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22 March 2000
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22 Mach 2000
Afternoon
Annual Debate Begins on Right to Self-Determination
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Sweden, and Yemen spoke before the Commission on Human Rights this afternoon and the Commission began its yearly review of the right to self-determination, hearing from several countries and a series of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Joschka Fischer, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, told the Commission that only the protection of human rights and the rule of law could guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs of countries had become history in the human-rights field, he said, as the indictments of Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic had shown, along with the reaction of the international community to the Kosovo conflict.
Anna Lindh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, said there was no contradiction between development and human rights -- the very purpose of development efforts was to ensure the dignity of every individual through the promotion of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. She said Sweden felt strongly that no Government had the right to hide behind national sovereignty to avoid investigation or international reaction to violations of the human rights or fundamental freedoms of its peoples.
Abdulkader Bajammal, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Yemen, described the country's recent presidential election, outlined reforms that would lead to elections for local councils, and said a broad-based committee had been set up to promote and safeguard human rights. He also said a separate prison for women soon would be built and a rehabilitation programme for women prisoners set up.
The debate on self-determination, formally titled on the agenda 'the right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation', led, among other things, to different intepretations of the term. China claimed self-determination meant safeguarding State sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and meant that no country should be allowed to impose its ideology and social standards on another country. Several NGOs contended that it entitled minorities whose human rights had been systematically violated to greater autonomy.
Speaking at the afternoon meeting were representatives of China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cuba, and Syria.
Also addressing the session were representatives of the non-governmental organizations Association for World Education; Worldview International Foundation; Association of Federations for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights; Interfaith International; African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters; North-South XXI; American Association of Jurists; European Union of Public Relations; International Institute for Peace; and Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization.
Turkey, India, and Pakistan spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 23 March, to continue debate on the right to self-determination.
The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation
Under this agenda item the Commission has before it a report (E/CN.4/2000/14) by Special Rapporteur Enrique Bernales Ballesteros on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of people to self-determination. Among other things, the report gives a detailed account of the Special Rapporteurs's visit to Cuba, where various attacks had been carried out on hotels and tourist facilities in Havana in 1997. The Special Rapporteur concludes that the attacks were carried out by foreigners for financial gain and that the persons concerned had been recruited, trained, hired and funded by third parties. He recommends that the Commission condemn the perpetrators of the attacks, which were aimed at damaging Cuba's tourist industry and thereby its economy.
The report also looks at private firms providing security services and military assistance and concludes that the intervention by these firms in armed conflicts and the recruitment and hiring of mercenaries by these firms are harmful to the international order and should not be tolerated. Lastly, the report points out that, 10 years after the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries was adopted by the General Assembly, only 19 States have ratified or acceded to it, whereas 22 are needed for it to enter into force.
There is also a report by the Secretary General on the situation in occupied Palestine (E/CN.4/2000/13), noting that the Commission had reaffirmed in its resolution 1999/55 the continuing and unqualified Palestinian right to self-determination, including the option of a State, and that the Secretariat had addressed on 28 June 1999 a note verbale to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel and to all other Governments requesting information pertaining to the implementation of the resolution by the Government of Israel. The report notes that no reply had been received at the time of its preparation.
Statements
JOSCHKA FISCHER, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, said only the protection of human rights and the rule of law could guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs of countries had become history in the human-rights field. The indictments against Pinochet and Milosevic were milestones on the path to the international rule of law. The Kosovo conflict had been another important turning point, as the international community was no longer willing to accept the use of civil war, terror and expulsion as political tools.
The past year, however, had also shown that the enforcement of human rights had its limits. The war in Chechnya had seen massive human-rights violations on both sides without any effective intervention by the international community. The massive, continued and indiscriminate use of military force by Russia could not be tolerated. The human-rights situation in China was another matter of concern. Violations of human rights by China included the persecution and harassment of dissidents and members of ethnic minorities, the suppression of freedom of expression, assembly and religion, and other serious infringements of the rule of law, such as show trials, torture and imprisonment without due process. It was particularly shocking that more people continued to be executed by China than by all the other States of the world put together.
Conflicts such as those in Rwanda and Kosovo provided a serious incentive for long overdue reform of the Security Council. Mr. Fischer said the process of globalization had to be injected with universally valid values and codes of behaviour to ensure that the individual and not the market was the focus of the process, which currently was further deepening the divide between the rich and poorer countries.
ANNA LINDH, Foreign Minister of Sweden, said democracy and human rights improved the lives of individuals and the prospects for prosperity within and among nations. There was no contradiction between development and human rights -- the very purpose of development efforts was to ensure the dignity of every individual through the promotion of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Only when the eradication of extreme poverty was secured could people enjoy their other rights. UN agencies were encouraged, along with Governments, to promote civil and political as well as social, economic and cultural rights.
Ms. Lindh regretted the lack of progress made on the optional protocol on the sale of children. Sweden would continue to focus on the rights of children and women, she said. Kosovo and Chechnya were examples of situations requiring urgent attention by the Commission.
Sweden felt strongly that no Government had the right to hide behind national sovereignty to avoid investigation or international reaction to violations of the human rights or fundamental freedoms of its peoples. Sweden encouraged the Commission to be guided by this principle. Ms. Lindh condemned President Lukashenko's authoritarian rule in Belarus. A dialogue between Sweden and China was expected to bring concrete and practical results. Death sentences, censorship of the press and restrictions on the use of the Internet in China were examples of areas which required reform. Eradication of the death penalty remained a matter highest priority to the Swedish Government. Sweden felt concern, among other things, that 37 states in the United States continued to use the death penalty.
