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14 April 2000
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Commission on Human Rights
56th session
14 April 2000
Evening
Members Elected to Subcommission
The Commission on Human Rights discussed this evening the promotion and protection of human rights, an agenda item that covers the status of international convenants on human rights; human-rights defenders; information and education on human rights; and science and the environment.
A number of national delegations and no-governmental organizations (NGOs) spoke, with a prime subject being human-rights education. National education programmes were described, with those taking the courses including teachers, law-enforcement officials, Government employees, social workers, journalists, and children. The International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism said education was essential in the fight against discrimination and racism and it was especially important that police be given training in human-rights standards.
The NGO International Service of Human Rights, speaking on behalf of fourteen other NGOs, called on the Commission to create a post of Special Rapporteur for human-rights defenders, saying such an appointment was urgently required because human-rights defenders in all regions of the world were confronting a variety of brutal and subtle forms of repression. The World Organization against Torture said repression against persons and organizations working for the defense of human rights was widespread in more than 75 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, North Africa, and the far and Middle East -- that over the past two years at least 85 organizations and more than 392 individual human-rights defenders had suffered homicides or extra-judicial executions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, illegal or arbitrary detentions, persecutions, threats, unfair trials, and denial of freedom of association and expression.
Also during the meeting, the Commission elected a number of members to four-year terms on the Subcommission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Commission's principal subsidiary body.
They were, from the African group, Leila Zerrougui of Algeria, Fisseha Yimer of Ethiopia, Halima Embarek Warzazi of Morocco, and Godfrey Bayour Preware and alternate Christy Ezim Mbonu of Nigeria; from the Asian group, Yozo Yakota and alternate Yoshiko Terao of Japan and Soo Gil Park and alternate Chin Sung Chung of the Republic of Korea; from the Eastern European group, Stanislav Ogurtsov of Belarus and Iulia Antoanella Motoc and alternate Victoria Sandru of Romania; from the Latin American group, Miguel Alfonso Martinez and alternate Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios of Cuba and Manuel Rodriguez-Cuadros of Peru; and from the group of Western European and other States, Fried Van Hoof and alternate Lammy Betten of the Netherlands, Asbjorn Eide and alternate Jan Helgesen of Norway, and David Weissbrodt and alternate Barbara Frey of the United States.
Speaking over the course of the meeting were representatives of Japan, Portugal (on behalf of the European Union), Niger, Mexico, Australia, Turkey, Singapore, International Committee of the Red Cross, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The following NGOs also delivered statements: International Service for Human Rights; World Organization against Torture; Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; Earth-Justice Legal Defense Fund; International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism; South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre; Human Rights Advocates; and International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Monday, 17 April.
Statements
HIDEAKI KOBAYAHI (Japan) said that despite the universality of human rights and the legitimate concern of the international community, there were places in the world where human rights were not fully respected. Japan believed that the international community should encourage the countries in question to move forward, rather than criticize or isolate them, as long as they had shown the will to improve their situations. Japan also recognized that the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms was primarily the responsibility of each country. In order to help States, the United Nations had been developing various international human rights instruments stemming from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Japanese Government believed that the six principal human-rights instruments now in place were truly conducive for each country to promote and protect human rights.
Since the European Union was going to submit a draft resolution on the question of the death penalty, Japan wished to say that it believed that the question of whether to retain or to abolish capital punishment should be weighed carefully by each State, fully taking into account the sentiments of its people, the state of its domestic crime, and its criminal-justice policy in general.
ALVARO MENDONCA E MOURA (Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, paid tribute to those people who devoted themselves to the promotion of human rights as individuals or as part of an association. Local NGOs were irreplaceable and the EU was grateful to all those individuals who often, at great personal risk, were providing information on human-rights situations in their respective countries. Their fight embodied better than any speech the meaning of human rights. The work was difficult and dangerous.
The adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Defenders was a significant step as it recognized the role of human-rights defenders. It did not create special rights for them but emphasized that human-rights defenders' rights had to be protected. The declaration was the foundation for work between States, the international community and human-rights defenders. The Commission should create a special mechanism on human-rights defenders to review the necessary tasks for the implementation of the declaration, to examine and react in an effective way to information, and to implement measures and remedies to the obstacles facing human-rights defenders.
