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Commission on Human Rights
56th session
6 April 2000
Evening




The Commission on Human Rights completed a third day of debate on civil and political rights with a session concluding at midnight and featuring statements by dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alleging abuses on the territories of various countries and calling for greater efforts to protect such rights as freedom of expression and religious liberty.

The Commission's agenda item on civil and political rights includes the topics of torture and detention; disappearances and summary executions; freedom of expression; independence of the judiciary, administration of justice, and impunity for human-rights violations; religious intolerance; states of emergency; and conscientious objection to military service.

Over the course of the meeting, NGOs alleged violations in Belarus, Iran, the United States, Chile, the Russian Federation (Chechnya), Colombia, Yemen, India, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, China (including Tibet), Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Israel, Thailand, Argentina, Morocco, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia), Bangladesh, Austria, France, Georgia, and Turkmenistan.

Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Bulgaria, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and the Russian Federation were cited by the NGO Human Rights Advocates as transgressing an article of the Convention against Torture barring States from returning people to other countries where they were likely to undergo torture.

Representatives of Jordan and Eritrea spoke at the meeting, as did officials of the following NGOs: International League for Human Rights; the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence; the Movement against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples; the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights; the Transnational Radical Party; Federacion de asociaciones de defensa y proteccion de los derechos humanos; Liberation; South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre; New Human Rights; Freedom House; Human Rights Advocates; General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventists; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial; North-South XXI; the Third World Movement against the Exploitation of Women; the National Consciousness Movement; the International Commission of Jurists; Women's International Democratic Federation; Reporters Sans Frontiers; Rural Reconstruction Nepal; International Fellowship of Reconciliation; International Federation of Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture; Franciscans International; the International Human Rights Law Group; Association for World Education; Andean Commission of Jurists; the International Union of Socialist Youth; the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Persons (FEDEFAM); Australian Council for Overseas Aid; Pax Romana; Interfaith International; International Educational Development; the World Press Freedom Committee; the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; International Peace Bureau; Survival International; Indian Movement Tupaj Amaru; the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation; the Centre for Studies on Youth; Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme; the Centre for European Studies; Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University; Jeunes Medecins S
ans Frontiers Tunisie; France Libertes; the World Federation of Trade Unions; the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights; the American Association of Jurists; the International Bar Association; All-China Women's Federation; the World Muslim Congress; World Federation of Democratic Youth; and Muslim World League.

Angola, Belarus, Yemen, Egypt, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Bahrain spoke in exercise of the right of reply.

The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Friday, 7 April to conclude its debate on civil and political rights and to start its discussion on integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective, including violence against women.

Statements

ABDULLAH MADADHA (Jordan) said his country believed that no effort should be spared in strengthening its human-rights system and in implementing international human-rights standards at the national level where all action should be taken to enhance the democratization processes as well as the rule of law. Jordanian criminal law, like Jordanian civil law, was based largely on the code of Napoleon. It covered all crimes and was enforced comprehensively by State authorities. No one was beyond the law or was immune from prosecution when having committed a crime, irrespective of gender.

However, in certain circumstances, as in many other legal systems, there was allowance for extenuating circumstances; in such situations, sentences might be reduced or persons might be exempted from liability or punishment. Islam, however, had no relation to honour killings. Islam did not oppress women but treated them with the same respect accorded to men.

AMARE TEKLE (Eritrea) said every human being had the right to a nationality. Denationalization of a State's own citizens was expressly prohibited by several international human rights treaties. Widespread deportations or forcible transfers directed against civilian populations of a State's own nationals was a crime against humanity. Some States wished to circumvent international instruments by denying that persons whom they had deported on the basis of their ethnicity were their citizens.

The deprivation of the right to nationality, coupled with the propagation of ethnic hatred, was purposefully practised to promote and consolidate the political power of minority racist regimes. It was in fact ironic -- indeed a mockery of the very values and principles intrinsic in a democracy -- that such States blew the trumpet of democracy while riding the horses of racism, ethnic hatred and minority rule. Such racist minority regimes had been emboldened to indulge in an Orwellian mockery of democracy only because they were aware that neither the international community nor the appropriate human-rights mechanisms were prepared to make an honest effort to censure them. Such mockery of human rights would increase unless the international community took the necessary measures to effectively address the issue of impunity.

ANDREI SANNIKOV, of the International League for Human Rights, speaking also on behalf of Charter 97, said it had been two years since the report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression on Belarus. The situation had since severely deteriorated. Last year the Belarus Government had announced moves against censorship, for media freedom and for the right to assembly. These actions had not been fulfilled and had been intended to misguide the international community. Suppression of human rights, including freedom of expression, was commonplace. Ideological control was being tightened; a committee for ideology had intensified the Government's propaganda campaign. There were many laws which restricted the freedom of the press. Newspapers could be closed down for publishing articles "harmful to state interests". There were disappearances which the press could not cover due to Government intimidation.

Freedom of expression was needed to allow the population to find a way out of this civil and political impasse. The Commission must call the bluff of the Belarus Government, appoint a Special Rapporteur on Belarus, and follow up the report of the Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression and the statements of the Chairperson of the Subcommission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights last August.

YADULLAH MOHAMMADI, of the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence, said freedom of expression and the free flow of information were threatened at the national and international levels. At the international level, the significant growth of communication technology had resulted in the increased spread of information on a grand scale, beyond the cultural and political borders. The effects could be seen everywhere. Ethical and spiritual aspects were being ignored.

Communication systems were powerful instruments. Their functions were related to the purposes of their owners. Any privatized and absolute ownership of the mass media and communication technology was an obstacle to the promotion of multi-culturalism.

JEAN-JACQUES KIRKYCHARIAN, of the Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples, said that in Iran, courts continued to hand down horrible sentences such as stoning, amputation and beatings. As noted by the Special Rapporteur on torture, "torture was not an exceptional practice in Iran". In 1995, three Protestant ministers had been assassinated. The police accused the armed opposition of committing the murders, but later it was revealed that the perpetrators of the crime were members of the Iranian intelligence service. No arrests were made. Iranian authorities should also provide an explanation as to the fate of numerous students arrested in the wake of a peaceful demonstration last July.