ABDULKADER BAJAMMAL, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Yemen, said free and direct elections had been held in September of last year, with two candidates contending for national leadership. Ali Abdulla Saleh had won the presidential election. In addition, a law on local authority had been issued to enhance the democratic process and so increase popular participation in decision-making at diverse levels. Issuance of the law was made following discussions among all political and cultural sectors of the country. Based on the law, local council elections would be convened within a year. The councils would be charged with implementing political, economic, and social development at the local level.
Mr. Bajammal said an independent committee had been formed of thirty prominent personalities representing the various intellectual and professional sectors of Yemen's diverse society. The body had started its work and had launched a programme of action to assist it in activating a human-rights movement. The committee should play a key role in safeguarding and enhancing human rights in Yemen. In addition, a human-rights fund had been established with a capital of about 220 million Yemeni Riyals (US$1.5 million) which would be managed by representatives of Government and non-governmental organizations.
A committee had been formed to examine the conditions of some 2,000 prisoners held for failure to pay obligatory compensatory amounts, the Minister said, and as a result the debts had been paid off to the relevant creditors by the human rights fund. In addition, a prison for women inmates would be built and a plan set up to rehabilitate women prisoners once they were released.
ENRIQUE BERNALES BALLESTEROS of Peru, Special Rapporteur on use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, introducing his report (E/CN.4/2000/14) to the Commission, said that as part of his mandate he had studied the question of private companies offering security activities and becoming active in the recruitment of mercenaries, and also had gone on mission to Cuba to investigate attacks against tourist facilities there.
The responsibilities of States and their obligations could not be transferred and the privatization of war and the training of private armies should not be tolerated, he said. With regard to Cuba, the Special Rapporteur said, terrorist attempts on the part of mercenaries occurred against tourist facilities in Cuba in 1997 with the aim of destabilizing the country. The perpetrators of the attacks were mercenaries, who were paid between US$1000 and $3000 for planting bombs in Havana. The attacks could be only defined as terrorist acts. An Italian national was killed as a result of the attacks, which were aimed at damaging tourist installations in order to impede the economic recovery of the country and at creating a climate of fear so as to damage the country's tourist industry. No violent attack resulting in the loss of human life and material damage could be excused for whatever reason. Those who accepted money for carrying out the attacks were foreign mercenaries. The linkage to organizations behind the attacks had to be further investigated. Opposition was licit, but not if it resulted in violations of human rights and international law.
SHAMBHU RAM SIMKHADA, Chairperson of the Commission, said the Report of the Working Group on Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Mechanisms of the Commission had been adopted by consensus in the open-ended Working Group on 11 February -- a very significant development that he hoped would have a positive resonance throughout the Commission's session. He drew attention to the final paragraph of the report which stated: 'The Working Group recommends that this report be considered at the earliest appropriate time in the 56th session of the Commission, and, if acceptable, approved in its entirety through a single decision.' The report was expected to introduced under item 20, which was the Rationalization of the Work of the Commission, and would be discussed around 19 or 20 April.
In the meantime, however, in the course of the session, the Commission would be dealing with a number of agenda items and a number of draft decisions and resolutions which were directly affected by the report of the Working Group. This matter had been the subject of informal consultations with all regional groups and it had been agreed that, pending consideration and adoption of the report under item 20, all the business of the session -- including the formulation and consideration of draft decisions and resolutions -- would be consistent with both the content and spirit of the report.
QIAO ZONGHUI (China) said the right to self-determination was an important component of human rights, intended to help people of all countries, especially oppressed nations, to resist imperialism and colonial rule and to struggle for national independence and people's liberation. Consideration of the agenda item on the issue was of practical importance despite profound changes in the current international situation.
The right to self-determination entitled all peoples to choose their own political and social systems, economic models and paths of development; and to resist all forms of foreign aggression, interference and control. It entitled them to safeguard State sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. No country should be allowed to impose its ideology and social system on another country. The domination of the strong over the weak and the bullying of the small by the big, as well as interference in the other countries' internal affairs by means of political pressure, economic sanctions or even armed invasion, would constitute gross violations of the Charter of the United Nations and the right to self-determination.
SUSANTO SUTOYO (Indonesia) said the Palestinian people had faced stark violations of human rights due to the Israeli Government's failure to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This situation had been extensively illustrated in document (E/CN.4/2000/22/Add.1) submitted by the Arab League. Several positive developments in the region were noted, although they were occurring at a very slow pace. The Commission was encouraged to ensure steady progress towards the deadline of September 2000 for the final status of the Framework agreement on the occupied territories.
Indonesia recognized the good intentions in discussions on the Middle East peace process over the past few months. The unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all Palestinian and Arab territories in compliance with Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978) were recommended as a top priority in order to avoid the re-emergence of violence.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan) said there was no contradiction between the right of self-determination and the principle of the territorial integrity of States -- the two were mutually reinforcing. A democracy that did not allow people to exercise the right of self-determination was a contradiction in terms. India had denied the self-determination of the people of Kashmir.
The Security Council had adopted resolutions 47 (1948) and 80 (1950) providing for the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and fair plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. Kashmir was not part of India but still a disputed territory. Three wars had been fought between India and Pakistan, and Kashmir had become a killing field. Pakistan appealed to the Commission to urge India to 'humanize' the situation in Indian-held Kashmir. India was urged to release Kashmiri leaders in detention, allow humanitarian assistance, allow the stationing of impartial human-rights monitors, remove military pickets and troops from Kashmiri towns and halt the practice of crackdowns on Kashmiri villages and urban areas. Ultimately, India would have to withdraw its army from Jammu and Kasmir and fulfill its promise to hold a free and fair plebiscite.