The Representative (Niger) said Niger had made progress since last year's session; a new Constitution had been adopted; National Assembly elections and a presidential election had been held; the new President and Prime Minister had sworn to protect, enhance and defend human rights. The Government had just ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Niger, furthermore, had no prisoners today in relation to freedom of expression, and the right to free assembly had been fully implemented.
A new national Commission for Human Rights had been established, which would work in cooperation with NGOs. Niger approved of activities by the Office of the High Commissioner to train and empower NGOs, and hoped such programmes would be extended to Niger. The International Year dedicated to a culture of peace was a good idea as well, as democracy and human rights could only thrive in conditions of peace. Tomorrow would mark Niger's fifth year of peace. Economic problems remained and were an obstacle to implementing human-rights programmes. A new criminal procedures code strictly defended the human rights of detainees, and while the death penalty had not been abolished in Niger, it was not currently being imposed, either.
The Representative (Mexico) said Mexico attached great importance to the issue of human-rights defenders. On the national level, the Government of Mexico had undertaken a series of measures towards the protection of human-rights defenders and journalists. In 1999 a special office had been created by the Government to listen to complaints lodged by human-rights defenders and journalists. The office had been registering cases of threats targeted against those groups. In addition, the National Commission for Human Rights had authority to receive complaints from human-rights defenders and journalists.
Concerning the situation in Chiapas, it should be noted that the region had been visited constantly by 5,000 representatives from foreign non-governmental organizations, journalists, parliamentarians, and other different personalities. In 1999 alone, 511 representatives of foreign organizations visited Chiapas, including journalists and media personnel. During the coming election, Mexico would be inviting foreign observers to monitor the voting. Mexico was also opposed to the application of the death penalty and it was for that reason that it had sponsored the draft resolution before the Commission on the issue.
The Representative (Australia) said good governance had been a popular topic in recent years, together with globalization and the scourge of poverty. Good governance had been commonly discussed and endorsed, but it had not generally been discussed in the Commission until this year. The Secretary-General had underlined the link between good Government in States and the potential for the population to profit from economic progress.
Australia's support of the principle of good governance included the conviction that it was essential for the implementation of human rights and that it was a continuous process for all States. There was no objective international standard for good governance and so the matter had to be determined by States themselves, leading to a variety of objectives. The international environment and the role of the State were equally important in promoting good governance. The best way for the community of nations to achieve good governance was through cooperation, assistance when appropriate and requested, and exchanges of experience. A discussion on this important concept was needed and the Commission should take the necessary steps to move this issue forward.
IOANNA KUKURADI (Turkey) said the ethical aspect of human rights was often neglected in educational programmes. The programme developed by Turkey through its National Committee on the Decade of Human Rights Education aimed to create individuals who possessed the sincere will to protect human rights per se, and not only their own rights -- individuals who were equipped with sufficient knowledge of what human rights essentially demanded. Target groups for the education programme for the moment were relevant teachers, law-enforcement officers, members of the mass media, members of NGOs, and social workers.
The Committee had also, among other things, set up a working group to revise relevant textbooks; revised training programmes for relevant teachers; and organized week-end seminars in human rights for journalists. There was still much for the Committee to do and it was hoped that its work would eventually help to settle a considerable portion of the human-rights problems still facing Turkey.
SEE CHAK MUN (Singapore) said the draft resolution presented by the European Union on abolition of the death penalty would seriously prejudice the authority of national jurisdictions to carry out punishment in accordance with national laws. The draft sought to impose overbearing and unwarranted pressure on States that retained the death penalty.
Capital punishment was first and foremost a criminal-justice issue rather than a human-rights issue. States should be free to pursue criminal policies and measures to protect the rights of victims and to deter crime. The question of whether to retain or abolish capital punishment should be carefully studied by each State, taking into account the values of its people, the crime situation, and criminal policy.
The Representative, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said a lack of legal standards was not the primary reason for numerous violations and abuses perpetrated in the gray area between peacetime and situations of armed conflict. The reason was non-compliance by State and non-State actors with the principles and rules of international humanitarian and human-rights law. The focus should therefore be the reasons for non-compliance with already existing law.