Another matter of concern was the arrest of Jews in Iran who were accused of espionage for Israel. In all these matters, obscurity reigned and transparency was absent. The United States, meanwhile, was urged to accord Afro-Americans and American Indians fair trials.


HORACIO RAVENNA, of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, urged the prompt ratification of the statute of the International Criminal Court. Concern was raised over the delay of Argentina in signing and ratifying the statute. It also was to be lamented that the Government of Peru had retracted its recognition of the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, and that several countries had not ratified the San Jose treaty, including the United States, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and others. This demonstrated an unwillingness to implement human rights.

In 1999, the world had been stirred by the Pinochet case. The organization hoped that Augusto Pinochet would be duly tried in his own country. The Chilean Government was urged to fight against impunity. Argentina had to take many actions to end impunity for human-rights violations committed under the last dictatorship. France, Germany and Spain were commended for pursuing cases of the disappearance of their nationals in Argentina. Enforced disappearance was a crime against humanity, and the Commission should establish an inter-sessional working group to consider the draft convention or appoint an independent expert on the issue.

NGUROB AXIRG, of the Transnational Radical Party, said the ratification of conventions did not stop States from continuing to violate the human rights of their peoples. Additional mechanisms should be implemented to prevent violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

For example, Russian authorities, despite their ratification of a number of conventions on human rights, continued to violate the rights of Chechens on the basis of ethnicity. So far, 140,000 people had been victims of bombardments in Chechnya by Russian missiles. The deteriorating situation in Chechnya had been described by the High Commissioner for Human Rights during her intervention yesterday afternoon. The Commission must further investigate the situation and assist the population in regaining its rights.

MIKEL MANCISIDOR, of Federacion de Asociaciones de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos, drew the attention of the Commission to the report of the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary executions. In his report, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern at the increased number of extra-judicial executions in Colombia in recent years and affirmed that most of these atrocities had been committed by paramilitary groups which were apparently backed by Government forces. The attention of the Commission was also drawn to another document by an NGO, E/CN.4/2000/NGO/50, which affirmed that civilians were the targets of these attacks.

Given the impunity enjoyed by violators of human rights, it was imperative to strengthen the instruments of the Commission as well as regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights. In this regard, the decision of Peru to withdraw its recognition of the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was particularly disquieting.

JASDEV S. RAI, of Liberation, said there were continued violations of civil and political rights in Yemen. The Local Authority Law did not provide for elected governors, checks on arbitrary dissolution of local councils, or representation for opposition parties in high election committees. The National Committee on Human Rights did not adhere to international standards and failed to protect a population suffering from extra-judicial executions and enforced disappearances. The Commission must urge the Yemeni Government to provide a comprehensive programme for national reconciliation and to reform its economic, judicial and Constitutional systems in compliance with international standards.

Liberation was concerned over the persecution of Balbir Singh Bains in India; he had been illegally detained on trumped-up charges. There were 20 million cases in India of people in prisons awaiting trial for several years. The Commission must be vigilant about escalating religious intolerance around the world, particularly the persecution of Christians and Muslims in India. It should condemn such acts and urge India to prevent potential religious conflict by recognizing Sikhism as a distinct religion, as it was recognized everywhere else in the world. Liberation also was concerned over human-rights violations in Bahrain and continued violations committed against Kurds.

RAVI NAIR, of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, said that a few years ago, Indian security forces had allegedly extrajudicially killed five local villagers in a fake encounter at Panchalthan, Kashmir. Fake encounters were a sub-continental euphemism for cold-blooded murder. Impunity had become a way of life in Kashmir.

The Centre believed that impunity significantly contributed to further human-rights abuses. The Indian State was unwilling to put an end to the regime of impunity prevailing in the country. The Government of India often cited punishments given to guilty officials, but the details were seldom made public. If accountability was to be established, the names, ranks, crimes committed, and other facts needed to publicized. Justice needed not only to be done, but also to be seen to be done.

HAMID REZA ESHAGHI, of New Human Rights, said that in Iran the judiciary was placed under the authority of only one mullah who was at the origin of atrocities of all kinds, including 120,000 political executions, hundreds of arbitrary arrests and more than 175 forms of torture. In this system, the will of the Guide was officially placed above the law. The Special Rapporteur of the Commission had described in his report the systematic and flagrant violations committed by the judiciary. He also referred to ill-treatment of detainees, extortion of confessions, overcrowded prisons, denial of the right to a fair trial, and incarceration of defence lawyers.

Torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment were an integral part of the judicial system in Iran. This had been confirmed by the UN Special Representative who indicated in his recent report that torture in all its forms was not exceptional in Iran. Dozens of articles of the Iranian Penal Code authorized stoning, tearing out eyes, and amputation.

OTTO REICH, of Freedom House, said Cuba was moving in the wrong direction. In 1999, an anti-subversion law was adopted where one could serve up to 20 years in prison for supplying information about Cuba outside the country, or for carrying "subversive" materials. There were an estimated 400 political prisoners. The current situation was described as the worst in a decade; nearly 600 activists had been detained recently, and 21 remained in prison. Members of the Internal Dissident Working Group had been imprisoned for 14 months without trial for acts against the security of the state. Their only crime was the writing of a document called "The Homeland belongs to All". The Commission must send a clear message to the Cuban regime by fully investigating human-rights violations there.

China's one-sided, state-run media had flooded the press with fabrications about Falun Gong. The Falun Gong was based on truth, compassion and tolerance; their only crime was to exercise their rights to freedom of belief, conscience and assembly. Ten million peoples' lives had been deeply affected by the crackdown. The Commission was urged to investigate China's illegal detention and inhumane treatment of Falun Gong practitioners and China's abuses of freedom of expression and religion.