CARLOS AMAT FORES (Cuba) said the Special Rapporteur had been invited to Cuba from 12 to 17 September 1999 and had received cooperation with all his requests, had been given access to all information required and had been able to interview in private the persons guilty of the 1997 bombings in Havana. This terrorist and mercenary attack had profoundly affected Cuba's tourist infrastructure. These terrorist acts confirmed the nature of the authors and funders, individuals and organizations which intended to harm Cuban the people and Government.
Responsibility should be borne by those who recruited, sponsored and trained such terrorists and deliquents. Terrorist acts violated the principle of the right to self-determination and proved that the Cuban people were subject to a policy of hostility carried out by the Government of the United States in clear violation of international law. The material authors of this particular act had been sanctioned, but those who supplied, trained and sponsored them were still free, enjoying impunity in the countries where they resided. Cuba urged the Commission to condemn these international illegal acts and to hold the responsible countries accountable to be tried by an international court or lacking such possibility be judged in Cuba.
GHASSAN NSEIR (Syria Arab Republic) said the right to self-determination was one of the fundamental human rights enshrined in UN instruments. It was the duty of the Commission to work towards ensuring this right for peoples who were deprived of it. Israel was still depriving the Palestinians of this right and had done everything possible to prevent them from exercising this right. Israel had committed gross violations of human rights, including the crime of genocide. The barbarism of Israeli aggression had prolonged the suffering of the Palestinian people.
It was high time that Palestinians were able to establish their independent State. Syria had been at the forefront of the struggle of countries seeking self-determination and had been a strong supporter of the rights of the Palestinians. Israel, however, had attempted to overturn concepts and confuse the issue by calling the Palestinians' struggle terrorism. Terrorism, however, was occupation and the denial of the legitimate right of the Palestinians to self-determination.
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, said that at a time of great expectations in the Middle East, and much uncertainty too, one should recall a statement related to the Palestine issue -- made 10 years ago at the Commission -- when he had suggested that Churchill's historic 1946 speech for a future United States of Europe might serve as a model for a United States of Abraham: 'The first step in the creation of the Family of Abraham - or Ibrahim - must be a partnership between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians within that geographical area designated as 'Palestine' in the original 1921 mandate of the League of Nations.'
Just as European integration had begun nearly 50 years ago with the modest step of the integration of the coal and steel industries, so constructive water management and other practical economic measures in the Middle East could set the stage for more highly developed forms of cooperation and integration in the next decade. Following recent statements aimed at ecumenical reconciliation by the Catholic Church, the Association for World Education called on the Pope to specifically repudiate the infamous Demascus blood libel of 1840 by seeking a rapid removal of the libelous commemorative stone plaque from the Terra Sancta Church in Demascus.
MICHAEL VAN WALT VAN PRAAG, of Worldview International Foundation, said conflicts around the world were centred overwhelmingly around the right of peoples to self-determination and the contending notion of unity and the territorial integrity of States. The object of maintaining territorial integrity and unity of existing States was to further the peace, security and well-being of their citizens, and not to engage in all-out war. The Foundation critized Russia for its behaviour in Chechnya and urged the Commission to conduct a thorough investigation, as Russia had officially recognized the Chechen people's right to self-determination.
China was urged to commence talks with Tibet and refrain from crushing Tibetans' legitimate exercise of their right to self-determination. Peaceful self-determination talks did not pose a threat to territorial integrity.
XAVIER GUERRERO, of the Federation of Associations for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, said Western Sahara continued to be the only colonized territory on the African continent. Repression by Morocco in the occupied territories there had resulted in gross violations of human rights, including numerous deaths, forced disappearances, torture, extrajudiciary and summary executions, arbitrary detention and a settlement policy aimed at changing the demographic balance of the territory.
The UN, together with the European Union and in particular the Spanish Government, should take the necessary diplomatic measures to remind Morocco of its obligation to respect the human rights of the Sahara population. A self-determination referendum scheduled for January 1992 had not taken place. The most recent proposal for a referendum in July 2000 had also been discarded, without a new date being set. The only legitimate resolution to the conflict was through the holding of a referendum under the auspices of the United Nations.
M. HAZARIKA, of Interfaith International, said oppressed peoples all over the world were looking to the United Nations and to its institutions protecting human rights to help them enjoy the freedom they deserved. The East Timor solution, for example, had become a kindly light for a whole generation of the current century. However, there were many other places around the globe today where people were giving their lives to realize the dream of freedom.
One such example was the northeastern region of India, especially Assam. People in that remote and neglected part of the world were seeking self-determination as their inalienable right bestowed by the UN Charter and related covenants. But the Indian authorities were trying to void that basic principle by insisting that the situation in Assam was simply a matter of the application of the local laws of India. Because of that, a whole catalogue of human-rights violations was being perpetrated by security forces and their apparatus in the name of law and order.
KASHINATH PANDITA, of the African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters, said the exercise of political rights ended when violence and terror began. The Special Rapporteur was invited to the Asian continent, particularly the South Asian region, to focus on mercenaries impeding the exercise of the right to self-determination. The African Commission warned against groups and sometimes Governments who were instrumental in motivating, arming, supporting, funding and infiltrating these mercenaries, and questioned whether the real culprits were the mercenaries or the ones who raised, funded, supported and infiltrated the mercenaries.
