POST 11 SEPTEMBER EFFORTS SHOULD LEAD TO MORE HUMAN SECURITY, NOT ROLLBACK IN CIVIL LIBERTIES, UN RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS

6 June 2002



The best response to the attacks of 11 September is to increase human security, not to subordinate the principles built over the last 50 years to the “war on terrorism”, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said today.

“There is no contradiction between security and human rights”, said Mrs. Robinson, speaking in London where she delivered the Fifth Commonwealth Lecture. “Indeed security is a dimension of the protection of human rights and States are obligated to provide it to their citizens. But to abandon human rights standards or the rule of law in responding to terrorism is to give a victory to those we seek to defeat”.

“Surely the answer to a challenge to the existence of open societies cannot be for us ourselves to close them”, she added.

According to the High Commissioner, fighting the scourge of terrorism requires a comprehensive approach. “We need to build on the wider recognition that emerged out of the 11 September outrage of the many causes of human insecurity. The very real security fears of New Yorkers and the developed world in general are matched by the equally immediate insecurity of people in the developing world. Human security encompasses not alone physical threats arising from terrorism and violent conflicts but the insecurities that stem from underdevelopment and poverty, from rampant disease, from discrimination and unequal trade”.

Mrs. Robinson told the audience that all forms of insecurity and the grievances they generate can be and are exploited by violent groups. “There is an urgent need to implement the comprehensive strategy that addresses global insecurity to which the international community committed itself in the UN Millennium Declaration. Conflict, human rights violation underdevelopment and poverty cannot be decoupled”.

But instead of the comprehensive approach to human security, the reaction to the events of 11 September, including in developed democracies, has “seemed at times to subordinate the principles of human rights to other more ‘robust’ action in the ‘war against terrorism’”, she said. “There has been a tendency to ride roughshod over – or at least to set on one side - established principles of international human rights and humanitarian law.

“What is required is a real effort to advance development, democracy and the universal protection of all human rights”, she said. That requires strong support for human rights capacity building at national level. We are witnessing real breakthroughs in the funding necessary to combat HIV/AIDS and to meet the Millennium goals on education and health. A similar approach is needed to strengthen capacity building for the administration of justice, the rule of law and adherence to human rights standards in developing countries.

The High Commissioner pointed to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as offering the most important opportunity in a generation to eliminate poverty and build democratic societies based on universal human rights.

Full text of Mrs. Robinson’s address: