SUB-COMMISSION HOLDS THIRD DAY OF DEBATE ON QUESTION OF VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

Sub-Commission on Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights
54th session
1 August 2002
Morning



The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights carried on this morning with its annual debate on the question of the violation of human rights anywhere in the world, hearing from a series of member Experts decrying, among other things, the situation of refugees from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in neighbouring countries, the plight of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, the effects on human rights of responses to terrorism, the abuses suffered by women and girls subjected to sex trafficking, and the challenges posed to the recently established International Criminal Court.
Several Experts noted the changes brought about by national and international reaction to the terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001. They said terrorism was reprehensible and could not be tolerated, but that anti-terrorism measures should not themselves violate human rights. Expert Asbjorne Eide said violations of human rights led to other violations, and that measures to fight terrorism that were abusive simply would lead to further abuses.
Expert Francoise Jane Hampson proposed that the Sub-Commission establish a Working Group to address the compatibility of particular legislative and executive measures adopted or applied since 11 September with the human rights obligations of States.
Mr. Eide, along with Experts Soo Gil Park and Leila Zerrougui, called for greater efforts to end the spiralling violence in occupied Palestine. Mr. Park, Ms. Zerrougui, and Ms. Hampson were among speakers decrying what they said were challenges to the authority and jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Others addressing the morning session were Sub-Commission Experts Miguel Alfonso Martinez and Yozo Yokota; a representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; and the non-governmental organizations: the Society for Threatened Peoples; the World Organization against Torture; the European Union for Public Relations; the International Indian Treaty Council; the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples; the Indigenous World Association; the Movement against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples; and the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The interventions of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) led to a discussion among the Experts over whether more joint statements should be delivered by NGOs after one Expert said that they all seemed to repeat the same information about Kashmir.
At the beginning of the meeting, responding to a stament made Wednesday by a representative of the NGO Indian Movement "Tupaj Amaru" Sub-Commission Chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the matter referred to had been investigated. He wished to close this unfortunate incident by affirming that there had been no robbery, racist speech or violence carried out against the representative of the NGO. He urged participants in the meeting to observe rules for the conduct of work and to exercise restraint in their language.
The Sub-Commission's Working Group on transnational corporations will meet at 3 p.m. The Sub-Commission will reconvene in plenary at 10 a.m. on Friday, 2 August, and is expected over the course of the morning to begin its annual debate on the administration of justice.
Statements
MIGUEL ALFONSO MARTINEZ, Sub-Commission Expert, said discussions on human rights violations anywhere in the world were most often selective. He had therefore always hesitated to take the floor on this subject. However, due to the present circumstances, and bearing mind that item 2 was still very relevant and that many subjects could still be discussed, he felt the need to take the floor. Considering the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, of course, there was a concern about the deteriorating situation in the region, but it was essential to understand the underlying causes of the cycle of violence. It was necessary to solve the problems of the Palestinian people who had been deprived of the right to self-determination for the last 60 years. As long as this right was not recognized - violence would continue. As long as there was no possibility to impose on Israel international law - violence would continue. This was not a matter to ignore, the needs of the Palestinian people must be met.
The State of Israel felt secure because of the financial, military and logistical support by one superpower. Concerning the so-called war against terrorism, Mr. Martinez highlighted what Mr. Decaux had said the previous day when stating "there was no such thing as good terrorism". One could not use the war on terrorism as an excuse to violate international humanitarian law. One could not invoke a war on terrorism in order to justify the dismantling of human rights. The war on terrorism required the highest possible moral and ethical standards. One could not fight terrorism without tackling the situation of those claiming to be the leaders of the free world. One could not authorize the assassination of foreign world leaders. Mr. Martinez also highlighted the plight of five people who had alerted the Government of Cuba about the terrorists activities planned in Florida.
SOO GIL PARK, Sub-Commission Expert, said that over the past year the lives of many innocent people had been lost; it was a truism that the world would never be the same after the events of 11 September, and in Israel and Palestine it was reported that close to 2,000 innocent civilians had been killed or injured in the latest cycle of violence. It was all the more lamentable that the most recent Israeli missile raid had killed civilians at a time when Israel and Palestine were working hard to resume the peace process, and that suicidal bombing attacks, including yesterday's within the Hebrew University campus, continued with terrible humanitarian consequences. It was necessary to ask if it was right to fight terrorism by military means in disregard of humanitarian and human rights laws.