The African Commission recommended a study in differentiating peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation and peoples who had exercised their right to self-determination but were struggling against impediments to full realization of that right.
MARY RAMADAN, of North-South XXI, said the intense artillery fire from Israeli occupying forces in Southern Lebanon on a United Nations base in Qana on 18 April 1996 had resulted in the deaths of over 100 Lebanese civilians, of whom 52 were children. Evidence suggested that the Lebanese civilians were deliberately killed by the Israeli occupying forces.
The United Nations had in its possession key evidence surrounding the massacre. However, most of the evidence had never been revealed to the public due to intense pressure from the United States and Israel. The victims wanted to know what the underlying evidence was and demanded that the United Nations speak further on this massacre.
FERMIN ARRAIZA NAVAS, of the American Association of Jurists, speaking on the situation of Puerto Rico, said that the United States had been managing its overseas colonies according to the territorial clause of its Constitution. However, the arbitrary and permanent application of the clause had discriminated against the peoples of those colonies, subjecting them to the so-called plenary powers of a foreign government.
The colonial and military exploitation of Puerto Rico by the United States had sparked a confrontation between the Puerto Rican public and the people of Vieques on one side and the US Navy on the other. The Navy had occupied three-fourths of the island of Vieques since 1941 and had used the land for intense military practice and bombing, thereby infringing upon individual and family privacy. The population of the island was crushed by a 70 per cent poverty rate, 60 per cent unemployment, and an unprecedented level of contamination.
SARDAR SHAUKAT ALI KASHMIRI, of the European Union of Public Relations, said the international community should awaken to the crying need to address the issue of Kashmir and the Northern Areas on priority basis with a special emphasis on securing a permanent and a lasting solution. The problem of Kashmir had been complicated by passage of time and the division of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into several components with varied political systems under the control of India, Pakistan and China.
Without just political participation, the Kashmiri people were condemned to languish in one of the most poverty-stricken spots of the world, deprived of basic civic facilities and developmental opportunities. Their language, culture, traditions, identity and even existence were under threat. Their social, economic, civil and political rights were being violated. The indigenous people of united Kashmir demanded that India and Pakistan withdraw their heavily deployed troops in the State and let the people of Kashmir exercise their right to self-determination.
TATIANA SHAUMENIAN, of the International Institute of Peace, said one of the main colonizers was Pakistan. Not only did it occupy territory that did not belong to it but it also prevented through violence people of other countries from determining their own way of life. Afghanistan was a case in point. The country had been transformed into a colony of Pakistan with the Taliban being its proxy.
Pakistan also occupied, through armed aggression, large parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, denying the people of the region adult universal suffrage. The very same area was used by Pakistan for its aggression against India in 1999 in the Kargil region. Further, every time there were elections in Jammu and Kashmir the so-called mujahadeen from Pakistan tried to thwart them through death threats, killing of electoral officers, attacks and killing of candidates.
ARIF M. QUERESHI, of the Afro Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, said that the experiment to make Pakistan emerge as a leader against colonialism had failed. Pakistan was exploited under a neo-colonialism which had emerged in the shape of religious, ethnic and linguistic domination that was far more debilitating than traditional colonialism. Pakistan did not recognize the traditions, language and heritage of the Seraiki nation.
It was ironic that almost every nation of Pakistan was today clamouring for its rights, such as the Sindhis, the Mohaijis, the Baluch and the Seraiki. The Seraiki nation wanted to claim the right to self-determination and achieve acknowledgement of Seraiki rights as a nation, and urged the Commission to help the Seraiki nation restore its political rights.
Rights of reply
MURAT SUNGAR (Turkey), speaking in right of reply, said he shared many of the views expressed by the Foreign Minister of Sweden. However, his delegation could not share her evaluation of the situation in his country; her remarks had seemed prejudiced and had included some essential errors. There was no discrimination whatsoever against any Turkish citizen based on racial, social, religious or ethnic origin. Every citizen of Turkey had equal rights and obligations accorded by law. Equality before the law was an essential and constituent principle of Turkey. Citizens of Kurdish origin were not discriminated against on any ground.
R. N. PRASAD (India), speaking in right of reply, said the Pakistani delegation had distorted the principle of the right to self-determination. India supported the principle of self-determination according to the official definition, as long as the unity of the territorial State was not threatened. India suggested Pakistan occupy itself with the right to self-determination of its own people before it took on the causes of others.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan), speaking in right of reply, said the representative of India had failed to respond to the proposals of the Pakistani delegation to humanize the situation in the Jammu and Kashmir areas, where massive numbers of Indian troops were being stationed. The question to be asked was why India needed to station half a million troops in Kashmir. Indian should withdraw its troops and let the people of Kashmir decide their fate. India, however, continued to commit aggression against Pakistan in order to dismember the country and was threatening war against Pakistan day in and day out. The people of Kashmir were being killed by India. Unless the killings stopped in Kashmir there would be no peace between India and Pakistan.
R. N. PRASAD (India) said in a second right of reply that everyone was aware of the situation in Kashmir and acknowledged that the problem resulted from State-sponsored terrorism. As long as State- sponsored terrorism was exercised, there would be no solution to the Kashmiri problem.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan), in a second right of reply, said that a recently issued paper by Amnesty International described the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as being characterized by massive human-rights violations. Further, dozens of terrorist actions in Pakistan had been carried out by the Indian intelligence service.
