HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS SEVENTY-EIGHTH SESSION

Human Rights Committee
78th session
14 July 2003





Hears Statement by Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights




GENEVA, 14 July (UN Information Service) -- The Human Rights Committee, charged with monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, started this morning its four-week summer session by hearing a statement by the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand
G. Ramcharan.

Mr. Ramcharan said that the successful implementation of the core human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was crucial to the future world order and to the realization of peoples’ aspirations for peace, justice, development, equity and social progress. He added that the prevention of conflicts depended on the implementation of the fundamental human rights norms.

Mr. Ramcharan said that it was only through the faithful implementation of those norms that all parts of the population of a country could feel that they had a stake in the future of the society and that their rights would be protected under the rule of law in a functioning democracy.

He underlined that a society without respect for human rights was a society that was lacking in justice, a society that was inefficient and often corrupt; and that was hardly compatible with development. Basic human rights norms, civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural, would give development its core content, he added.

Following the statement, a Committee Expert said that an in-depth study should be made on the excesses carried out by States during the implementation of anti-terrorist measures. The Expert said the victims of the excesses were human rights.

Reacting to the remarks, the Acting High Commissioner said that following the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General, the Office of the High Commissioner had compiled a digest of the core jurisprudence of human rights protection in relation to the anti-terrorist measures. The digest would be submitted to the Anti-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council.

Also this morning, the Committee adopted its agenda and programme of work. One of the Experts of the Committee briefed the members on the outcome of the Working Group on Communications that met last week. The Expert said that 26 communications would be examined during the current session.

Following the request by the Russian Federation to postpone the consideration of its second periodic report, initially scheduled to be examined during this session, the Committee decided to take up the report during its October session.

During its current session, the Committee will examine the reports submitted by the Governments of Slovakia, Portugal, El Salvador and Israel, which are among the 150 States parties to the International Covenant. The Committee will devote the last of week of the session to examine communications submitted to it by individuals claiming to be victims of the rights set forth in the International Covenant. Only States parties that acceded to the Optional Protocols to the Covenant are concerned by the procedures.

After adjourning its meeting, the Committee met in private to hear statements by representatives of non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be on Thursday, 17 July, at 3 p.m., when it will take up the second periodic report of Slovakia (document CCPR/SVK/2002/2).


Statement by Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights

BERTRAND G. RAMCHARAN, Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the successful implementation of the core human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was crucial to the future world order and to the realization of peoples’ aspirations for peace, justice, development, equity and social progress. The prevention of conflicts depended on the implementation of the fundamental human rights norms. It was only through the faithful implementation of those norms that all parts of the population of a country could feel that they had a stake in the future of the society and that their rights would be protected under the rule of law in a functioning democracy.

Unless basic human rights were respected and protected, the people would not be motivated to produce, and development would lag or there could even be regression, Mr. Ramcharan said. A society without respect for human rights was a society that was lacking in justice, a society that was inefficient and often corrupt. That was hardly compatible with development. Basic human rights norms, civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural, would give development its core content. The aim of development was to help achieve realization of those norms while the implementation of human rights would facilitate and accelerate development. Human rights norms would also introduce the elements of non-discrimination and equity in the development process.

Mr. Ramcharan said that the implementation of the core human rights treaties was at the heart of the Secretary-General's concept of national protection systems in each country. In his second reform report, the Secretary-General had highlighted that concept. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had just written to all Member States of the United Nations asking them to submit succinct presentations considering the key elements of their national protection systems. The aim was to share experiences and identify good practices.

Mr. Ramcharan said that when one would take into account the strategic centrality of the implementation of the core human rights treaties to national, regional and international efforts for the prevention of conflicts, peace, development and justice, one would get a true measure of the importance of the work of the Committee. For it was in the Committee's charge to foster democratic societies grounded in the rule of law and respect for human rights, while taking into account the historical context and present-day realities of each country. Without democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, the edifice would crumble. That was an all too familiar story in different parts of the world.

The Acting High Commissioner said that a particular challenge that faced the human rights treaty bodies these days concerned the performance of an international economy that would make it harder for governments to uphold international minimum standards when it came to issues such as the administration of justice and fair dispensation of the role of law enforcement officials -- which would require adequate resources, staffing, training and ongoing instruction in human right norms. It should be right, as a matter of law and policy, however, to continue to insist on the faithful implementation by governments of the legal obligations they had undertaken under treaties such as the International Covenant. A duty of care was owed by governments -- even in the most difficult circumstances. One should also continue to insist on the principle of international accountability. No country was or could be above the law. The fundamental premise of the international legal system was the supremacy of international law. International accountability was the principle that would help uphold that.




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