Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights opens its fifty-fifth session in Geneva

Sub-Commission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights
55th session
28 July 2003
Morning





Elects Halima Embarek Warzazi as Chairperson, Adopts Agenda
and Hears Statement by Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights



The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights opened this morning its fifty-fifth session, hearing the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights say that as the analytical and thinking part of the United Nations human rights system, it was the role of the Sub-Commission to identify human rights policies and strategies for the future.

Acting High Commissioner Bertrand Ramcharan stressed that the challenges of upholding human rights in the contemporary world were numerous and it fell within the competence of the Sub-Commission – the organ of the human rights programme called upon to research, reflect, and recommend – to think through the paths to universal human rights protection in the future. In this connection, he highlighted new challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights for the Sub-Commission to address, urging policy discussion on where the contemporary human rights movement was and where it must be headed. It was the role of the Sub-Commission, as the analytical and thinking part of the United Nations human rights system, to identify human rights policies and strategies for the future.

By acclamation, the Sub-Commission elected Halima Embarek Warzazi to be the Chairperson of the session. Elected, also by acclamation, as Vice-Chairpersons were Kalliopi Koufa and Abdul Sattar. Elected by acclamation as Rapporteur for the session was Stanislav Ogurstsov. The election of the Vice-Chairperson nominated by the Latin American Group will take place tomorrow. This morning, the Sub-Commission also adopted its agenda for the session.

After her election, Ms. Warzazi said the Sub-Commission was meeting under dark clouds which seriously threatened the human rights for which the Sub-Commission had worked hard, with commitment and devotion. Since April 2003, all had been witness to a terrible drama being played out on the television screens showing the apocalypse that had fallen on an entire people. Day after day, members of the Sub-Commission had seen women, men, and even children, fall under the fire of those who, under the banner of the fight against terrorism, sowed death, destruction and despair. Members of the Sub-Commission had condemned terrorism but had never preached a policy of fighting terrorism by means that were incompatible with human rights. In this regard, the Sub-Commission faced a heavy responsibility in upholding its role as defender of human rights.

Opening the session, the Chairperson of the fifty-fourth session, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, affirmed that the successful reinvention of the Sub-Commission – which now functioned as a think tank – had proved remarkably successful. Not only was it the only forum for debating new themes in the multi-lateral human rights agenda, but it was also a deliberative organ providing a solid basis for the normative work of the Commission on Human Rights. Highlighting new human rights challenges, he stressed the threat of terrorism and said the struggle against it must be universal, but not pursued to the detriment of principles of international human rights law. Reconciling the universal struggle against terror with the international human rights norms was one of the greatest challenges in the Sub-Commission’s future work. There was a need to provide answers, concrete proposals – not rhetorical lamentations. In such challenging times, the Sub-Commission should be inspired by the angel of history.

The Chairperson of the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights, Najat Al-Hajjaji, also addressed the Sub-Commission and said this year the Commission had considered the work of the Sub-Commission, and had adopted six of its proposals on a variety of subjects. It was no secret that the Commission was under pressure as more and more human rights issues arose every year. In this scenario, the work of the Sub-Commission became ever more valuable, providing crucial substantive support and expertise.

The Sub-Commission's session will continue until 15 August. The Sub-Commission was created by the Commission on Human Rights, consists of 26 Experts from five regional groups, and undertakes studies and makes recommendations to the Commission on human rights questions. This year, the Sub-Commission will, amongst other things, address the administration of justice; economic, social and cultural rights; prevention of discrimination; and terrorism.

The Sub-Commission observed a minute of silence in honour of all victims of human rights violations in all parts of the world.

In addition, the Sub-Commission expressed its condolences to the family members of former Sub-Commission Expert, Lammy Betten, who passed away this year.

The Sub-Commission will reconvene tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. to begin its consideration of its agenda item on the violation of human rights in all countries, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories.


Statements

PAULO SERGIO PINHEIRO, Chairperson of the Fifty-fourth Session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, said he could emphatically affirm the successful reinvention of the Sub-Commission, which now functioned as a think tank, and had proved remarkably successful in its role. It had become not only a forum for the debate of new themes in the multi-lateral human rights agenda, but also a deliberative organ to provide a solid basis for the normative work of the Commission on Human Rights. The need for the urgent construction of an ethical globalization process constituted a paramount task for the human rights community, a virtuous globalization in a world connected by technology, information, trade, where there was a just and true commerce to help small farmers in the South, and which should necessarily be connected by shared values and norms of behaviour. Human rights were central to this wider value system, he said, with international labour standards and environmental rules. These norms, and the values of freedom, equality, tolerance articulated in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, together constituted the rules of the road for an ethical globalization, which had poverty abolition as its overarching objective.