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Afternoon
Annual Debate Begins on Right to Self-Determination
Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Sweden, and Yemen spoke before the Commission on Human Rights this afternoon and the Commission began its yearly review of the right to self-determination, hearing from several countries and a series of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Joschka Fischer, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, told the Commission that only the protection of human rights and the rule of law could guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs of countries had become history in the human-rights field, he said, as the indictments of Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic had shown, along with the reaction of the international community to the Kosovo conflict.
Anna Lindh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, said there was no contradiction between development and human rights -- the very purpose of development efforts was to ensure the dignity of every individual through the promotion of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. She said Sweden felt strongly that no Government had the right to hide behind national sovereignty to avoid investigation or international reaction to violations of the human rights or fundamental freedoms of its peoples.
Abdulkader Bajammal, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Yemen, described the country's recent presidential election, outlined reforms that would lead to elections for local councils, and said a broad-based committee had been set up to promote and safeguard human rights. He also said a separate prison for women soon would be built and a rehabilitation programme for women prisoners set up.
The debate on self-determination, formally titled on the agenda 'the right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation', led, among other things, to different intepretations of the term. China claimed self-determination meant safeguarding State sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and meant that no country should be allowed to impose its ideology and social standards on another country. Several NGOs contended that it entitled minorities whose human rights had been systematically violated to greater autonomy.
Speaking at the afternoon meeting were representatives of China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cuba, and Syria.
Also addressing the session were representatives of the non-governmental organizations Association for World Education; Worldview International Foundation; Association of Federations for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights; Interfaith International; African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters; North-South XXI; American Association of Jurists; European Union of Public Relations; International Institute for Peace; and Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization.
Turkey, India, and Pakistan spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 23 March, to continue debate on the right to self-determination.
The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation
Under this agenda item the Commission has before it a report (E/CN.4/2000/14) by Special Rapporteur Enrique Bernales Ballesteros on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of people to self-determination. Among other things, the report gives a detailed account of the Special Rapporteurs's visit to Cuba, where various attacks had been carried out on hotels and tourist facilities in Havana in 1997. The Special Rapporteur concludes that the attacks were carried out by foreigners for financial gain and that the persons concerned had been recruited, trained, hired and funded by third parties. He recommends that the Commission condemn the perpetrators of the attacks, which were aimed at damaging Cuba's tourist industry and thereby its economy.
The report also looks at private firms providing security services and military assistance and concludes that the intervention by these firms in armed conflicts and the recruitment and hiring of mercenaries by these firms are harmful to the international order and should not be tolerated. Lastly, the report points out that, 10 years after the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries was adopted by the General Assembly, only 19 States have ratified or acceded to it, whereas 22 are needed for it to enter into force.
There is also a report by the Secretary General on the situation in occupied Palestine (E/CN.4/2000/13), noting that the Commission had reaffirmed in its resolution 1999/55 the continuing and unqualified Palestinian right to self-determination, including the option of a State, and that the Secretariat had addressed on 28 June 1999 a note verbale to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel and to all other Governments requesting information pertaining to the implementation of the resolution by the Government of Israel. The report notes that no reply had been received at the time of its preparation.
Statements
JOSCHKA FISCHER, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, said only the protection of human rights and the rule of law could guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs of countries had become history in the human-rights field. The indictments against Pinochet and Milosevic were milestones on the path to the international rule of law. The Kosovo conflict had been another important turning point, as the international community was no longer willing to accept the use of civil war, terror and expulsion as political tools.
The past year, however, had also shown that the enforcement of human rights had its limits. The war in Chechnya had seen massive human-rights violations on both sides without any effective intervention by the international community. The massive, continued and indiscriminate use of military force by Russia could not be tolerated. The human-rights situation in China was another matter of concern. Violations of human rights by China included the persecution and harassment of dissidents and members of ethnic minorities, the suppression of freedom of expression, assembly and religion, and other serious infringements of the rule of law, such as show trials, torture and imprisonment without due process. It was particularly shocking that more people continued to be executed by China than by all the other States of the world put together.
Conflicts such as those in Rwanda and Kosovo provided a serious incentive for long overdue reform of the Security Council. Mr. Fischer said the process of globalization had to be injected with universally valid values and codes of behaviour to ensure that the individual and not the market was the focus of the process, which currently was further deepening the divide between the rich and poorer countries.
ANNA LINDH, Foreign Minister of Sweden, said democracy and human rights improved the lives of individuals and the prospects for prosperity within and among nations. There was no contradiction between development and human rights -- the very purpose of development efforts was to ensure the dignity of every individual through the promotion of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Only when the eradication of extreme poverty was secured could people enjoy their other rights. UN agencies were encouraged, along with Governments, to promote civil and political as well as social, economic and cultural rights.
Ms. Lindh regretted the lack of progress made on the optional protocol on the sale of children. Sweden would continue to focus on the rights of children and women, she said. Kosovo and Chechnya were examples of situations requiring urgent attention by the Commission.
Sweden felt strongly that no Government had the right to hide behind national sovereignty to avoid investigation or international reaction to violations of the human rights or fundamental freedoms of its peoples. Sweden encouraged the Commission to be guided by this principle. Ms. Lindh condemned President Lukashenko's authoritarian rule in Belarus. A dialogue between Sweden and China was expected to bring concrete and practical results. Death sentences, censorship of the press and restrictions on the use of the Internet in China were examples of areas which required reform. Eradication of the death penalty remained a matter highest priority to the Swedish Government. Sweden felt concern, among other things, that 37 states in the United States continued to use the death penalty.