Mr. Park said he continued to be concerned about the issue of North Korean refugees hiding in neighbouring countries, especially China. The matter had been addressed by the Sub-Commission last year but the problem, involving 100,000 to 300,000 people, continued, and these people were not under the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or any other UN agency, although a significant number of NGOs and religious organizations had extended help. Many of the refugees were subject to human rights abuses such as rape, forced labour, human trafficking, and physical ill-treatment as they went through a cycle of near-starvation in hiding, repatriation to North Korea where they were put in prison or labour camps, and then escape again into China. Some means of help had to be devised by the international community.
A positive development of the past year was the establishment of the International Criminal Court, Mr. Park said; it sent out a clear message that acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes would not avoid justice. It was unfortunate that the integrity of the Court was being challenged by the United States in the UN Security Council, because the United States wanted immunity for its troops from Court jurisdiction when the matter of extending UN missions in Bosnia was brought before the Council. Mr. Park said it also was an optimistic development that the optional protocol to the Convention against Torture had been adopted by the Economic and Social Council on 24th July.
YOZO YOKOTA, Sub-Commission Expert, said his intervention was a follow-up to the subject which Mr. Weissbrodt had brought up yesterday - the trafficking of women and girls. This was a serious human rights violation and the gross number of victims was around several million according to several non-governmental organizations. During a meeting of the Working Group on contemporary forms of slavery, a 16 year old Nepalese girl had testified about her experiences. Her story had been shocking and touching. She was now spending time in Nepal attempting to discourage other Nepalese girls from seeking fortune abroad. As a result of this incident, Mr. Yokota said he had been involved in the publishing of a children's book about the story. The book was widely read and raised awareness about trafficking in Japan. The victims of international trafficking were not only women and young girls but also most often ethnic and national minorities, and other socially marginalised people. The root cause of this problem was poverty. Poverty could not only be approached from an economic viewpoint, but from a human rights perspective.
LEILA ZERROUGUI, Sub-Commission Expert, said the World Conference against Racism had been a major event last year, and the Sub-Commission, among other bodies, had called for the international community duly to acknowledge past offenses of slavery and violations of human rights committed during the period of slavery and colonialism. All had hoped something significant would occur and that this page in history could be turned. Similarly, all had hoped that something could be done to advance equality and to aid those subjected to such offenses as trafficking in human beings.
Now there were new concerns -- the upheaval following the tragic events of 11 September, the tragedy of the Palestinian people, which was overwhelming, and the problems caused by globalization. She lacked words in trying to speak of the plight of the Palestinians.
She was concerned to know how human rights champions in countries of the South would be able to convince people of the universality of human rights when such standards were being called into question, not by dictatorial regimes but by States considered to be the champions of human rights. How could people be convinced when States like Australia dealt with refugees by putting them into Spartan detention regimes, not even exempting children; when trade regimes were unfairly skewed in favour of developed nations; and when the competence of the International Criminal Court was challenged?
Meanwhile, UN efforts to eradicate poverty and spur development were threatened, and human rights regimes were threatened -- regimes that had been built with great effort over decades. There was an incapacity to apply without discrimination the norms that had been adopted because of North-South polarization. Pressures were being applied to the Organization, and budgetary restrictions had become drastic, with drastic consequences, including upon the Sub-Commission and upon the Commission, where normal proceedings had been so disrupted that the Commission's fifty-eighth session had turned chaotic.
ASBJORN EIDE, Sub-Commission Expert, said that while the Sub-Commission was no longer entitled to adopt resolutions under this agenda item, it was still permitted to reflect on those situations and activities which constituted serious violations of human rights and which therefore must be at the core of attention of the human rights bodies. The purpose must be to not only point to the violations, but also to look at their causes and to see how remedies against them could be found. Concerning trafficking, Mr. Eide said that trafficking was not the type of violation committed by governments, but it was something that could be prevented by governments through effecting international cooperation and appropriate measures.