DANA ZARTNER, of Human Rights Advocates, urged the Commission to take action regarding human-rights violations occurring around the world as a result of States' failure to properly implement and observe their obligations not to return individuals to States where they were likely to suffer torture. Amnesty International in its 1999 series of human-rights reports cited Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom for the practice of returning individuals to States where it was likely they would be tortured.

The Committee against Torture itself had called upon numerous States to fulfil this obligation, which was enumerated by an article of the Convention against Torture. In 1999, the Committee expressed concern over the lack of implementation of this article by Mauritius, Bulgaria, Libya and the Russian Federation, among others.

MALTOU BRAFF, of the General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventists, said the end of the twentieth century had been marked by ethnic and interreligious conflicts. It was surprising to note the important role religion played in encouraging division and discrimination. This could be observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, India and Indonesia. It was essential to recall that peace and justice could not be achieved as long as intolerance prevailed. It was regrettable that religious extremism and anti-religious sectarianism were on the rise.

The control of religious fanatics over political and social life in numerous countries was anachronistic, as was the attempt by some religions to influence Governments with a view to maintaining their dominant position. On the other hand, the publication of lists of "sects" regarded as potentially dangerous without any prior consultation constituted a violation of article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A more balanced approach was needed to protect the rights of every person, including members of religious minorities. In this connection, the Seventh-Day Community had been shocked at the destruction of its only church in Turkmenistan on 14 November 1999.

MARGARET HUANG, of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, said that in 1999, the Commission had urged the Colombian Government to initiate judicial proceedings against members of the armed forces implicated in human-rights violations, to reform the military penal code, to dismantle paramilitary forces and prosecute their members, and to implement measures to effectively protect human-rights defenders. No significant progress had been seen in Colombia. The Commission must continue monitoring the situation of impunity in Colombia and provide all possible support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bogota.

The Indonesian Government should ratify and implement the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, establish judicial mechanisms based on international human-rights law, invite the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to visit, and end the cycle of impunity by investigating and prosecuting all those responsible for human-rights violations, particularly in East Timor and West Papua. The Commission should support the draft resolution on China to send a clear message to the Chinese Government that violations of human rights were not acceptable.

NUCAN DERYA, of North-South XXI, said serious human-rights abuses were still being perpetrated against the Kurds, who were the most numerous people in the Middle East. They were denied their fundamental political and civil rights. Kurds living in Turkey were deprived of their rights by the application of the country's legal provisions, which were still in force and which prohibited freedom of thought and expression.

There would continue to be neither respect for human rights nor democracy in Turkey until the Kurdish problem had been solved. The region in which the Kurds lived was still administered under a state of emergency and Kurds were systematically oppressed through arbitrary paramilitary control. As a consequence, violations of human rights and of the rule of law were endemic and enjoyed official sanction.

WIRATMADINATA , of the Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women, said extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions were widespread in Indonesia. Summary executions were predominantly taking place in areas where there were vertical conflicts involving citizens and the State, for example where demands for self-determination were being made and where conflicts relating to natural resources were occurring. Many killings also occurred in areas characterized by ethnic, religious and racial tensions, such as in Indonesia's Moluccan Islands.

Extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions were one among many gross violations that affected people in Indonesia's mineral-rich Aceh province. The conflict had resulted in the deaths of thousands of people during the ten years of Aceh's status as a military operation zone. Efforts to seek justice had been unsuccessful due to the weakness of legal institutions and persistent military influence. The perpetrators of extra-judicial killings seemed untouchable by law, with the military trying to maintain its influence over the judicial system by insisting on the use of semi-military courts to try allegations of human-rights abuses by soldiers.

CYNTHIA GABRIEL, of the National Consciousness Movement, said Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Malaysia, had suffered serious violations of his human rights. Mr. Ibrahim was arrested in 1998 and assaulted by the police while in custody. The public and NGOs wanted to know who was responsible for this; it raised the issue of impunity. Hundreds of Malaysians had been detained and tortured without records or evidence. Mr. Ibrahim's associates had also accused the police of torture during detention.

The frequency of such offenses was a result of a decree establishing emergency laws. Even though Malaysia was no longer in a state of emergency, these laws were still in force. There were draconian laws on the press and an official secrets act which contravened the rights to free expression and assembly. Political rallies had been banned for more than two decades. The impartiality of the judges in Anwar Ibrahim's trial had been questioned by many and concern was repeatedly expressed about the independence of the judiciary in Malaysia. The Commission must support the Malaysian people before it was too late.


MONA RISHMAWI, of the International Commission of Jurists, said her organization had found that in 1999 at least 382 jurists had suffered reprisals in 40 countries for carrying out their professional duties; of those, 13 were killed, 22 disappeared, 49 were prosecuted, arrested, detained or even tortured, and 260 were sanctioned. In Colombia alone, eight jurists were killed, 10 kidnapped and 14 threatened or physically attacked. In Sri Lanka, two well-respected lawyers were brutally murdered in 1999. The right of defense was seriously undermined in Belarus while in Azerbaijan, lawyers with a license who were not members of the Government-controlled Collegium of Lawyers were prohibited from representing clients in criminal cases.

Lawyers were also harassed in Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan. In Peru, they faced serious limitations while litigating before military courts. In the United States, the system of partisan elections for judges in some states could lead to the politicization of the judiciary. Impunity remained a problem in Guatemala and Mexico, and the existence of exceptional courts in Egypt and Colombia were a cause of concern.

DILEKCE OZGUL, of the Women's International Democratic Federation, said women's rights were systematically violated in Turkey. Despite the fact that Turkey had signed numerous international conventions on human rights, violations of fundamental human rights on its territory remained flagrant. The Turkish authorities had acknowledged on several occasions that torture and inhuman and degrading treatment were practiced in the country. Currently, more than 10,000 political opponents were under detention, most of them Kurds and women. These detainees were often tortured and raped. Their dignity was trampled and their fundamental rights were violated.