ABDULKADER BAJAMMAL, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Yemen, said free and direct elections had been held in September of last year, with two candidates contending for national leadership. Ali Abdulla Saleh had won the presidential election. In addition, a law on local authority had been issued to enhance the democratic process and so increase popular participation in decision-making at diverse levels. Issuance of the law was made following discussions among all political and cultural sectors of the country. Based on the law, local council elections would be convened within a year. The councils would be charged with implementing political, economic, and social development at the local level.
Mr. Bajammal said an independent committee had been formed of thirty prominent personalities representing the various intellectual and professional sectors of Yemen's diverse society. The body had started its work and had launched a programme of action to assist it in activating a human-rights movement. The committee should play a key role in safeguarding and enhancing human rights in Yemen. In addition, a human-rights fund had been established with a capital of about 220 million Yemeni Riyals (US$1.5 million) which would be managed by representatives of Government and non-governmental organizations.
A committee had been formed to examine the conditions of some 2,000 prisoners held for failure to pay obligatory compensatory amounts, the Minister said, and as a result the debts had been paid off to the relevant creditors by the human rights fund. In addition, a prison for women inmates would be built and a plan set up to rehabilitate women prisoners once they were released.
ENRIQUE BERNALES BALLESTEROS of Peru, Special Rapporteur on use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, introducing his report (E/CN.4/2000/14) to the Commission, said that as part of his mandate he had studied the question of private companies offering security activities and becoming active in the recruitment of mercenaries, and also had gone on mission to Cuba to investigate attacks against tourist facilities there.
The responsibilities of States and their obligations could not be transferred and the privatization of war and the training of private armies should not be tolerated, he said. With regard to Cuba, the Special Rapporteur said, terrorist attempts on the part of mercenaries occurred against tourist facilities in Cuba in 1997 with the aim of destabilizing the country. The perpetrators of the attacks were mercenaries, who were paid between US$1000 and $3000 for planting bombs in Havana. The attacks could be only defined as terrorist acts. An Italian national was killed as a result of the attacks, which were aimed at damaging tourist installations in order to impede the economic recovery of the country and at creating a climate of fear so as to damage the country's tourist industry. No violent attack resulting in the loss of human life and material damage could be excused for whatever reason. Those who accepted money for carrying out the attacks were foreign mercenaries. The linkage to organizations behind the attacks had to be further investigated. Opposition was licit, but not if it resulted in violations of human rights and international law.
SHAMBHU RAM SIMKHADA, Chairperson of the Commission, said the Report of the Working Group on Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Mechanisms of the Commission had been adopted by consensus in the open-ended Working Group on 11 February -- a very significant development that he hoped would have a positive resonance throughout the Commission's session. He drew attention to the final paragraph of the report which stated: 'The Working Group recommends that this report be considered at the earliest appropriate time in the 56th session of the Commission, and, if acceptable, approved in its entirety through a single decision.' The report was expected to introduced under item 20, which was the Rationalization of the Work of the Commission, and would be discussed around 19 or 20 April.
In the meantime, however, in the course of the session, the Commission would be dealing with a number of agenda items and a number of draft decisions and resolutions which were directly affected by the report of the Working Group. This matter had been the subject of informal consultations with all regional groups and it had been agreed that, pending consideration and adoption of the report under item 20, all the business of the session -- including the formulation and consideration of draft decisions and resolutions -- would be consistent with both the content and spirit of the report.
QIAO ZONGHUI (China) said the right to self-determination was an important component of human rights, intended to help people of all countries, especially oppressed nations, to resist imperialism and colonial rule and to struggle for national independence and people's liberation. Consideration of the agenda item on the issue was of practical importance despite profound changes in the current international situation.
The right to self-determination entitled all peoples to choose their own political and social systems, economic models and paths of development; and to resist all forms of foreign aggression, interference and control. It entitled them to safeguard State sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. No country should be allowed to impose its ideology and social system on another country. The domination of the strong over the weak and the bullying of the small by the big, as well as interference in the other countries' internal affairs by means of political pressure, economic sanctions or even armed invasion, would constitute gross violations of the Charter of the United Nations and the right to self-determination.
SUSANTO SUTOYO (Indonesia) said the Palestinian people had faced stark violations of human rights due to the Israeli Government's failure to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This situation had been extensively illustrated in document (E/CN.4/2000/22/Add.1) submitted by the Arab League. Several positive developments in the region were noted, although they were occurring at a very slow pace. The Commission was encouraged to ensure steady progress towards the deadline of September 2000 for the final status of the Framework agreement on the occupied territories.
Indonesia recognized the good intentions in discussions on the Middle East peace process over the past few months. The unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all Palestinian and Arab territories in compliance with Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978) were recommended as a top priority in order to avoid the re-emergence of violence.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan) said there was no contradiction between the right of self-determination and the principle of the territorial integrity of States -- the two were mutually reinforcing. A democracy that did not allow people to exercise the right of self-determination was a contradiction in terms. India had denied the self-determination of the people of Kashmir.
The Security Council had adopted resolutions 47 (1948) and 80 (1950) providing for the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and fair plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. Kashmir was not part of India but still a disputed territory. Three wars had been fought between India and Pakistan, and Kashmir had become a killing field. Pakistan appealed to the Commission to urge India to 'humanize' the situation in Indian-held Kashmir. India was urged to release Kashmiri leaders in detention, allow humanitarian assistance, allow the stationing of impartial human-rights monitors, remove military pickets and troops from Kashmiri towns and halt the practice of crackdowns on Kashmiri villages and urban areas. Ultimately, India would have to withdraw its army from Jammu and Kasmir and fulfill its promise to hold a free and fair plebiscite.