The need for focus on the implementation of existing law was based on several developments that seemed to obviate the need for elaborating new international standards. The first of these developments was the establishment and ongoing work of the two UN ad hoc international criminal courts and the second was the adoption of the Rome Statute for a permanent International Criminal Court. Further work on fundamental standards of humanity should be seen as a process aimed at reiterating existing international humanitarian law and human rights norms with a view to facilitating their dissemination and implementation. Governments should take all feasible steps to strengthen the protection of persons in both peacetime and armed conflicts by ratifying relevant international treaties and ensuring their implementation.
The Representative, of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said UNESCO had taken the initiative in elaborating the global project called A Culture of Peace, which was based, among other things, on the Charter of the United Nations and on respect for human rights, democracy, and tolerance. The General Assembly had declared 2000 the International Year for the Culture of Peace, and then had declared an International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. UNESCO was serving as a focal point for activities in this field and had undertaken a number of projects to that end.
Among UNESCO's efforts was a programme to introduce basic ideas about durable dialogue and peace in East Timor through a project for restoration of the island's print and audio-visual media structures. UNESCO, UNTAET and SEAPA were working together to reinforce radio networks and enable the publication of the first newspaper in independent East Timor. Another programme was a project called "disarming history" which would place less stress on the violence of wars and the glorification of conflict and more emphasis on why wars took place and how they could be permanently overcome.
The Representative, of International Service of Human Rights, speaking on behalf of fourteen other organizations, called on the Commission to create a post of Special Rapporteur for human-rights defenders. Such an appointment was urgently required because human-rights defenders in all regions of the world were confronting a complex variety of brutal and subtle forms of repression.
For many years now, the Commission had heard of how human-rights defenders and their organizations had been subjected to severe violations and had not been allowed to operate freely. Members of human-rights organizations, for example, had been arbitrarily detained on trumped-up charges; they had disappeared; they had been assassinated, tortured, threatened with death and submitted to abusive legal prosecution.
FERNANDO MEJIA, of World Organization against Torture, said repression against persons and organizations working for the defense of human rights was widespread in more than 75 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, North Africa, the far and Middle East. Over the past two years at least 85 organizations and more than 392 individual human-rights defenders had had their human rights and fundamental freedoms violated. These violations included homicides or extra-judicial executions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, illegal or arbitrary detentions, persecutions, threats, unfair trials, denial of freedom of association and expression, and violation of the right to life.
In some countries this repressive environment was linked to the application of laws on national security or states of emergency. Sometimes pseudo-NGOs had been created with a view to discrediting the activities of independent organizations in the eyes of international bodies. The correlation between the situation of human-rights defenders in these countries and human-rights situations there was evident.
ISABELLE SCHERER, of Amnesty International, said the Commission had sent a clear message to the international community that the death penalty negated human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. States were called upon to establish a moratorium on executions as a step towards completely abolishing the death penalty. Several States had heeded the call, but other States had defied the Commission and continued to act as judicial executioners and to flout their obligations under human-rights treaties.
China continued to execute more people than the rest of the world put together; Saudi Arabia executed people after trials where there had been no formal legal representation; the United States had executed people under the age of 18. Cuba, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Democratic Republic of Congo and Trinidad and Tobago had also defied the Commission. This overview of severe breaches of international obligations and flouting of Commission resolutions on capital punishment illustrated the need for the Commission to adopt, once more, a resolution urging States to impose a moratorium on executions.
JOANNA WESCHLER, of Human Rights Watch, said human-rights defenders around the world were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and in some cases paid the highest price for their work on behalf of their commitment to the ideals of human rights. In Sri Lanka, a human-rights defender was killed by a suicide bomber in July 1999. In Uzbekistan, human-rights defenders had worked under the pressure of rigorous Government surveillance and harassment. The Government had refused to grant registration to the two leading non-governmental groups, rendering their activities illegal.