Turkey had been waging a relentless war against the PKK, which fought for the recognition of the Kurdish people and its rights. As part of its war against the PKK, Turkey had conducted hundreds of arbitrary executions in Kurdish areas, where a state of emergency prevailed. Hundreds of women and girls had been also raped by the so-called village protectors of the Government in these areas. More than 150 complaints of rape had been submitted to an organization that helped victims of rape. Recently, 4,000 unidentified corpses had been found in Kurdish and Turkish areas. In addition, 2,000 cases of disappearances had not been clarified.

ROBERT MENARO, of the Reporters Sans Frontieres, said that in Tunisia censorship was a fundamental problem. No criticism of the regime was allowed and all information was controlled by the Presidential Palace. All institutions which were concerned with information were put under Palace control. There was even a code prohibiting all mail which might undermine public authority or national security. Editorial offices were particularly affected, and all daily newspapers published a photograph of the President every day. During the election the opposition party had only been mentioned in the press once in two months. The foreign press was often banned from Tunisia.

Other communication systems were also subject to intrusive censorship, for example satellite telephones, mobile phones and the Internet. There was concern about two Islamist journalists imprisoned since 1992 in difficult conditions, and for the La Croix correspondent, who had had his mail confiscated, phone line cut, family members brutalized and passport taken. Information in Tunisia was limited by intimidation, fear, corruption and censorship.


YESHEY PELZOM, of Rural Reconstruction Nepal, said that in Bhutan, advocates of civil and political rights were branded as anti-nationals and were prosecuted under the notorious Bhutan National Security Act of 1992. The situation in Bhutan was alarming. The rights to opinion, speech and expression, the right to assembly and the right to a fair trial, among other rights, remained suspended.

The estimated 100,000 Bhutanese refugees now living in refugee camps in eastern Nepal had been forcibly evicted from Bhutan after they took part in peaceful demonstrations in 1990, demanding human rights and freedoms. Bhutan was called upon to respect the civil and political rights of its citizens by adopting a written Constitution and by allowing political pluralism in the country.

JONATHAN S. ISSON, of International Fellowship of Reconciliation, said an increasing number of Member States and NGOs had raised the issue of the violation of human rights in Tibet, providing documentation of a consistent pattern of neglect and abuse of the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people by the Chinese Government. Repressive policies had long been practiced by the Chinese Government in Tibet, where almost 80 per cent of the more than 600 political prisoners were clergy, while thousands of other monks and nuns had been expelled from their religious institutions for political reasons in recent years.

In his report to the Commission, the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance had raised numerous concerns regarding restrictions on the right to the freedom of religious belief and practice in Tibet. In particular, there was the failure of the authorities to recognize the right of those under the age of 18 to receive religious education. In April 1996, the national "Strike Hard" campaign was launched through which Chinese "work teams" were sent to monasteries and convents throughout Tibet to forcefully "re-educate" the resident monks and nuns on religious and patriotic beliefs as proscribed by the Chinese Government. This had been a serious infringement of the right to religious freedom.

ANNE LE TALLEC, of the International Federation for Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture, condemned the torture and arbitrary detention practiced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The atrocities carried out in the territories occupied by foreign troops supporting the rebels were even more frightening. One woman had her nipples cut off by a nail clipper while she was interrogated. Detentions were often of an underground nature, and torture often led to the deaths of detainees.

The Commission must pressure the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the rebel forces to end these violations of human rights and to consider the physical and moral integrity of those arrested.

PHILIPPE LE BLANCE, of Franciscans International, said religious intolerance was growing and was at the root of a number of conflicts and ongoing situations of violence in many parts of the world. Religious minorities were increasingly the targets of bigotry, which was often instigated by extremist forces. The lack of political will on the part of Governments to put an end to these destructive trends had encouraged these groups to persecute and victimize individuals and groups.

For example, in Pakistan religious discrimination was enshrined in legislation, which tended to promote a culture of intolerance. In that country, the system of separate electorates on the grounds of religion had the effect of denying religious minorities their fundamental right to universal adult franchise. The issue of freedom of expression was also of great concern to the Franciscans.

WILLIAM MOFFITT, of the International Human Rights Law Group said racial discrimination and bias were pervasive throughout the United States' criminal system, as evidenced recently by the Amadou Diallo case. Racial profiling -- using race as a presumption of guilt without evidence of criminal conduct -- had become endemic among police in U.S. communities. Racial disparities in sentencing and incarceration had never been worse. Today, black men constituted 6 per cent of the total population and an astounding 50 per cent of the burgeoning prison population. At every step in the process, people of colour were arrested, convicted and incarcerated at significantly higher rates than were whites. As of 1998, 1.4 million Black men had been deprived of their right to vote or hold political office and of their opportunities for meaningful work because of disproportionate convictions.

There was overwhelming evidence that the death penalty in the United States continued to be corrupted by race and class bias. Approximately 90 per cent of those federal prosecutors sought to execute were Black or Latino; more than half of those awaiting executions were people of colour. Slavery and formal apartheid in the U.S. had been replaced by pernicious racial discrimination.

DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, said that a tragedy of error was being staged in Israel. The former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yossef had anathematized Israel's Education Minister Yossi Sarid as "Satan", declaring his name should be obliterated. A member of the Shash Council had called for the Attorney-General's excommunication, and Shash leader Eli Yishai had declared the venerable Rabbi Yossef over and above the law. On a nearby stage, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had labelled Pope John Paul II as Satan. Israel would do well to hold firm and aim at the separation of religion and State, especially in Parliament. Other States should do the same.

Pakistan's new regime should guarantee international human-rights norms by repealing "blasphemy" legislation and addressing "honour killings," which in one year in one province of Pakistan had caused at least 300 women's deaths. Pakistan should make human rights norms a goal for all. In matters of independence of the judiciary and states of emergency, the situation in Egypt was getting worse. It was high time to turn the spotlight on all violations of the rights of human-rights defenders without the usual double standards. Egypt should not be immune from a full examination of its controversial human-rights record.