Mr. Eide recalled events on 11 September 1973 when a reign of state terrorism was inaugurated and spread to neighbouring countries. These events were remembered in Chile and other parts of Latin America. The bloody events did not initially disturb the United States administration. However, later there was a groundswell of human rights mobilization in the United States, which led to the compilation of the annual State Department reports on human rights in foreign countries. Whatever criticism one might level against it now, it must be remembered that it was initiated to hold the United States administration accountable for involvement in human rights violations perpetrated by armed forces supported by the United States. During the presidency of Ronald Reagan the fight against terrorism was given priority over human rights. One of the persons initially perceived by that administration as a terrorist was already sitting in a little cage in Robin Island outside Cape Town. His name was Nelson Mandela, who went on to be the President of South Africa and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr. Eide said that next came the terrible attacks of 11 September 2001, however some of the responses now taken were less constructive than those which followed the 11 September 1973 events. The Sub-Commission had been reminded of the steps and policies of the United States intending to prevent the application of human rights law and related matter to the activities of the United States or of US personnel abroad. The use of the Guantanamo base for Al Queda prisoners, the decision to give US personnel in peacekeeping immunity from the International Criminal Court, the opposition to the optional protocol to the convention against torture, were steps which were extremely worrisome from a human rights perspective. Amnesty International had documented the excesses, Special Rapporteurs had warned against them and the High Commissioner for Human Rights had been very clear in her warning. Violence begot violence, Mr. Eide stressed. The situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Chechnya, Kashmir and Sri Lanka were pointed to as examples where violence had led to nothing except even more violence.
FRANCOISE JANE HAMPSON, Sub-Commission Expert, said there was some good news -- the release from house arrest of Aung San Suk Kyi in Myanmar; the holding of elections in Bahrain; peace processes tentatively under way in Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the fact that Afghan girls were going to school again. She was concerned about situations in Indonesia, including Aceh and the Moluccas; in Liberia and Somalia; about continuing difficulties in Colombia and Afghanistan; about very severe economic crises in Argentina and Uruguay; and about poverty and the threat of starvation in much of southern Africa.
The fact that the majority of the perpetrators of the 11 September attacks were Egyptian and Saudi Arabian should cause the authorities of those States some serious reflection, Ms. Hampson said; it was worth noting that the perpetrators of the attacks were not hungry, poor, or uneducated. A State was not allowed to create and then export violent extremists by its repression of domestic dissent. Other States had adopted anti-terrorism measures that were disproportionate, while still others had used the tragedy as an excuse to repress the legitimate activities of domestic dissidents. The international community's response had been woefully inadequate. She proposed that the Sub-Commission establish a Working Group to address the compatibility of particular legislative and executive measures adopted or applied since 11 September with the human rights obligations of States.
Finally, Ms. Hampson said, she felt that Western Governments should subscribe to and obey the same human rights instruments they were advocating for others. The United States had abandoned one of the treaties regulating the proliferation of nuclear weapons, had blocked work on a protocol to provide for implementation and monitoring of the Biological Weapons Convention, had blackmailed the Security Council into suspending the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in relation to US military personnel for 12 months, had sought to frustrate the holding of the Social Forum, and had sought to prevent the adoption of the optional protocol to the Convention against Torture. It had been proposed that membership on the Commission on Human Rights be open only to States that had ratified all six United Nations human rights treaties; if such a standard were applied, Iran would qualify but the United States would not.
NGAWANG CHOEPHEL, of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said that in recent times, the Chinese authorities had launched several crackdowns on religious institutions in Tibet, especially in Tibetan areas now incorporated into the Sichuan Province, targeting Tibetan Lamas. This year, the reports by thematic mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights had once again alerted the international community about the on-going human rights violations in Tibet. The Special Rapporteur on Racism in his report had observed that Tibetans suffered various forms of systematic and institutionalized discrimination in the field of employment, health care, education, housing and public representation. The Society for Threatened Peoples stressed that the issue of Tibet was now a question of the survival of the distinct religious, cultural and national identity of the six million Tibetan people.
It was for these reasons that the Dalai Lama had been calling for earnest negotiations with the Chinese leadership to reach a peacefully negotiated settlement. The Chinese authorities had refused to open such negotiations on Tibet. The Society for Threatened People remained gravely concerned about the current state of human rights in Tibet. Tibet had been raised at this forum because the freedom struggle of the Tibetan people was a unique one that had consistently adhered to the principle of non-violence to achieve freedom in their homeland. The Sub-Commission was called upon to help the Tibetan people to achieve an end to the daily human rights abuses in Tibet that had been on-going for the past five decades. In particular, the Sub-Commission was requested to write a letter to the Chinese authorities urging them to open a dialogue on the issue of Tibet.