Following a series of bombings in Tashkent in February 1999 the Uzbek government intensified its campaign against independent rights activists. The law enforcement officers arrested, beat, threatened and harassed rights defenders in an effort to punish and silence them. In Syria, independent nongovernmental organizations were not permitted. Defenders faced grossly unfair trials and harsh punishments, including torture. Tunisia had gone to extrodinary lengths to intimidate and impede those who spoke out on behalf of victims of human-rights abuses.
Y. LADOR, of Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, said victims of damage to the environment amounting to human-rights abuses and causing such events as mass exoduses and conflicts, were increasing year by year and yet the Commission remained silent on the topic. The recommendation of the Chair of the Working Group on enhancing the mechanisms of the Commission that the matter be looked at next year at the time of the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on illicit movement and dumping of toxic wastes was welcomed. This procedure was the only one the Commission had relating to environmental issues. The Commission must stop on-going discrimination against victims of environmentally related human-rights violations.
The Commission also was informed that international environmental law, in its recent evolutions, was stepping more and more into the field of human rights. This could have great potential for human rights around the world, and the Commission must not let itself be marginalized as work in this field advanced.
ATSUKO TANAKA, of International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, said that education was essential in the fight against discrimination and racism. At the international level, human-rights training materials had been prepared targeting professionals such as the police, the ACT Project in support of grassroots activities had been launched, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been translated into more than 300 languages. Nevertheless, inter-governmental organizations had not given due attention to the Decade for Human Rights Education. Regional conferences had been held in different regions at which NGOs had not been properly represented. Such initiatives should be organized with full NGO participation.
At the national level, only a limited number of countries had developed national plans for human-rights education. Governments should seriously put in practice their commitments made at the international level. Human-rights education should be included as one of the most important issues on the agenda of the World Conference against Racism and special efforts should be made by the United Nations to involve the media in awareness raising.
SUHAS CHAKMA, of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), said the report of the Secretary-General on human-rights defenders had not mentioned any attacks on human-rights defenders in 1999, which was hard to believe. It amounted to censorship. Systematic attacks on human-rights defenders in South Asia were frequent, especially in "illiberal democracies" such as Pakistan, where on 10 May 1999 the Government had revoked registration of 1,941 NGOs without even a modicum of due process, and then on 17 May revoked registration of 273 NGOs in Punjab.
In India, human-rights defender G.M. Butt had been dragged from a car on 5 June 1999 by ten to 15 men, and taken away; SAHRDC intervened and made legal demands of the authorities, and had been threatened in response by the Delhi police. Human-rights defenders in the insurgency-affected areas of India had suffered similar fates. And in Bangladesh, Odhikar, a human-rights organization, was until recently barred from receiving any foreign funding, and its office was often visited by members of the Bangladeshi intelligence forces. Commission mechanisms must address such matters.
HOLLY GAUDREAU, of Human Rights Advocates, said the Commission should adopt a resolution calling upon countries to stop the execution of juvenile offenders. Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibited this practice. Last year the Commission had said the six countries which engaged in this practice were in breach of their international treaty obligations.
Worldwide use of the juvenile death penalty had decreased considerably. Only a few persistent violators remained. Since 1995, only Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States had executed juvenile offenders. Even China, which according to Amnesty International was responsible for the world's highest annual judicial death toll, had outlawed the practice of sentencing juveniles to death in 1997. The United States continued to defy the object and purpose behind the Covenant, as there were currently 70 juvenile offenders on death row. There should at a minimum be moratoria on the death penalty, particularly for juvenile offenders.
KENZO FUKUMA, of International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said that in Japan the Supreme Court had made rulings which were extremely dangerous to labour rights. These decisions had led corporations to believe that the Supreme Court was always on their side even in case of their wrongdoing. Consequently, corporations had come to compete with each other for violations of labour rights and this had led to Japanese capitalism without rules and to death from overwork, which was known as "Karoshi".
Several rulings by the Japanese Supreme Court were brought to the attention of the Commission. One decision ruled that the dismissal of an employee on the basis of an employee's refusal to take up overtime work was valid. Another ruling was in favour of a company that had dismissed a female worker who had refused to accept a transfer to another workplace on the grounds that she could not endure a commute that took more than two hours, claiming that this would mean destruction of her family and health. In another case the Supreme Court approved dismissals of employees who complained about substantial wage cuts.