JAVIER CIURLIZZA, of the Andean Commission of Jurists, said in Peru, the President was seeking a third term office despite a Constitutional prohibition. The 1993 Constitution had established that the country's President could be reelected only for a second term; however, the Congress, against the wish of the population and in contravention of the provisions of the Constitution, had promulgated a law in 1996 which allowed the President to be reelected for a third time during the 2000 election.

In a vote of three in favour with four abstentions, the Constitutional Court had declared the inapplicability of the law. Later, those three judges had been removed from their posts by Congress in violation of the principle of separation of power.


NGAWANG CHOEPHEL, of the International Union of Socialist Youth, said the picture that was emerging in Tibet was frightening. Torture and beatings were commonplace. Political prisoners were dying every year while in custody, six of them in 1999. Prisoners in Tibet were held for many months without outside contact, often in isolation, their only human interaction being often-violent interrogation sessions. Prisoners were forced to undergo education sessions in which they were required to renounce their beliefs in His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They were made to work in the fields or factories for many hours each day. Tibetans were not allowed their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. Instead, when they were caught trying to exercise these rights they were detained and tortured.

The number of prisoners and labour camps had risen dramatically in Tibet. The continued violations of civil and political rights were symptoms of a deeper problem, which was the subjugation of a people by an alien rule. It was time for the international community to call upon Chinese authorities to engage in earnest dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives. The Commission must adopt a resolution on China for its repeated failures to promote and protect the rights of detainees in China, Tibet and Xinjiang.

MARTHA OCAMPO DE VASQUEZ, of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Persons (FEDEFAM), said FEDERAM worked to bring about justice and to find detainees. There was an alarming number of missing persons, and even more cases existed than had been acknowledged. There were still disappearances in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico. Other countries were still experiencing the aftermaths of impunity.

There had been achievements, for example the children rescued in Argentina and El Salvador and the trials under way of criminals responsible for human-rights violations. The situation was encouraging for the punishment of these criminals.

The Commission must adopt a mechanism for flexible follow up to disappearances. It would be useful to convene an open-ended working group which could review the comments of States, experts and NGOs, and to appoint an expert who could submit these statements with a revised text to the next session of the Commission. An international convention on disappearances was a pressing necessity. Members were called upon to send a clear signal to the world that disappearances would not be tolerated.

GREGORY THOMPSON, of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, said the current Indonesian Government had introduced changes by amending the main provisions establishing the authority of the judiciary and with that amendment the judiciary was not fully under the control of the Supreme Court, and not any more under the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court. That change had not brought with it a radical improvement of the judiciary, which remained militarized. A military judge could still be appointed as a supreme judge at the Supreme Court. The chairmanship of the Court was still held by a judge from the military. The militarization of the judicial system in Indonesia could also be seen in the public prosecutor's functions. The same applied to the police.


Another crucial aspect of the administration of justice in Indonesia was the lack of redress for victims of violations. So far, no legal mechanism was available to enable them to obtain restitution, rehabilitation or compensation. Administratively as well as legally, the victims of gross human-rights violations were left without recourse.

JERALD JOSEPH, of Pax Romana, said impunity was increasing around the world despite many references made by the Commission to the need to combat impunity. In Indonesia, perpetrators of crimes such as the killing of seven students during demonstrations in May 1998 and killings, disappearances and rapes committed by the military went unpunished. Even in a newly industrialized country like Malaysia, the lack of political will to investigate the criminal acts carried out by high officials was a cause of great concern. Thailand had yet to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths caused during the Democracy Movement uprising of 1992.

In Peru, two broad amnesty laws passed in 1995 had granted legal impunity to perpetrators of gross human-rights violations occurring between 1980 and 1995. At least 3,004 cases of forced disappearances, numerous extra-judicial executions, massacres and torture remained without investigation or sanction. In Argentina, the perpetrators of gross violations of human rights during the last military dictatorship had been granted legal impunity by democratic Governments. Despite this official policy, victims, their relatives and human-rights defenders were still seeking justice for the 30,000 alleged disappearances and cases of kidnapping of children, torture, and assassination.

WASAY JALIL, of Interfaith International, said extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions were being practised in Pakistan. Crimes against the Sindh and Mohajirs were continuous and their human rights were systematically violated. Many NGOs had reported on these violations of human rights and on religious intolerance and authoritarianism in Pakistan. There were many examples of human-rights violations against the Sindh and Mohajir nations. The Pakistani Government had not responded to the reports of the Special Rapporteur on torture in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, or 1998. The reports listed gross violations against the Mohajir nation.

Since 1992, when the Islamabad regime implemented its notorious anti-Mohajir clean-up operation, more than 15,000 MQM leaders, workers, supporters and sympathizers had been extra-judicially killed. Denial of their political, civil and human rights had been the established policy of Pakistan's feudal-military-bureaucracy for years. The situation had to come to an end and the right to life had to be ensured.

KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said the people of the Western Sahara had yet to participate in their long-awaited referendum -- now rescheduled for 2002. The United Nations and MINURSO officials blamed the delay on harassment and obstruction by the Government of Morocco. The people of Kashmir still had to have their United Nations-promised plebiscite. The legitimate demand of Kashmiri people for the plebiscite was the cause of the war in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

In Turkey, the Government had consistently refused to apply humanitarian law to the Kurds. Instead, the Government characterized the Kurdish combatant forces (PKK) as "terrorist". One of Turkey's allies -- the United States -- also improperly labelled the PKK as "terrorist". The result was an affront to humanitarian law. Sadly, the Kurdish civilian population had suffered serious violations. The serious and continuing police misconduct in Los Angeles in the United States was brought to the attention of the Commission. Torture, unjustified killings and harassment of immigrants or "presumed" immigrants had in fact increased in Los Angeles.

RONALD HOVEN, of the World Press Freedom Committee, welcomed the report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. As the Rapporteur rightly said in his oral presentation, freedom of opinion and expression was the mother of all rights. Without free speech and press freedom it was hard to conceive of a successful democratic system. There was a need to enact rigorous national freedom of information legislation.

