"Cautious optimism" was expressed today by the World Church Council, the World Lutheran Federation, the international Franciscans, the Dominicans for justice and Pax Christi international about the newborn UN Council for Human Rights, which started working just yesterday, replacing the eponymous Commission that has thus retired after 60 years’ work. As they welcomed the new Council, the five Christian bodies expressed the wish "it may become a tool to implement a standard of human rights and an open space for the NGOs and the victims of human-rights violations, who can at last have their say". Likewise, the Christian bodies expressed the hope that the new UN agency may adopt the international convention on forced disappearances and the draft of the declaration on the rights of indigenous populations.