* *** *
56th session
14 April 2000
Evening
Members Elected to Subcommission
The Commission on Human Rights discussed this evening the promotion and protection of human rights, an agenda item that covers the status of international convenants on human rights; human-rights defenders; information and education on human rights; and science and the environment.
A number of national delegations and no-governmental organizations (NGOs) spoke, with a prime subject being human-rights education. National education programmes were described, with those taking the courses including teachers, law-enforcement officials, Government employees, social workers, journalists, and children. The International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism said education was essential in the fight against discrimination and racism and it was especially important that police be given training in human-rights standards.
The NGO International Service of Human Rights, speaking on behalf of fourteen other NGOs, called on the Commission to create a post of Special Rapporteur for human-rights defenders, saying such an appointment was urgently required because human-rights defenders in all regions of the world were confronting a variety of brutal and subtle forms of repression. The World Organization against Torture said repression against persons and organizations working for the defense of human rights was widespread in more than 75 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, North Africa, and the far and Middle East -- that over the past two years at least 85 organizations and more than 392 individual human-rights defenders had suffered homicides or extra-judicial executions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, illegal or arbitrary detentions, persecutions, threats, unfair trials, and denial of freedom of association and expression.
Also during the meeting, the Commission elected a number of members to four-year terms on the Subcommission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Commission's principal subsidiary body.
They were, from the African group, Leila Zerrougui of Algeria, Fisseha Yimer of Ethiopia, Halima Embarek Warzazi of Morocco, and Godfrey Bayour Preware and alternate Christy Ezim Mbonu of Nigeria; from the Asian group, Yozo Yakota and alternate Yoshiko Terao of Japan and Soo Gil Park and alternate Chin Sung Chung of the Republic of Korea; from the Eastern European group, Stanislav Ogurtsov of Belarus and Iulia Antoanella Motoc and alternate Victoria Sandru of Romania; from the Latin American group, Miguel Alfonso Martinez and alternate Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios of Cuba and Manuel Rodriguez-Cuadros of Peru; and from the group of Western European and other States, Fried Van Hoof and alternate Lammy Betten of the Netherlands, Asbjorn Eide and alternate Jan Helgesen of Norway, and David Weissbrodt and alternate Barbara Frey of the United States.
Speaking over the course of the meeting were representatives of Japan, Portugal (on behalf of the European Union), Niger, Mexico, Australia, Turkey, Singapore, International Committee of the Red Cross, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The following NGOs also delivered statements: International Service for Human Rights; World Organization against Torture; Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; Earth-Justice Legal Defense Fund; International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism; South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre; Human Rights Advocates; and International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Monday, 17 April.
Statements
HIDEAKI KOBAYAHI (Japan) said that despite the universality of human rights and the legitimate concern of the international community, there were places in the world where human rights were not fully respected. Japan believed that the international community should encourage the countries in question to move forward, rather than criticize or isolate them, as long as they had shown the will to improve their situations. Japan also recognized that the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms was primarily the responsibility of each country. In order to help States, the United Nations had been developing various international human rights instruments stemming from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Japanese Government believed that the six principal human-rights instruments now in place were truly conducive for each country to promote and protect human rights.
Since the European Union was going to submit a draft resolution on the question of the death penalty, Japan wished to say that it believed that the question of whether to retain or to abolish capital punishment should be weighed carefully by each State, fully taking into account the sentiments of its people, the state of its domestic crime, and its criminal-justice policy in general.
ALVARO MENDONCA E MOURA (Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, paid tribute to those people who devoted themselves to the promotion of human rights as individuals or as part of an association. Local NGOs were irreplaceable and the EU was grateful to all those individuals who often, at great personal risk, were providing information on human-rights situations in their respective countries. Their fight embodied better than any speech the meaning of human rights. The work was difficult and dangerous.
The adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Defenders was a significant step as it recognized the role of human-rights defenders. It did not create special rights for them but emphasized that human-rights defenders' rights had to be protected. The declaration was the foundation for work between States, the international community and human-rights defenders. The Commission should create a special mechanism on human-rights defenders to review the necessary tasks for the implementation of the declaration, to examine and react in an effective way to information, and to implement measures and remedies to the obstacles facing human-rights defenders.