The presumption of Governments and intergovernmental organizations should be that all information they held should be available to the public. There was also a need to revoke criminal defamation laws. Jail should never be the answer to defamation, real or imagined, nor should the levying of disproportionate excessive damages be allowed. These measures were routinely used by such authoritarian governments as Serbia to put independent news outlets out of business, and they often had a chilling effect on democracy.

MAGGI BOWDEN, of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, said a peace accord was concluded between the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Bangladesh Government in 1997. Human-rights violations nevertheless continued unabated. The activities of the armed forces, the military, the Awami League, Bengoli settlers and anti-accord elements continued to cause suffering. It was apparent that the Government was not at all sincere about fully and speedily implementing the peace accord. The Government had still not implemented the major points of the accord.

There was detailed evidence of arbitrary arrests and torture by the police, attacks and killings by the military and the settlers, abductions, torture and killings by the anti-accord elements, and delay in the implementation of the peace accord. Military withdrawal was one of the major steps that remained unresolved -- only 31 out of 500 military camps had been closed. The Commission must put pressure on the Bangladesh Government to honour the peace accord fully.

MADINA MAGOMADOVA, of the International Peace Bureau, said what the Russian Government called an anti-terrorist operation was in fact the complete destruction of the Chechen people and their environment. Full-scale, indiscriminate destruction had been carried out all over Chechnya, and that destruction was so widespread that even the television channels sympathetic to the Government showed pictures of it. At the start of the war, there was much talk about NATO-style "surgical strikes". However, before long the army stopped claiming that its strikes were "precise" and it became acceptable to destroy everyone and everything in the zones of military action.

Almost every Chechen family had lost relatives in the war. Tens of thousands of civilians had been killed. In addition, the majority of those who had died were children, women and the elderly. In a bombing of a maternity hospital in Grozny at the beginning of the war, 150 people were killed, including 13 newborn babies.

JOHN RUMBIAK, of Survival International, said West Papua had become the twenty-sixth province of Indonesia without the consent of its people in 1969 through the so-called Act of Free Choice. The civil and political rights of the Papuan people were violated on a massive scale. Indeed, since 1963, the people of West Papua had been the victims of a systematic campaign of human-rights violations at the hands of the Indonesian Government and army. These abuses included killings, rapes, arbitrary detention, torture and intimidation.

Today, the West Papuan people saw no other way to express their aspiration but to raise their flag. Yet even this symbolic expression of their beliefs and wishes was brutally repressed. Many hundreds of Papuans had been killed, injured, detained and tortured for their role in peacefully raising the West Papuan flag. The Commission was urged to pressure the Indonesian Government to end its use of violence in West Papua against those expressing their political and civil rights, and to open dialogue with the Papuans.

LAZARO PARY, of the Indian Movement Tupaj Amaru, said the Commission needed to investigate who was violating whose civil and political rights. Cubans' rights had been violated for 40 years by the economic blockade imposed by ten United States Presidents who aimed to destroy the Cuban experience of socialism. For eight consecutive years there had been several UN resolutions to end the blockade. Washington was maintaining a complex of mechanisms to enact the blockade despite the objection of the international community. Why could the United States not co-exist with Cuba? There was no legal nor moral basis for this behaviour in times of peace. The United States also was financing subversive actions designed to overthrow the Cuban regime through the encouragement of anti-Cuban groups, subversion, sabotage, terrorism and the kidnapping of Elian Gozales. Cuba had paid a high cost for its freedom and its right to determine its own destiny.

A similar human tragedy was being inflicted on the Iraqi people. The country was being destroyed and forced to suffer a slow death. The United States and the United Kingdom were still launching missiles against Iraq. These were acts of genocide. The authors of these crimes should be tried and punished by an international court.

SRI WIYANTI EDDYONO, of the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, said that in Indonesia progress was only seen in the field of legislation while many incidents of human-rights abuses, including torture and other inhuman treatment, continued to be committed. Torture committed by military officers had never been subject to justice and because of the maintenance of the martial law, there was no possibility of bringing the perpetrators before civilian courts; and compensation had never been given to victims of torture.

The existing criminal justice system in Indonesia did not completely prohibit all torture as defined in the Convention against Torture. National instruments only prohibited torture of those accused of crimes by the police or public prosecutors, and did not include torture outside the investigative process. The Government of Indonesia was urged to bring its laws into line with the Convention against Torture, and to provide compensation for victims.

NATIVIDAD GUERRERO, of the Centre for Studies on Youth, raised the question of the "kidnapping" of a Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez. His relatives in the United States claimed that they were holding the boy to protect him from Communism, because, supposedly, he would have better living conditions in the United States. They were also holding him in a free interpretation of his dead mother's will. Who had a right to snatch a child from his father in the name of one social system or another? Who had given anyone the right to kidnap a child of 6?

The child and his family were being subjected to psychological torture which could have serious results. The father had been denied access to his child for five months now. It was hoped that Elian would soon be released with the help of the international community.

TATJANA ZAZOULENKO, of Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme, said this was the third year the organization had appealed to the Commission concerning the situation in Chechnya. There were no legal terms or definition for the armed conflict -- the Russian Government had set no limit to the power given to the administrative bodies involved, or to the level of force used. There also were several violations regarding the rights of the soldiers and problems with the Russian practice of conscription.

In general, Russian legal procedure did not comply with international standards of human rights. A union of soldiers' mothers was concerned about the victims of the Chechen war and did not want their children to become the killers of their compatriots. An estimated 4,000 soldiers had been killed and 7,000 wounded. The organization requested the Commission to define torture as a special crime to be punished, and to send a Special Rapporteur to Chechnya.

LAZARO MORA SECADE, of the Centre for European Studies, said the problem of torture and arbitrary detention in developing countries was related to violations of economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. It was also related to the colonial past of such countries, which still prevailed over the realization of economic, social and cultural rights.

Conflicts in developing countries also should be seen in their global context. The interest of the developed nations in seeing perpetual conflicts in the developing countries should also be considered. The developing countries were marginalized and excluded by imbalanced distribution of the world's wealth. Human-rights violations and conflicts in the developing countries would continue as long as solutions were not found as a matter of priority to these problems.