CARLOS AMAT FORES (Cuba) said the Special Rapporteur had been invited to Cuba from 12 to 17 September 1999 and had received cooperation with all his requests, had been given access to all information required and had been able to interview in private the persons guilty of the 1997 bombings in Havana. This terrorist and mercenary attack had profoundly affected Cuba's tourist infrastructure. These terrorist acts confirmed the nature of the authors and funders, individuals and organizations which intended to harm Cuban the people and Government.
Responsibility should be borne by those who recruited, sponsored and trained such terrorists and deliquents. Terrorist acts violated the principle of the right to self-determination and proved that the Cuban people were subject to a policy of hostility carried out by the Government of the United States in clear violation of international law. The material authors of this particular act had been sanctioned, but those who supplied, trained and sponsored them were still free, enjoying impunity in the countries where they resided. Cuba urged the Commission to condemn these international illegal acts and to hold the responsible countries accountable to be tried by an international court or lacking such possibility be judged in Cuba.
GHASSAN NSEIR (Syria Arab Republic) said the right to self-determination was one of the fundamental human rights enshrined in UN instruments. It was the duty of the Commission to work towards ensuring this right for peoples who were deprived of it. Israel was still depriving the Palestinians of this right and had done everything possible to prevent them from exercising this right. Israel had committed gross violations of human rights, including the crime of genocide. The barbarism of Israeli aggression had prolonged the suffering of the Palestinian people.
It was high time that Palestinians were able to establish their independent State. Syria had been at the forefront of the struggle of countries seeking self-determination and had been a strong supporter of the rights of the Palestinians. Israel, however, had attempted to overturn concepts and confuse the issue by calling the Palestinians' struggle terrorism. Terrorism, however, was occupation and the denial of the legitimate right of the Palestinians to self-determination.
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, said that at a time of great expectations in the Middle East, and much uncertainty too, one should recall a statement related to the Palestine issue -- made 10 years ago at the Commission -- when he had suggested that Churchill's historic 1946 speech for a future United States of Europe might serve as a model for a United States of Abraham: 'The first step in the creation of the Family of Abraham - or Ibrahim - must be a partnership between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians within that geographical area designated as 'Palestine' in the original 1921 mandate of the League of Nations.'
Just as European integration had begun nearly 50 years ago with the modest step of the integration of the coal and steel industries, so constructive water management and other practical economic measures in the Middle East could set the stage for more highly developed forms of cooperation and integration in the next decade. Following recent statements aimed at ecumenical reconciliation by the Catholic Church, the Association for World Education called on the Pope to specifically repudiate the infamous Demascus blood libel of 1840 by seeking a rapid removal of the libelous commemorative stone plaque from the Terra Sancta Church in Demascus.
MICHAEL VAN WALT VAN PRAAG, of Worldview International Foundation, said conflicts around the world were centred overwhelmingly around the right of peoples to self-determination and the contending notion of unity and the territorial integrity of States. The object of maintaining territorial integrity and unity of existing States was to further the peace, security and well-being of their citizens, and not to engage in all-out war. The Foundation critized Russia for its behaviour in Chechnya and urged the Commission to conduct a thorough investigation, as Russia had officially recognized the Chechen people's right to self-determination.
China was urged to commence talks with Tibet and refrain from crushing Tibetans' legitimate exercise of their right to self-determination. Peaceful self-determination talks did not pose a threat to territorial integrity.
XAVIER GUERRERO, of the Federation of Associations for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, said Western Sahara continued to be the only colonized territory on the African continent. Repression by Morocco in the occupied territories there had resulted in gross violations of human rights, including numerous deaths, forced disappearances, torture, extrajudiciary and summary executions, arbitrary detention and a settlement policy aimed at changing the demographic balance of the territory.
The UN, together with the European Union and in particular the Spanish Government, should take the necessary diplomatic measures to remind Morocco of its obligation to respect the human rights of the Sahara population. A self-determination referendum scheduled for January 1992 had not taken place. The most recent proposal for a referendum in July 2000 had also been discarded, without a new date being set. The only legitimate resolution to the conflict was through the holding of a referendum under the auspices of the United Nations.
M. HAZARIKA, of Interfaith International, said oppressed peoples all over the world were looking to the United Nations and to its institutions protecting human rights to help them enjoy the freedom they deserved. The East Timor solution, for example, had become a kindly light for a whole generation of the current century. However, there were many other places around the globe today where people were giving their lives to realize the dream of freedom.
One such example was the northeastern region of India, especially Assam. People in that remote and neglected part of the world were seeking self-determination as their inalienable right bestowed by the UN Charter and related covenants. But the Indian authorities were trying to void that basic principle by insisting that the situation in Assam was simply a matter of the application of the local laws of India. Because of that, a whole catalogue of human-rights violations was being perpetrated by security forces and their apparatus in the name of law and order.
KASHINATH PANDITA, of the African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters, said the exercise of political rights ended when violence and terror began. The Special Rapporteur was invited to the Asian continent, particularly the South Asian region, to focus on mercenaries impeding the exercise of the right to self-determination. The African Commission warned against groups and sometimes Governments who were instrumental in motivating, arming, supporting, funding and infiltrating these mercenaries, and questioned whether the real culprits were the mercenaries or the ones who raised, funded, supported and infiltrated the mercenaries.
