrorists or in huge quantities of chemicals but the claim is international organizations won't investigate because they don't want to point the finger anywhere but at assad do you think that's a fair assessment. you've seen it before nail on the previous. investigation into chemical attacks. on other cities where industry. did try to. team to investigate the chemical attacks by the end was hold and we did not come to a result who was behind it and now they blaming both parties for using this chemical so international organizations should not have any excuse

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this were. hooper and i expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and really makes one believe that the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reading is unacceptable to me that and that has more now from minute or two. when president through the good the churchill was sworn in in two thousand and sixteen he promised so usher in a new era of peace between the philippine government and members of the communist party of the philippines he promised to end a five year conflict in the country he released members of the communist movement and even appointed some of them within his cabinet but months of attempts and failure at negotiations and skirmishes between the philippine army and members of the armed wing called the new people's army has led to this deterrent to says the new people's army together with some other members of the national democratic front he says are ther

the un human rights council, there is a meeting today, there will be a meeting of the un security councilreliminary steps in trying to galvanise some kind of international coalition. but the problem will be turning that sympathy, the words of sympathy into concrete actions. and that is actually going to be quite hard. they do. and that is actually going to be quite hard. they do. we can speak to our europe correspondent, damian grammaticas — who's in brussels. what she will get, which she has been hearing already, asjonathan was saying, strong statements of support. so we had the present —— donald tusk, who will be chairing the summit of eu leaders, including theresa may on thursday, she will be here in brussels —— brussels. he put out a tweet while speaking in finland, where he said that irrespective of brecht —— brexit and the tough negotiations there, he expressed full solidarity with theresa may in the face of what he called the brutal attack most likely inspired by moscow. he said that he was prepared to put this issue on the agenda of the summit. that we have heard similar solidarit

chief was due to brief the security council on the human rights situation in syria it was expected that russia would object having argued that the forum for such a briefing should be the human rights council in geneva not the security council chamber as expected it was backed in its photon a procedural issue by its normal allies including china but what was not expected what's this. the result of the voting is this follows eight votes in favor four votes against three abstentions the provisional agenda has not been adopted it having failed to obtain the required number of votes and abstention by the three african members of the council equitorial guinea ethiopia and cote d'ivoire this is only the fourth time in some four decades that a procedural vote has actually been carried in the security council what happened next well the meeting went ahead the briefing went ahead but in an informal aria form and that means that it did not carry the weight politically or diplomatically off of formal security council session the human rights chief went ahead

acting hard for the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this way. who promote expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and read makes one believes that. the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common read is unacceptable calm is returning to muslim neighborhoods in sri lanka's candy region after army reinforcements help to quell the violence security forces have managed to control the just small violence that hit the area earlier in the week many shops as well have now reopened they say they've arrested more than eighty people so far well the religious divide has grown and shrunk in recent years with the rise of buddhist nationalist groups who accuse minority miss them's of stealing buddhist temples or desecrated them. it's been seven years since japan was hit by an earthquake causing a tsunami to crash into its coastal cities more than twenty thousand people were killed now huge concrete walls are big built along parts of the co

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in the story and who promote expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and really makes one believes that. the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of comment really is unacceptable. the u.k. and saudi arabia have signed a memorandum of intent for a multi-billion dollar contract for the fly of typhoon fighter jets crime prince mohammed bin solomon prime minister to resign major in his three day visit to britain but in the case be a systems one step closer to sealing the deal in order for u.k. bill warplanes could spark protests from antiwar campaign us. said that necessity is the mother of all invention and this is true for many people living in qatar right now since an air sea and land blockade began lying months ago students in doha are brought from taking part in sports competitions in other gulf countries so they come up with an alternative as victoria gate in the explains. a

a thirty day cease fire humanitarian window to allow relief to reach civilians the bodies human rights council has planned an emergency session later today to address the crisis. joining us now from oslo is yon i glance secretary general of the norwegian refugee council and the head of the un humanitarian task force for syria mr egeland thank you very much for taking this time what is the situation on the ground in eastern guta at the moment as you know it. this situation is horrific on the ground there is no no other word for it listen this is a besieged area it's totally military and so and the hasn't been any possibility to get get in with humanitarian relief now for months only one tiny convoy came in february that's the only thing with gotten in since november of last year so imagine your tradition has gone through the roof at the time when hospitals saw being bombed the civilian housing is being bombed and it's happening in the next door to the city in the south suburbs to damascus of course there is also in or fairness we have to describe they're also going rockets out of this eastern g

