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Christine Chanet (born 23 February 1944 in Paris) is a French lawyer and judge who is a long-term member of the
United Nations Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per ...
, serving as its chairperson in 1997-98 and 2005-06. She also sits on the UN Committee Against Torture.


Early life and education

Chanet was born on 23 February 1944 in Paris, where she studied law. From 1968 to 1970 she studied at the French National School for the Judiciary.


Career


Activities in France

Chanet has held positions in the French government, including Junior Magistrate at the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature (1968); Magistrate at the Central Administration of the French Ministry of Justice (1970); Technical Adviser, and subsequently Special Assistant at the Secretariat of State for Women's Affairs (1974); Special Assistant at the Secretariat of State for Culture (1976); Special Assistant in the Legal Affairs Directorate at the French Ministry of External Relations (1981); Head of International Civil and Criminal Affairs and Human Rights Department at the
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs () is the ministry of the Government of France that handles France's foreign relations. Since 1855, its headquarters have been located at 37 Quai d'Orsay, close to the National Assembly. The term Qu ...
(1983); Technical Adviser in the Office of the French Minister of Justice (1988); and Advocate-General at the Court of Appeal of Paris (1992-1996). She has been a Counsellor of the Court of Cassation of France since 1996, and is the Section President and Dean of the Criminal Division. She has also been a member of the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, and is a member of the French Society of International Rights and of the International Law Association.


UNHRC and other international activities

Chanet became a member of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Human Rights Committee in 1987 and chaired the committee 1997–1998 and 2005–2006. She is a member of the Committee against Torture, has been the Personal Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for examining the situation in
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, and belongs to the Working Group for the Application of the Bangalore Principles on Judicial Independence. She has chaired the committee in charge of reviewing criminal law decisions following the delivery of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. In 2000, Chanet criticized
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
for providing public financing to
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
parochial education, but not to schools administered by other religions. “The position of the committee is that the state has to fulfill the covenant; it is the state that is in charge of implementing the covenant, not the provinces,” Chanet said. In 2001, she participated in the Round Table Conference held at the Peace Palace at The Hague at which the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct were finalized. In the same year, she and then fellow Committee member P.N. Bhagwati visited
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, where they were asked to weigh in on proposed legislation for an anti-subversion law expected to be used against Falun Gong. Chanet and Bhagwati declined to meet with members of the persecuted religion. In 2006, Chanet complained about the insufficient deference given to the UNHRC by the
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
“You can't deny the role given to us by treaty," she maintained at a briefing, describing the U.S. as being “in a situation of isolation over its unilateral interpretation of international treaty law.” In her capacity as chair of the UNHRC, Chanet participated at the March 2007 Vienna meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts, convened at the request of ECOSOC, that examined and agreed upon the text of the Commentary on the Bangalore Principles. Since 2010, Chanet has been a member of the Judicial Integrity Group. At present she is serving a four-year term, ending on December 31, 2014, as Rapporteur on Follow-up to Concluding Observations. In 2011, Chanet was appointed to head a commission tasked with carrying out the UNHRC’s sixth probe of Israeli violations.
UN Watch UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of United Nations Charter, its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Statu ...
expressed concern that Chanet had accused Israel of “total discrimination,” and stated that “it is very difficult to have a real dialogue (with Israel).” In July 2012, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch reacted to the commission's report with disappointment: “The only victims it contemplates are Palestinians, the only perpetrator, Israel. In the guise of human rights, Syria and other oppressive regimes sponsored this UN inquiry to deflect attention from their own crimes, to scapegoat Israel and erode its international standing.”


Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli Settlements

Chanet also headed a UNHRC Fact-Finding Mission on Israeli Settlements, and claimed in a November 2012 statement that she considers the West Bank “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer complained that the UNHRC had “ordered five one-sided commissions of inquiry against Israel, yet created none for victims of mass killings in Iran, North Korea, China, Congo, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and many other repressive regimes.” In July 2012 the Anti-Defamation League publicly doubted “the impartiality of the three individuals chosen by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to head up its fact-finding mission tasked with investigating Israeli settlements,” noting that Chanet had “strongly criticized Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza.” By contrast, Al-Haq described Chanet’s mission as an “important step towards thoroughly investigating Israel’s violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.” On January 31, 2013, the Fact-Finding Mission issued its preliminary findings, concluding that Israel’s “creeping annexation” of territory violated Palestinian human rights. The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the report by accusing the UNHRC of systematic anti-Israel bias, while Chanet, at a news conference, held up the report as “a kind of weapon for the Palestinians” to be used against Israel at the International Criminal Court. In the view of NGO Monitor, “Chanet has formed pre-existing prejudicial opinions on areas directly covered by the Mission mandate.”


Personal life

Chanet is fluent in French and English.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chanet, Christine United Nations Human Rights Committee members Living people Officiers of the Légion d'honneur 1944 births French officials of the United Nations