The African Commission recommended a study in differentiating peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation and peoples who had exercised their right to self-determination but were struggling against impediments to full realization of that right.
MARY RAMADAN, of North-South XXI, said the intense artillery fire from Israeli occupying forces in Southern Lebanon on a United Nations base in Qana on 18 April 1996 had resulted in the deaths of over 100 Lebanese civilians, of whom 52 were children. Evidence suggested that the Lebanese civilians were deliberately killed by the Israeli occupying forces.
The United Nations had in its possession key evidence surrounding the massacre. However, most of the evidence had never been revealed to the public due to intense pressure from the United States and Israel. The victims wanted to know what the underlying evidence was and demanded that the United Nations speak further on this massacre.
FERMIN ARRAIZA NAVAS, of the American Association of Jurists, speaking on the situation of Puerto Rico, said that the United States had been managing its overseas colonies according to the territorial clause of its Constitution. However, the arbitrary and permanent application of the clause had discriminated against the peoples of those colonies, subjecting them to the so-called plenary powers of a foreign government.
The colonial and military exploitation of Puerto Rico by the United States had sparked a confrontation between the Puerto Rican public and the people of Vieques on one side and the US Navy on the other. The Navy had occupied three-fourths of the island of Vieques since 1941 and had used the land for intense military practice and bombing, thereby infringing upon individual and family privacy. The population of the island was crushed by a 70 per cent poverty rate, 60 per cent unemployment, and an unprecedented level of contamination.
SARDAR SHAUKAT ALI KASHMIRI, of the European Union of Public Relations, said the international community should awaken to the crying need to address the issue of Kashmir and the Northern Areas on priority basis with a special emphasis on securing a permanent and a lasting solution. The problem of Kashmir had been complicated by passage of time and the division of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into several components with varied political systems under the control of India, Pakistan and China.
Without just political participation, the Kashmiri people were condemned to languish in one of the most poverty-stricken spots of the world, deprived of basic civic facilities and developmental opportunities. Their language, culture, traditions, identity and even existence were under threat. Their social, economic, civil and political rights were being violated. The indigenous people of united Kashmir demanded that India and Pakistan withdraw their heavily deployed troops in the State and let the people of Kashmir exercise their right to self-determination.
TATIANA SHAUMENIAN, of the International Institute of Peace, said one of the main colonizers was Pakistan. Not only did it occupy territory that did not belong to it but it also prevented through violence people of other countries from determining their own way of life. Afghanistan was a case in point. The country had been transformed into a colony of Pakistan with the Taliban being its proxy.
Pakistan also occupied, through armed aggression, large parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, denying the people of the region adult universal suffrage. The very same area was used by Pakistan for its aggression against India in 1999 in the Kargil region. Further, every time there were elections in Jammu and Kashmir the so-called mujahadeen from Pakistan tried to thwart them through death threats, killing of electoral officers, attacks and killing of candidates.
ARIF M. QUERESHI, of the Afro Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, said that the experiment to make Pakistan emerge as a leader against colonialism had failed. Pakistan was exploited under a neo-colonialism which had emerged in the shape of religious, ethnic and linguistic domination that was far more debilitating than traditional colonialism. Pakistan did not recognize the traditions, language and heritage of the Seraiki nation.
It was ironic that almost every nation of Pakistan was today clamouring for its rights, such as the Sindhis, the Mohaijis, the Baluch and the Seraiki. The Seraiki nation wanted to claim the right to self-determination and achieve acknowledgement of Seraiki rights as a nation, and urged the Commission to help the Seraiki nation restore its political rights.
Rights of reply
MURAT SUNGAR (Turkey), speaking in right of reply, said he shared many of the views expressed by the Foreign Minister of Sweden. However, his delegation could not share her evaluation of the situation in his country; her remarks had seemed prejudiced and had included some essential errors. There was no discrimination whatsoever against any Turkish citizen based on racial, social, religious or ethnic origin. Every citizen of Turkey had equal rights and obligations accorded by law. Equality before the law was an essential and constituent principle of Turkey. Citizens of Kurdish origin were not discriminated against on any ground.
R. N. PRASAD (India), speaking in right of reply, said the Pakistani delegation had distorted the principle of the right to self-determination. India supported the principle of self-determination according to the official definition, as long as the unity of the territorial State was not threatened. India suggested Pakistan occupy itself with the right to self-determination of its own people before it took on the causes of others.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan), speaking in right of reply, said the representative of India had failed to respond to the proposals of the Pakistani delegation to humanize the situation in the Jammu and Kashmir areas, where massive numbers of Indian troops were being stationed. The question to be asked was why India needed to station half a million troops in Kashmir. Indian should withdraw its troops and let the people of Kashmir decide their fate. India, however, continued to commit aggression against Pakistan in order to dismember the country and was threatening war against Pakistan day in and day out. The people of Kashmir were being killed by India. Unless the killings stopped in Kashmir there would be no peace between India and Pakistan.
R. N. PRASAD (India) said in a second right of reply that everyone was aware of the situation in Kashmir and acknowledged that the problem resulted from State-sponsored terrorism. As long as State- sponsored terrorism was exercised, there would be no solution to the Kashmiri problem.
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan), in a second right of reply, said that a recently issued paper by Amnesty International described the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as being characterized by massive human-rights violations. Further, dozens of terrorist actions in Pakistan had been carried out by the Indian intelligence service.
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