MARNINE MERCIER, of the World Organization against Torture, said the human rights situation had deteriorated in many countries over the past year. The war against terrorism had led to difficulties in respecting established human rights standards. The World Organization against Torture was concerned about situations in Kyrgyzstan, where the political opposition was repressed, often violently, by the authorities; in Tunisia, where the authorities continued to use all means at their disposal to continue repression of all forms of dissidence, and where there were hundreds of political prisoners and torture was widely practised; in Sri Lanka, where peace negotiations had not ended the practice of torture and where over the years there had been numerous reports of grave human-rights violations and even atrocities committed by the two parties to the long-running conflict; and in the United States, where new laws in reaction to the 11 September attacks had the potential to impose grave limitations on basic rights and could allow indefinite administrative detention, and in certain cases, civil judgements by military tribunals. Hundreds of people had been detained for allegedly violating the immigration laws, and the Government had not released the names of the detainees or their places of detention.
SHAUKAT ALI KASHMIRI, of the European Union of Public Relations, said that while surveying the human rights situation across the world, one could not but help expressing grave concern over the plight of thousands of innocent victims of unending violence in Palestine and other conflict affected regions of the world; the denial of market access by the developed world to millions of poor farmers from the developing and least developed countries; the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation; the threat of extinction faced by tiny indigenous populations; the adverse impact of unchecked globalization; and the spread of small arms, drugs and human trafficking. But even against this grim landscape, the situation in parts of South Asia, including Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, appeared particularly bleak.
The role of all institutions in Pakistan, both civil and military, had been to relentlessly exploit and persecute the common people and trample on their human rights and dignity. Anti-democratic and corrupt elements had always been patronized by the Army and the Inter Services Intelligence which, as was well known, ran a parallel and unaccountable State within the State of Pakistan. Recent developments in Pakistan were pessimistic. The world was all too familiar with the now almost permanent derailment of democracy in Pakistan by a military dictator who had sought to brazenly legitimize his authority by a referendum widely acknowledged as rigged by international observers. The European Union of Public Relations expressed concern about the theo-fascist forces of Pakistan; the numbers of religious schools - madrasas - spreading extremism; terrorism training camps operating in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir; rigged elections; violations of human rights; and the treatment of women in Pakistan. The international community must, therefore, wake up to its obligations and use every tool at its disposal to persuade the theo-fascist ruling classes of Pakistan to improve the country's dismal human rights record.
ANTONIO GONZALES, of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the Council lamented the continued reluctance of some key States to further the adoption of the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The militarization of indigenous lands was the direct cause of many human rights violations around the world, and many times this occurred in collusion with Governments and multi-national corporations. The organization had requested the Special Rapporteur on terrorism to include the concept of sub-State (individual or privately sponsored) terrorism in her study. The Council was concerned that further progress needed to be made in peace processes under way between Governments and indigenous peoples in Guatemala and Mexico; was worried about ongoing critical violations of the rights of such indigenous peoples as the Dineh of Black Mesa, Arizona, USA, and the Western Shoshone Nation of Nevada, USA; and felt concern over serious threats to indigenous peoples in Bolivia, Suriname, Colombia, and Guyana.
Recently the Government of Guatemala had proposed compensation for former members of the Civil Defence Patrols (PAC) for assistance during that country's armed conflict. It was saddening and infuriating that the Government would even consider rewarding the perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed against Guatemala's indigenous peoples; instead, the Government should consider granting compensation to the victims of PAC torture and to the families of those who had disappeared or who had been killed.
BIRO DIAWARH, of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, said that much had happened since the League had addressed the Sub-Commission last year, such as the terrorist attack of 11 September against the United States, the World Conference against Racism and the Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey. The League highlighted the importance of the Sub-Commission paying attention to the atrocious human rights situation in the Western Sahara. It was not possible to allow the Western Sahara to continue to suffer from a total and systematic disregard of human rights and humanitarian law. The international community needed to pay attention to the Western Sahara and insist that the two parties respect the Agreement so that a respect for human rights could be re-installed and the area could finally return to a state of normalcy.
JULEN MENDOZA continued the statement, expressing concern about events in Colombia, more particularly the deterioration of the human rights records there. Daily killings and massacres were taking place, and internal displacement was commonplace. A serious percentage of murders taking place were attributed to the state and the paramilitary. There had been an increase in the proven implication of the state in this type of crime. There was not only the conflict with the guerrillas but also a complex socio-economic system in Colombia. There seemed to be no prospect for peace. The League stressed the need to overcome the current impasse to ensure the respect of human rights.