the bbc is making an unprecedented appeal to the united nations human rights council over the abuse ofy the iranian government. the veteran british entertainer sir ken dodd has died at the age of 90. his stage debut was in 1954 and he continued to perform until last year. the world's biggest stock market listing looks set to be delayed as advisers struggle to achieve a $2 trillion valuation for the saudi oil giant aramco. on the bbc website, it is interesting, a lot of quotes from elon musk, the boss, of course, of tesla and spacex. he has been speaking at an event called south by southwest. we are in there. he has been talking about many things, not least the delay of the mass market tesla car, and his mission to mars, saying we'll all be drinking in a mars bar before we know it. the papers. the times. it is covering the ongoing investigation into the poisoning of a russian spy here in the uk. its lead story says theresa may's about to publically blame russia for the attack here. the front of the ft now, and that delay to aramco's floatation. the paper reckons london is still the best

now to some other stories making news around the world the united nations human rights council says it will hold an urgent debate today on the easter of the situation rather in eastern guta the rebel held on klav in syria a previous u.n. security council resolution called for a thirty day ceasefire in eastern but efforts at implementing it haven't been on israeli police have reportedly questioned prime minister benjamin netanyahu for the first time in a corruption case involving communications giant besuch they're alleging that the company provided positive coverage of netanyahu in exchange for favors he's facing allegations of corruption in several cases but denies any wrongdoing the commander . and extreme cold snap still has europe and its clutches snow and frigid temperatures have forced multiple airport and road closures britain has even called out its army to battle the chaos after some of the worst weather it has seen in decades. the u.k. is digging out and bracing for more the extreme cold gripping europe has brought more than three days of unusually heavy snow to the british i

we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting all screwed a council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks and we see this kind of issues being raised by the french or by the british and relation to the issue in syria i believe this this kind of pattern takes place just to divert the current peace talks by the russia and to resolve this matter especially in the issue of all the cities and villages which. by syrian arab army we syrian army didn't use any chemical weapons so why now there is not enough to compare persist in doing that but it is a chemical weapon as a scenario you know total target is syrian government and to demonize the syrian government accuses it. to to build on that accusation in order to have more pressure on the syrian government and. they are preparing now as a crank you know that the preparing for that scenario. well this week has also seen claims of a chemical weapon attack on gator this was reportedly carried out by the syrian government something to ask us to know is the issue of chemical weapo

we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting all screwed a council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks and we see this kind of issues being raised by the french or by the british in relation to the issue in syria i believe this this kind of pattern takes place just to divert the current. talk by the russia into resolve this matter especially in the issue of old cities and villages which. by syrian arab army we syrian army didn't use any chemical weapons so why now there is not enough to compare those in doing that about the chemical weapon as a scenario you know total. it is the syrian government and to demonize the syrian government accuses it. to build on that accusation in order to have more pressure on syrian government and. they are preparing now is the cranks you know that the preparing for that thing are you this week's also seen claims of a chemical weapons attack on ghouta reportedly was carried out by the syrian government but that's something damascus has denied the issue of chemical weapons use in syria

we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting all security council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks and we see this kind of issues being raised by the french or by the british in relation to the issue in syria i believe this this kind of pattern takes place just to divert the current. talk by the russia into resolve this matter especially in the issue of all the cities and villages which. by syrian army syrian army didn't use any chemical weapons so why now there is no terrorists in doing that about the chemical weapon as you know you know to target. syrian government and to demonize the syrian government accuse it. to build on that accusation in order to have more pressure syrian government and. they are preparing now is a crank preparing for that are you meanwhile europe is now dealing with the families of vice or fighters returning from syria and iraq after the fall of the caliphate some states like france of unveiled plans to start the reintegration process at schools r.t. correspondent charlayne reports from