The Representative (Niger) said Niger had made progress since last year's session; a new Constitution had been adopted; National Assembly elections and a presidential election had been held; the new President and Prime Minister had sworn to protect, enhance and defend human rights. The Government had just ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Niger, furthermore, had no prisoners today in relation to freedom of expression, and the right to free assembly had been fully implemented.
A new national Commission for Human Rights had been established, which would work in cooperation with NGOs. Niger approved of activities by the Office of the High Commissioner to train and empower NGOs, and hoped such programmes would be extended to Niger. The International Year dedicated to a culture of peace was a good idea as well, as democracy and human rights could only thrive in conditions of peace. Tomorrow would mark Niger's fifth year of peace. Economic problems remained and were an obstacle to implementing human-rights programmes. A new criminal procedures code strictly defended the human rights of detainees, and while the death penalty had not been abolished in Niger, it was not currently being imposed, either.
The Representative (Mexico) said Mexico attached great importance to the issue of human-rights defenders. On the national level, the Government of Mexico had undertaken a series of measures towards the protection of human-rights defenders and journalists. In 1999 a special office had been created by the Government to listen to complaints lodged by human-rights defenders and journalists. The office had been registering cases of threats targeted against those groups. In addition, the National Commission for Human Rights had authority to receive complaints from human-rights defenders and journalists.
Concerning the situation in Chiapas, it should be noted that the region had been visited constantly by 5,000 representatives from foreign non-governmental organizations, journalists, parliamentarians, and other different personalities. In 1999 alone, 511 representatives of foreign organizations visited Chiapas, including journalists and media personnel. During the coming election, Mexico would be inviting foreign observers to monitor the voting. Mexico was also opposed to the application of the death penalty and it was for that reason that it had sponsored the draft resolution before the Commission on the issue.
The Representative (Australia) said good governance had been a popular topic in recent years, together with globalization and the scourge of poverty. Good governance had been commonly discussed and endorsed, but it had not generally been discussed in the Commission until this year. The Secretary-General had underlined the link between good Government in States and the potential for the population to profit from economic progress.
Australia's support of the principle of good governance included the conviction that it was essential for the implementation of human rights and that it was a continuous process for all States. There was no objective international standard for good governance and so the matter had to be determined by States themselves, leading to a variety of objectives. The international environment and the role of the State were equally important in promoting good governance. The best way for the community of nations to achieve good governance was through cooperation, assistance when appropriate and requested, and exchanges of experience. A discussion on this important concept was needed and the Commission should take the necessary steps to move this issue forward.
IOANNA KUKURADI (Turkey) said the ethical aspect of human rights was often neglected in educational programmes. The programme developed by Turkey through its National Committee on the Decade of Human Rights Education aimed to create individuals who possessed the sincere will to protect human rights per se, and not only their own rights -- individuals who were equipped with sufficient knowledge of what human rights essentially demanded. Target groups for the education programme for the moment were relevant teachers, law-enforcement officers, members of the mass media, members of NGOs, and social workers.
The Committee had also, among other things, set up a working group to revise relevant textbooks; revised training programmes for relevant teachers; and organized week-end seminars in human rights for journalists. There was still much for the Committee to do and it was hoped that its work would eventually help to settle a considerable portion of the human-rights problems still facing Turkey.
SEE CHAK MUN (Singapore) said the draft resolution presented by the European Union on abolition of the death penalty would seriously prejudice the authority of national jurisdictions to carry out punishment in accordance with national laws. The draft sought to impose overbearing and unwarranted pressure on States that retained the death penalty.
Capital punishment was first and foremost a criminal-justice issue rather than a human-rights issue. States should be free to pursue criminal policies and measures to protect the rights of victims and to deter crime. The question of whether to retain or abolish capital punishment should be carefully studied by each State, taking into account the values of its people, the crime situation, and criminal policy.
The Representative, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said a lack of legal standards was not the primary reason for numerous violations and abuses perpetrated in the gray area between peacetime and situations of armed conflict. The reason was non-compliance by State and non-State actors with the principles and rules of international humanitarian and human-rights law. The focus should therefore be the reasons for non-compliance with already existing law.