RONALD BARNES, of the Indigenous World Association, said the indigenous peoples and tribes of Alaska had been subjugated and dominated; they had not been allowed even to vote on the annexation of Alaska by the United States of America in 1959. It would be helpful to know if situations could be examined so that the non-interference principle could be used responsibly by States -- States should not use this excuse to avoid fulfilling article 73 of the United Nations Charter. The non-interference principle did not prevent legitimate peoples from exercising their right to self-determination over territories that were in effect independent, since the States concerned had not legitimately attained title and dominion.
The United States had placed Alaska on the list of non-self-governing territories in the 1940s; it was obligated to observe the principles of the de-colonization process. It had not. The independent, indigenous peoples of Alaska had the right to have their concerns sifted through the United Nations process. Alaska had not been properly annexed into the United States, and such matters had to be considered there and in other cases where self-determination was a contentious issue.
JEAN JACQUES KIRKYACHARIAN, of the Movement against Racism and Friendship among Peoples, said the country in the statement was not his, but it might had been his if the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories had been different or resolved. The statement was not about Palestine itself, but rather about the difficulties the United Nations was facing in resolving the deteriorating situation in the region. It was essential that this session of the Sub-Commission, despite the restrictions, did not allow the topic of Palestine to be pushed aside. An analysis was required on the ongoing and systematic human rights violations in the region. The High Commissioner and the Commission on Human Rights had worked very hard on this issue and had been affronted in their efforts to protect human rights in Palestine. The proposed mission of investigation was never given the permission to enter the area. The Sub-Commission had a duty to analyse and define the impotence of the United Nations and then suggest means to strengthen the United Nations.
One had to understand the institutional, political and logistical obstacles that prevented the Palestinian people from enjoying their rights. The United Nations must revisit relevant Security Council resolutions and the situation as a whole. The Sub-Commission could, in this context, consider the situation in Palestine under the item on human rights violations anywhere in the world. The Movement called for the creation of a Working Group on these issues, in particular with regard to the situation in Palestine.
MOHAMMED ARIF, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said that in Pakistan, State and private forces, underworld and criminal groups, State-sponsored terrorist groups, and religious and fanatical outfits with the collusion of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Agency) were responsible for killings and mayhem in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. Sindhis were subject to unlawful arrests, torture, rape and other abuses by State agents. The political opposition in Pakistan was harassed, journalists had been abducted and tortured, and the judiciary was not independent. Religious zealots discriminated against non-Muslims; sectarian killings were intensifying; child labour remained widespread; and the military, civil bureaucracy and the ISI engineered and managed all general elections.
Pakistan was urged to end all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms; to end victimization of Mohajirs, Sindhis, and Baluchs; to allow grass-roots political power to develop in the provincial assemblies; to frame a fresh Constitution in accordance with the spirit of the Lahore Resolution of 1940; and to grant the federal Government responsibility only for defence, foreign affairs and currency.
CHOE MYONG NAM (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) said that the Sub-Commission had contributed a lot to the promotion and protection of human rights by undertaking intensive studies on many important and urgent issues and other subjects of common interest within the parametres of its mandate. The epoch-making events that had taken place world-wide last year, including the World Conference against Racism, were permeated with the energetic efforts of the Sub-Commission. In spite of this, tragic human rights violations such as the infringement of sovereign rights as well as the devastation of peoples' rights continued to take place in many parts of the world. While deep-rooted racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia were common practice, the interference in the domestic affairs and the infringement of sovereign rights based on power politics in disregard of the principle of respect for sovereign rights were occurring drastically. The Sub-Commission was called upon to further enhance its responsibility and role in keeping with the principle of objectivity and impartiality.
If the effective measures were to be taken with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights, priority must be given to the following issues: the rejection of using human rights to undermine sovereignty; selectivity and double standards in the international discussion of human rights must no longer be tolerated; and the tendency that discriminated against economic, social and cultural rights while extending absolute priority to civil and political rights must be eliminated. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was in favour of genuine dialogue and cooperation based on equality, mutual benefit and reconciliation, rejecting unilateral pressure and blackmail as well as antagonism and distrust.
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