said to have not been able to reach here and there's been a letter passed to the human un's human rights council from colors push more saying that spain should respect the rights under the declaration of human rights that the spanish government has signed up to to allow him freedom of association freedom of freedom to stand for elections and freedom of expression so this is a very clear and critical issue here and the parliament as expected has passed this resolution but of course it can be easily ignored and will be ignored by the government in madrid though israel's prime minister has been released from hospital after treatment for a chest infection doctors say benyamin netanyahu hasn't fully recovered he says he needs to rest after canceling all public appointments for five days two weeks ago. it's the third and final day of voting in egypt's presidential election the incumbent of the c.c. is certain to win a second term as any competitor has been a vocal supporter of the president all of the candidates with troops have to be arrested or pressured prominent government critics have called for

chief was due to brief the security council on the human rights situation in syria it was expected that russia would object having argued that the forum for such a briefing should be the human rights council in geneva not the security council chamber as expected it was backed in its photon a procedural issue by its normal allies including china but what was not expected what's this. the result of the voting is this follows eight votes in favor for votes against three abstentions the provisional agenda has not been adopted it have been filled to obtain the required number of votes and abstention by the three african members of the council equitorial guinea ethiopia and cote d'ivoire this is only the fourth time in some four decades that a procedural vote has actually been carried in the security council what happened next well the meeting went ahead the briefing went ahead but in an informal aria form and that means that it did not carry the weight politically or diplomatically of a formal security council session the human rights chief went ahead

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this room and hooper my expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and really makes one believe that the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reed is unacceptable the u.s. aircraft carrier has finished an historic visit to vietnam and is now traveling through disputed areas of the south china sea washington says it wants freedom of navigation through areas that are claimed by china when a reports on those who are on the front lines of this dispute. when the repairs to finish these vietnamese fishing boats are put straight back to work in the south china sea boat yards in the city of deming have been particularly busy in recent years on top of the regular maintenance and building work they've been patching up holes they say were caused by collisions with the chinese coast guard but. china is expanding its presence in the south china sea we see the boats every day they

we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting or security council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks.

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this way and hooper and i expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and read makes one believes that the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reed is unacceptable. when president through the good the third to was sworn in in two thousand and sixteen he promised so usher in a new era of peace between the philippine government and members of the communist party of the philippines he promised to end a five year conflict in the country he released members of the communist movement and even appointed some of them within his cabinet but months of attempts and failure at negotiations and skirmishes between the philippine army and members of the armed wing called the new people's army has led to this new terror to says the new people's army together with some other members of the national democratic front he says are there and it's intended to destroy quote unquote his count

human rights council is meeting right now in geneva in an emergency session called by the u.k. to discuss the recent surge in violence in eastern guta that is a france germany and the u.s. to a spoke earlier today agreeing on the need for russia to exert maximum pressure on the syrian government to end hostilities and here's why this is what eastern ghouta looks like right now the opposition controlled eastern district of damascus is virtually flattened by relentless syrian and russian bombardment more than. six hundred people have been killed in just twelve days in the rubble n.k. that's been under a crippling government siege for almost five years now on friday syrian government warplanes killed dozens of civilians russia's been promising a five hour daily ceasefire but that hasn't allowed any aid to trickle in at least a thousand people need urgent medical care now the un's human rights chief says what's happening in syria must be referred to the international criminal court or hussein has been speaking at the u.n. human rights council meeting that's underway in geneva where

we noticed kind of pattern whenever there's a there's a council meeting human rights council meeting scooter council meeting prior to this we see this kind of attacks and we see this kind of issues being raised by the french or by the british and relation to the issue in syria i believe this this kind of pattern takes place just to divert the current peace talks by the russia and to resolve this matter especially in the issue of older cities and villages which. by syrian arab army we syrian army didn't use any chemical weapons so why now there is not enough to compare those in doing that about the chemical weapon as a scenario you know total target if you see syrian government and to demonize the syrian government accuses it. to to build on that accusation in order to have more pressure on the syrian government and. they are preparing now is a crank that the preparing for that scenario. well this week has also seen claims of a chemical weapons attack on go to this was reportedly carried out by the syrian government something damascus denies the issue of chemical weapon you sincere was

the director of the bbc world service, jamie angus told the un's human rights council that he invited anytime and any place. speaking at the same meeting, bbc persian‘s rana rahimpour described the harassment faced by staff. some families have received death threats. in iran free from the influence of the authorities. we urge the council to call upon iran to engage with our appeal and to end the persecution of bbc persian staff and our families. iran has denied allegations of harassment, and accuses the bbc‘s persian service of spreading false information. russians go to the polls on sunday to vote in the country's presidential election. vladimir putin is hoping to win his fourth term in office and opinion polls make him the clear favourite. polls show in on nearly 70% of the vote, his next nearest rival is on seven. why is mr putin so popular? 0ur moscow correspondent, steve rosenberg travelled to the russian rust belt to find out. the west fears the kremlin is spreading disorder. but at home, many see vladimir putin as the cog that keeps russia's moving. this is karabash, rustbelt r