The struggle against terrorism was universal, he said, but should not be pursued to the detriment of the principles of international human rights law. Finding out ways to reconcile the universal struggle against terror with the obligations imposed by international human rights norms continued to be one of the greatest challenges for the world and the Sub-Commission’s future work. There was no doubt that more than ever a clear determination was needed within the international community in the struggle against terrorism. But without greater international cooperation, without a larger involvement of citizens and an effective participation of States, the dilemma would continue. Without appealing to equality among nations in the struggle against terrorism, any new international order would be but a new form of global hegemony. Any search for multilateralism could not neglect inequalities of power among States and the role of public opinion and civil society organizations. Any project to reorder the world around us by waging universal war should be abandoned. Some nations, when dealing with other underdeveloped or poor countries, in many instances had tended to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era- force, pre-emptive attack, deception, disrespect for humanitarian law, torture, arbitrary detention, executions, and summary justice.

There was a need, he said, to overcome the past and go beyond appearances and futile polemics, and to look further, always hearing the voices of victims, giving effective answers to their sufferings, responding to expectations of civil society. There was a need to provide answers, concrete proposals, and not rhetorical lamentations. In such interesting but challenging times, the Sub-Commission should be inspired by the angel of history.

BERTRAND RAMCHARAN, Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the Sub-Commission had a strategic role to play in the protection and promotion of human rights. The Sub-Commission had initially been given the role to prevent discrimination and promote equality. However, as time had progressed, the Sub-Commission had been given the role of a think-tank. The challenges of upholding human rights in the contemporary world were numerous and they fell within the competence of the Sub-Commission – the organ of the human rights programme called upon to research, reflect, and recommend – to think through the paths to universal human rights protection in the future. In this connection, he highlighted new challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights for the Sub-Commission to address. Concerning the relief of victims of gross violations of human rights, he stressed that the persons who faced torture, arbitrary of summary execution, or the women who were subjected to violence, needed protection today. The Sub-Commission had a responsibility, through the findings of the special procedures, to identify what could be done to protect those whose rights were being violated. The best form of protection was prevention, he said, and stressed the need for the Sub-Commission to contribute to and deliberate on preventive strategies nationally, regionally and internationally.

Today, millions of people suffered from deprivation and indignity because of endemic poverty. The human rights approach to poverty reduction was based on a simple belief that if a society pursued democratic governance under the rule of law, and if the society strived to live by the precepts of the Universal Declaration, people would have better life-chances and would be able to come out of the spiral of poverty. In this connection, he stressed education as a route from poverty, as well as the overarching need to promote and protect the rights of children, the empowerment of women and democracy and the rule of law. The concept of national protection was one that had been emphasized by the Secretary-General. A national protection system was one in which international human rights norms were reflected in the national constitution; were incorporated in national legislation; where the local courts could resort to international human rights norms; where there were specialized human rights institutions to promote and protect human rights; where there was national monitoring of the situation of vulnerable parts of the population; and where human rights were taught in schools and other institutions of learning.

Concerning the new challenges of new threats – terrorism and biotechnology – he said that terrorists committed grievous assaults on human rights and the struggle against terrorism was being exploited in some parts of the world to abuse human rights. There were therefore issues to be examined in this regard. One must be especially vigilant in upholding the rule of law and the principle of non-derogability of the basic rights referred to in Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Turning to biotechnology, some years ago, the Sub-Commission had taken the lead in exploring the implications for human rights from developments in biotechnology. It would be important for the Sub-Commission to examine their human rights implications. In addition, Mr. Ramcharan addressed issues and challenges arising in the protection of the rights of migrants, refugees and groups of people at risk and in distress, as well as the challenges posed by inequality. In conclusion, he said that in a series of presentations before different human rights bodies, he had deliberately been seeking to urge policy discussion on where the contemporary human rights movement was and where it must be headed. It was the role of the Sub-Commission, as the analytical and thinking part of the United Nations human rights system, to be key in helping the international community steer course to the human rights policies and strategies of the future. In human rights – passion mattered.