The need for focus on the implementation of existing law was based on several developments that seemed to obviate the need for elaborating new international standards. The first of these developments was the establishment and ongoing work of the two UN ad hoc international criminal courts and the second was the adoption of the Rome Statute for a permanent International Criminal Court. Further work on fundamental standards of humanity should be seen as a process aimed at reiterating existing international humanitarian law and human rights norms with a view to facilitating their dissemination and implementation. Governments should take all feasible steps to strengthen the protection of persons in both peacetime and armed conflicts by ratifying relevant international treaties and ensuring their implementation.
The Representative, of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said UNESCO had taken the initiative in elaborating the global project called A Culture of Peace, which was based, among other things, on the Charter of the United Nations and on respect for human rights, democracy, and tolerance. The General Assembly had declared 2000 the International Year for the Culture of Peace, and then had declared an International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. UNESCO was serving as a focal point for activities in this field and had undertaken a number of projects to that end.
Among UNESCO's efforts was a programme to introduce basic ideas about durable dialogue and peace in East Timor through a project for restoration of the island's print and audio-visual media structures. UNESCO, UNTAET and SEAPA were working together to reinforce radio networks and enable the publication of the first newspaper in independent East Timor. Another programme was a project called "disarming history" which would place less stress on the violence of wars and the glorification of conflict and more emphasis on why wars took place and how they could be permanently overcome.
The Representative, of International Service of Human Rights, speaking on behalf of fourteen other organizations, called on the Commission to create a post of Special Rapporteur for human-rights defenders. Such an appointment was urgently required because human-rights defenders in all regions of the world were confronting a complex variety of brutal and subtle forms of repression.
For many years now, the Commission had heard of how human-rights defenders and their organizations had been subjected to severe violations and had not been allowed to operate freely. Members of human-rights organizations, for example, had been arbitrarily detained on trumped-up charges; they had disappeared; they had been assassinated, tortured, threatened with death and submitted to abusive legal prosecution.
FERNANDO MEJIA, of World Organization against Torture, said repression against persons and organizations working for the defense of human rights was widespread in more than 75 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, North Africa, the far and Middle East. Over the past two years at least 85 organizations and more than 392 individual human-rights defenders had had their human rights and fundamental freedoms violated. These violations included homicides or extra-judicial executions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, illegal or arbitrary detentions, persecutions, threats, unfair trials, denial of freedom of association and expression, and violation of the right to life.
In some countries this repressive environment was linked to the application of laws on national security or states of emergency. Sometimes pseudo-NGOs had been created with a view to discrediting the activities of independent organizations in the eyes of international bodies. The correlation between the situation of human-rights defenders in these countries and human-rights situations there was evident.
ISABELLE SCHERER, of Amnesty International, said the Commission had sent a clear message to the international community that the death penalty negated human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. States were called upon to establish a moratorium on executions as a step towards completely abolishing the death penalty. Several States had heeded the call, but other States had defied the Commission and continued to act as judicial executioners and to flout their obligations under human-rights treaties.
China continued to execute more people than the rest of the world put together; Saudi Arabia executed people after trials where there had been no formal legal representation; the United States had executed people under the age of 18. Cuba, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Democratic Republic of Congo and Trinidad and Tobago had also defied the Commission. This overview of severe breaches of international obligations and flouting of Commission resolutions on capital punishment illustrated the need for the Commission to adopt, once more, a resolution urging States to impose a moratorium on executions.
JOANNA WESCHLER, of Human Rights Watch, said human-rights defenders around the world were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and in some cases paid the highest price for their work on behalf of their commitment to the ideals of human rights. In Sri Lanka, a human-rights defender was killed by a suicide bomber in July 1999. In Uzbekistan, human-rights defenders had worked under the pressure of rigorous Government surveillance and harassment. The Government had refused to grant registration to the two leading non-governmental groups, rendering their activities illegal.