ELYES BEN MARZDUK, of Jeunes Médecins Sans Frontières Tunisie, said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights could be fully implemented only in the context of democracy. Additionally, the promotion of civil and political rights was closely linked to social and economic progress. In a world undergoing profound changes at the political, economic, social and cultural levels, it was imperative to eradicate the root causes of human-rights abuses.

Civil society had an important role to play in sensitizing public opinion to the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations should cooperate with States and avoid unproductive denunciations. Poverty constituted a denial of human dignity and no effort should be spared to eradicate it. Another issue of concern was the spread of xenophobia. The media could contribute to sensitizing public opinion to this grave phenomenon. Freedom was important but could not be exercised without morality.

HELEN SAYERS, of Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, said there had been many tragic accounts of human-rights violations and of the sheer magnitude of problems facing humanity today. Power and responsibility were the key factors in realizing the goal of peace in the world. Peace came from within. Investigations and monitoring were the framework for implementing human rights, but they had to be accompanied by inner spiritual peace. Low self-esteem drove people to anti-social behaviour and attracted people to groups advocating violence and hatred of the other. Extreme fanatical behaviour could destroy the dreams everyone aspired to: peace, happiness, love and respect.

There should be a system of education based on human and spiritual values. The year 2000 was the International Year for a Culture of Peace. The Manifesto 2000 of UNESCO played a key role in the promotion of a culture of peace. It included 6 principles: the respect for all life, the rejection of violence, to share with others, to listen and understand, the preservation of the planet, and the rediscovery of unity and solidarity. Brahma Kumaris had been designated a messenger for Manifesto 2000. It encouraged Governments, UN agencies , NGOs and individuals to participate wholeheartedly in the International Year for a Culture of Peace.

MELANIE LEVERGER, of France Libertes, said political prisoners in camps in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea endured unacceptable conditions. Prisoners had to work from dawn until midnight with only three quarter-hour breaks. Each meal consisted of a portion of 100 grams of maize and cabbage soup. The portion could be reduced to 50 grams of maize if a prisoner did not respect prison rules. In the camp, public executions had been carried out, according to one former prisoner who now lived in the Republic of Korea. Since there were no medicines to provide the prisoners, herbs grown in the camp were given to those who fell ill.

In the United States, the cases of two persons who were arbitrarily detained were brought to the attention of the Commission, one indigenous -- Leonard Peltier -- and one black, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Peltier had been in prison for the last 25 years while Abul-Jamal had been awaiting the death penalty for 19 years; both proclaimed their innocence.

SOORYA LAL AMATYA, of the World Federation of Trade Unions, said democracy and the freedom of expression normally available in democratic republics were subjected to many restrictions in Pakistan, where the fundamentalists had acquired tremendous leverage over television and educational institutions even though they did not secure even 5 percent of the vote in general elections. Under Pakistan's Blasphemy Law, any criticism of the Prophet was punishable by death. Consequently, large numbers of Christians and Ahmadiyas had been killed by fanatics and mob violence.

Muslim religious fanatics got support from the police and were also inspired by many rulings by the judiciary at various levels. Pakistan continued to operate a separate electoral system for its religious minorities whereby they could not vote as part of an integrated electorate. Such a system maintained the segregation of Muslims from non-Muslims, since Christians, Hindus, Parsis and other minorities could only vote for minority candidates who rarely found a place in the Government. Journalists in Pakistan had increasingly come under attack not only from the Government and political groups but also from militant groups. There were dozens of incidents in which journalists had been ill-treated or harassed by law-enforcement personnel for pursuing their professional duties.

JOACHIM FRANK, of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said torture, ill-treatment and police misconduct were the most widespread human-rights violations of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) countries. This was a disgrace, and the situation was deteriorating in many former Communist countries. These abuses also occurred in the most democratic and advanced countries of the region. Long detention periods and sophisticated methods meant torture and ill-treatment often went undetected. Few if any police officers were brought to justice, even in cases of death. Usually there was lack of evidence or lenient punishment.

In Austria in 1999 there had been 221 allegations of ill-treatment, yet only three officers were sentenced and all three were still in office. In France there had been several deaths in custody under questionable circumstances. There also were detailed reports of torture, ill-treatment and police brutality in Russia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia), and Georgia. It was well-known that in most former Soviet republics, prison conditions were deplorable. The organization supported the initiative of the Swiss Government to develop an Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture based on inspections of places of detention.

ZELMAR MICHELINI, of the American Association of Jurists, said the organization had presented a document to the United States demanding reparation for victims of its invasion of Panama, a request which was considered admissible by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in 1993.

In another matter, Uruguay had accepted an investigation into cases of disappearance during the dictatorial regime from 1973 to 1985. Since 1989, despite a law on impunity for the military imposed by former President Julio Maria Sanguinetti, the succeeding Governments had remained silent over the investigation of crimes of enforced disappearance. Last March, however, the new Uruguayan President had told an Argentinean poet that his granddaughter, who disappeared in 1976 in Montevideo, was alive. That showed that cases of disappearances could still be elucidated.

NICHOLAS COWDERY, of the International Bar Association, said that his and four other organizations were gravely concerned at the extent of executive control over the administration of justice in Malaysia. It was threatening to erode the independence of the judiciary, threatened the institutional autonomy of the Malaysian Bar Council, and threatened the ability of lawyers to render their services freely and independently. The extremely powerful executive branch in Malaysia had not acted with due regard for the essential elements of a free and democratic society based on the rule of law.

The justice system in Pakistan was also in need of urgent reform. Serious recent events, including the removal from office of the former Chief Justice and five other judges for refusing to sign a new oath of allegiance, were raising concerns that the Pakistani judiciary was increasingly beleaguered and isolated.