HALIMA EMBAREK WARZAZI, Chairperson of the Fifty-fifth Session of the Sub-Commission, said the meeting was being held today under dark clouds which seriously threatened the human rights for which the Sub-Commission had worked for hard, with such commitment and devotion. Today, as a defender of human rights, the Sub-Commission was in a particularly worrying situation, ever since April 2003, when all had been witness to a terrible drama played out on the television screens which showed the apocalypse that had fallen on an entire people. This was a people which, after having been crushed beneath the boot of a tyrant, and then under an embargo of which they were the only victims, had been offered freedom by a super-equipped armada, launching missiles and fragmentation bombs day after day and night after night. The famous “daisy cutters” had killed or mutilated the innocent, including children, had destroyed without discernment, and the tanks bearing the standard of democracy had not been able to stop the vandalism, the looting of universities, hospitals, cultural sites, nor the destruction of the treasures and the living testimony of a millennial culture in a country that was the cradle of one of the most ancient civilisations of the world.

The conscience of all participants, she said, was put to the test in the face of the massive attacks against the right to life, to self-determination, to freedom, to security, to the liberty of movement which victimized innocent Palestinians, whilst in other countries the political institutions interfered in the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of origin, nationality and religion, the right to just and equitable treatment by the judicial authorities, and finally the right not to be the subject of arbitrary arrests, expulsions and inhuman treatment. Thus, in the face of situations which could not be ignored, the participants had seen, day after day, women, men, and even children falling under the fire of those who, under the banner of the fight against terrorism, sowed death, massive destruction, terror, despair, and perpetuated persecution and torture. The members of the Sub-Commission had condemned terrorism and all those who had killed the innocent, but had never preached a policy of fighting terrorism by means that were incompatible with human rights. State terrorism could not escape being unequivocally condemned, since it was a form of terrorism that had only one goal, the eradication of the greatest number of innocents and the creation of an atmosphere of fear in civilian populations.

To this was added, she said, the terrible dramas of Africa where populations continued to be the victim of gross violations of human rights, of oppression, of ethnic cleansing, and even of genocides provoked and caused by economic interests or by geo-political designs. The world today needed to react in the face of the impending collapse of human rights under the battering ram of hegemony, the will to dominate, to assimilate, to render uniform all cultures, in the disdain of individuality, culture and civilisation. The Sub-Commission faced a heavy responsibility, and needed to uphold its role as defender of human rights. Fortunately, it was not alone in this tumultuous ocean; millions of people of all nationalities and from all cultures had gone down into the street, in all countries of the world, thus exploding completely the theory of the shock of civilisations. This was an enormous encouragement for the work of the Sub-Commission, which, more than ever, needed to invest itself in what was an imperative duty: the defence of human rights and the denunciation of their violation in whatever country.


NAJAT AL-HAJJAJI, Chairperson of the Fifty-ninth Session of the Commission on Human Rights, said this year the Commission had again considered the work of the Sub-Commission, expressing its appreciation and respect for the work done and the valuable assistance it provided to the members of the Commission. During its session, the Commission had considered ten proposals made by the Sub-Commission on a variety of topics, and had adopted six as proposed, including the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to conduct a study on discrimination in the criminal justice system; the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to conduct a study on housing and property restitution in the context of refugees and other displaced persons; the holding of the Social Forum; the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to conduct a study on indigenous peoples’ permanent sovereignty over natural resources; the international decade of the world’s indigenous people; and the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to conduct a study on the prevention on human rights violations caused by the availability and misuse of small arms and light weapons. A number of other proposals were subsumed in separate Commission resolutions.

With regard to working methods, the Commission itself was, she said, undertaking a reflection of its own working methods with a view to improving its effectiveness and efficiency. A number of other issues related to the working methods of the Sub-Commission had come to the Commission’s attention, and the views of the Commission on this were reflected in its resolution 2003/59.

It was no secret, she said, that the Commission was, at present, under pressure. More and more human rights issues arose each year demanding the attention of the session. At the same time, financial constraints restricted the amount of time for the debates. In this scenario, the work of the Sub-Commission became ever more valuable. It provided the Commission with the crucial substantive support on human rights issues which it itself had not the time, nor, necessarily, the expertise to undertake.




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