Following a series of bombings in Tashkent in February 1999 the Uzbek government intensified its campaign against independent rights activists. The law enforcement officers arrested, beat, threatened and harassed rights defenders in an effort to punish and silence them. In Syria, independent nongovernmental organizations were not permitted. Defenders faced grossly unfair trials and harsh punishments, including torture. Tunisia had gone to extrodinary lengths to intimidate and impede those who spoke out on behalf of victims of human-rights abuses.
Y. LADOR, of Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, said victims of damage to the environment amounting to human-rights abuses and causing such events as mass exoduses and conflicts, were increasing year by year and yet the Commission remained silent on the topic. The recommendation of the Chair of the Working Group on enhancing the mechanisms of the Commission that the matter be looked at next year at the time of the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on illicit movement and dumping of toxic wastes was welcomed. This procedure was the only one the Commission had relating to environmental issues. The Commission must stop on-going discrimination against victims of environmentally related human-rights violations.
The Commission also was informed that international environmental law, in its recent evolutions, was stepping more and more into the field of human rights. This could have great potential for human rights around the world, and the Commission must not let itself be marginalized as work in this field advanced.
ATSUKO TANAKA, of International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, said that education was essential in the fight against discrimination and racism. At the international level, human-rights training materials had been prepared targeting professionals such as the police, the ACT Project in support of grassroots activities had been launched, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been translated into more than 300 languages. Nevertheless, inter-governmental organizations had not given due attention to the Decade for Human Rights Education. Regional conferences had been held in different regions at which NGOs had not been properly represented. Such initiatives should be organized with full NGO participation.
At the national level, only a limited number of countries had developed national plans for human-rights education. Governments should seriously put in practice their commitments made at the international level. Human-rights education should be included as one of the most important issues on the agenda of the World Conference against Racism and special efforts should be made by the United Nations to involve the media in awareness raising.
SUHAS CHAKMA, of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), said the report of the Secretary-General on human-rights defenders had not mentioned any attacks on human-rights defenders in 1999, which was hard to believe. It amounted to censorship. Systematic attacks on human-rights defenders in South Asia were frequent, especially in "illiberal democracies" such as Pakistan, where on 10 May 1999 the Government had revoked registration of 1,941 NGOs without even a modicum of due process, and then on 17 May revoked registration of 273 NGOs in Punjab.
In India, human-rights defender G.M. Butt had been dragged from a car on 5 June 1999 by ten to 15 men, and taken away; SAHRDC intervened and made legal demands of the authorities, and had been threatened in response by the Delhi police. Human-rights defenders in the insurgency-affected areas of India had suffered similar fates. And in Bangladesh, Odhikar, a human-rights organization, was until recently barred from receiving any foreign funding, and its office was often visited by members of the Bangladeshi intelligence forces. Commission mechanisms must address such matters.
HOLLY GAUDREAU, of Human Rights Advocates, said the Commission should adopt a resolution calling upon countries to stop the execution of juvenile offenders. Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibited this practice. Last year the Commission had said the six countries which engaged in this practice were in breach of their international treaty obligations.
Worldwide use of the juvenile death penalty had decreased considerably. Only a few persistent violators remained. Since 1995, only Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States had executed juvenile offenders. Even China, which according to Amnesty International was responsible for the world's highest annual judicial death toll, had outlawed the practice of sentencing juveniles to death in 1997. The United States continued to defy the object and purpose behind the Covenant, as there were currently 70 juvenile offenders on death row. There should at a minimum be moratoria on the death penalty, particularly for juvenile offenders.
KENZO FUKUMA, of International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said that in Japan the Supreme Court had made rulings which were extremely dangerous to labour rights. These decisions had led corporations to believe that the Supreme Court was always on their side even in case of their wrongdoing. Consequently, corporations had come to compete with each other for violations of labour rights and this had led to Japanese capitalism without rules and to death from overwork, which was known as "Karoshi".
Several rulings by the Japanese Supreme Court were brought to the attention of the Commission. One decision ruled that the dismissal of an employee on the basis of an employee's refusal to take up overtime work was valid. Another ruling was in favour of a company that had dismissed a female worker who had refused to accept a transfer to another workplace on the grounds that she could not endure a commute that took more than two hours, claiming that this would mean destruction of her family and health. In another case the Supreme Court approved dismissals of employees who complained about substantial wage cuts.
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