ZHANG LEI, of the All-China Women's Federation, said a developing country might do a better job of respecting civil and political rights than a developed country. In the United States, the most developed country in the world, there were gross violations of civil and political rights. The safety of the public and individuals was threatened by the large number of privately owned guns and gun-related crimes; shooting was rampant in schools; police brutality was common; the number of adult Americans in prison, on probation, and on parole was 5.92 million in 1998, or 3 per cent of the total population. The United States, one of the few countries in the world which had the death penalty for juveniles, had the highest number of juveniles sentenced to death in the world.

The United States violated civil and political rights in other countries as well. Its sanctions against Iraq and military attacks on Yugoslavia had led to massive displacements, homelessness, and heavy casualties among innocent civilians. It even had used depleted uranium bombs. In its bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, three young Chinese journalists had been killed. Such acts must be condemned.

TAHIR MASOOD, of the World Muslim Congress, said the situation in Indian-held Kashmir was a case where unacknowledged, incommunicado detention and disappearances of freedom fighters continued unabated. The so-called rule of law was restricted to textbooks or speeches by Indian representatives to deceive the international community. Amnesty International, in a report released this year, stated that there had been over 800 unsolved disappearances in Kashmir since 1990. The victims belonged to all ages and professions; they included businessmen, lawyers and farmers.

The relatives of the victims of those crimes also became victims; their lives were completely shattered by the loss of sons, husbands and brothers; and at the same time they also found themselves helpless in bringing the perpetrators to justice due to fear of reprisals by the Indian security forces.

ABDEL BAGHDI, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Sudan was appalling. Throughout 1999, grave, widespread, persistent and systematic violations had been committed by the Government and security apparatus against political opponents and pro-democracy activists. The list of victims of such violations was long and included politicians, journalists, trade unionists,
human-rights activists, youths, and students. Horrendous methods abhorrent to all canons of civilized life such as extra-judicial killings, physical and psychological torture, rape and ill-treatment were used against detainees on a routine basis.

Reporting all documented cases of human-rights violations committed in the country during 1999 would simply mean enumerating all possible violations of the whole range of human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized by the body of international human-rights law. The Commission was urged to take a firm stand in addressing the situation of human rights in Sudan and to send a decisive signal that the situation in the country would not be tolerated.

KHAN SARDAR, of the Muslim World League, said some States, despite being democracies and despite having ratified the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, were among the worst human-rights violators in the world. Two examples were India and Israel. These countries denied the rights of liberty, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion to peoples under their domination; they followed policies of ethnic cleansing in their occupied lands, they carried out arbitrary arrests, detention and torture.

Indian law-enforcement agencies, particularly the armed forces, were responsible for rape, arbitrary detentions, torture, and extra-judicial and summary executions throughout India and in Kashmir. The Commission should take note of the grave violations committed in India. It should adopt a resolution calling upon India to withdraw its reservations to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, to ratify the Convention against Torture, and to invite the Special Rapporteurs on torture and extra-judicial executions to visit the country.

Rights of reply

The representative of Angola, speaking in right to reply in response to a statement by the NGO International Federation of Journalists, said article 32 of the CConstitutionalLaw of Angola guaranteed the right to freedom of expression for all citizens, but journalists could not use that freedom to slander, defame or hurt anyone. Defamation was prohibited by law. There had to be certain restrictions as one person's rights ended where another person's rights began. The case mentioned by the NGO of Rafael Marques was clear -- he had defamed and slandered the President of Angola. There was freedom of expression in Angola, but the law had to be respected by all citizens, including journalists.

The representative of Belarus, referring to a statement by the International League of Human Rights, said in right of reply that political opponents in the country were using international fora to distort facts and disseminate slander. The fact that opposition leaders were leaving and returning to the country showed that they were exercising their right to freedom of movement. Publications were freely circulated in the country, including those published by the opposition. With regard to allegation of disappearances, the discovery of one missing person in one of the Western countries had at last elucidated the case.

The representative of Yemen, speaking in right of reply, said Liberation had painted a distorted picture of the human-rights situation in Yemen. The National Committee for Human Rights, whose members included women, academics and representatives of NGOs, was vested with the responsibility of ensuring that national legislation complied with international law. In the context of national reconciliation, the Government had passed an amnesty law in 1994. It had also undertaken economic and social reforms which had been hailed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The representative of Egypt, referring to a statement from the International Commission of Jurists, said in right of reply that the independence of the judiciary in Egypt was guaranteed by the Constitution and proven by the fact that numerous verdicts in Egypt constituted landmarks in the history of the judicial protection of human rights, and Egypt was proud of it. As for the state of emergency, it could only be ended after approval by Parliament. It was regulated by the law and by the prerogatives of that law, it could only be used to fight terrorist crimes. Concerning individual cases of persons alleged to be detained, the cases had already been referred to the Working Group of Arbitrary Detention.

The representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, speaking in right of reply, said there were no political prisoners or concentration camps at all in his country. As for the person mentioned by the NGO France Liberte, she was a criminal who had embezzled large amounts of money, committed adultery, and then left for the Republic of Korea. This woman had never been detained at all. She was now a mouthpiece for others.


The NGO had behaved in an insincere and provocative manner; how could NGOs behave in such a manner? Due to its irresponsible activities, the NGO had shown that the impartiality it was always talking about was a charade. It should be ashamed, and the countries participating in the Commission should not allow such behaviour.

The representative of Bahrain, speaking in right of reply, said Bahrain denied allegations of human-rights violations raised by an NGO. These allegations were untrue and were not supported by any documentation. The NGO in question had nothing to do with human rights, distorted the truth and did not respect the society of Bahrain. Bahrain promoted and consolidated human rights. It had acceded to the Convention against Torture and cancelled its reservations to article 20 of the Convention. Torture was now punishable by law.

The representative of Angola, speaking in right of reply, said the World Press Freedom Commission had included Angola in a list of 20 countries supposedly violating press freedom. But Angola was very friendly to civil society and was open to visits from NGOs who wished to know how journalists were treated in Angola. Angola was one of the rare countries in Africa that received international NGOs quite often; Angola had nothing to hide. The truth was that the press in the country was still getting used to operating with conditions of freedom of the press, and there were sometimes difficulties.



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