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in this way and hooper might expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and read makes one believes that. the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reed is unacceptable comus returning to ms the neighborhoods in trying because can the region after army reinforcements help to stop violence there security forces have managed to control the buddhist small violence that hit the air earlier in the week many shops to reopen peace say they've arrested more than eighty people so far the religious divide is cornish wrong in recent years with british nationalist groups accusing minority miss them of stealing from buddhist temples or desecrated them. well it's been seven years since japan was hit by an earthquake causing a tsunami to crash into its coastal cities killing more than twenty thousand people well now huge concrete walls are being built along parts of the coast to protect

european union says that your president and your government violates human rights what have you been saying at the u.n. human rights council this week about the sanctions against your country by the european union these sanctions against venezuela violate not only international law but our human rights today it's difficult for us to get to our oil paid back you know with the liver chips with oil and then the companies either in the u.s. or in other parts of the world cannot pay back the money and we have more than one thousand million dollars in europe in europe clear which are blocked and banks are blocking and we have to buy in to import medicines and food and raw material for our people and it doesn't it's difficult today because of these sanctions do you discussed sanctions with your russian counterpart sergey lavrov in geneva this week yes i must say that the russian government president putin and all the government have been very helpful with us we are trying to build different routes different paths to avoid to bypass the sanctions with russia with china with thirty and with other allies in the world they are worrie

acting on behalf of the international community whose expertise is sort by the human rights council to be treated in the sewer and who promote expect the human rights council to respond accordingly and really makes one believes that the president of the philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation this sort of this this sort of common reed is unacceptable it's been seven years since japan was hit by an earthquake that caused the tsunamis a crash into its coastal cities killing more than twenty thousand people so that huge concrete walls a big built along the coastline protect against huge waves bought some say the new barriers are too high could have an impact on tourism off maps and explains. for fishermen atsushi frizzy to the open waters of the to haul coal coast swelling beneath a hazy blue sky where he earns his living pulling oysters from the sea there. but when he returns to the shore the rolling hills of his home have been obscured by high concrete walls. i feel like i'm working inside a fence it feels like we're in jail even though we haven't done

in an unprecedented move, the bbc has launched an appeal to the un human rights council, demanding thataff and theirfamilies have had death threats and some of their relatives have been harassed. james robbins is at the un in geneva. james, what's the bbc hoping to achieve by this? this is happening because the iranian authorities have been hostile to the bbc persian television service ever since it was launched in 2009. they accuse it of spreading false propaganda in iran, designed to encourage those who want to bring down the entire iranian government system. we only know that because the iranians, provoked, i think, by the bbc going to the un today, have come out for the first time with a detailed response to the bbc‘s complaints about the treatment of its staff. the fact is that tony hall, the director—general, thought he was making no progress with the iranians in trying to write to them and geta iranians in trying to write to them and get a response. they were not coming back to him with anything and he said it was necessary to bring this all out into the open in the hope that per

the siege of eastern ghouta here's more of what he had to say in his annual report to the human rights council. this month it is eastern water which is in the words of the sector general hell on earth next month or the month after it will be somewhere else were people first and apocalypse an apocalypse intended planned and executed by individuals within the government apparently with the full backing of some of the foreign supporters and that was. same they're presenting the us annual human rights report in geneva and meanwhile syrian state t.v. says that government troops have advanced into eastern ghouta in an effort to slice the besieged enclave into two the brutal air and ground assaults has become one of the fiercest battles of the civil war more than eight hundred civilians have been killed in the regime's attempt to seize the rebel held enclave. in eastern guta death lurks at every corner. the struggle for survival here is ceaseless sustained shelling on the city has led to the u.n. calling this the deadliest week for the syrian town since a cease fire was brokered at the end of last mo