SUBCOMMISSION ON PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS HEARS ALLEGATIONS OF VIOLATIONS AROUND WORLD

Subcommission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights
53rd session
1 August 2001
Morning




The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights began this morning its annual review of the "question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms", hearing statements from a series of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) contending that abuses were occurring in numerous countries around the world.

The Subcommission, under instruction from its parent body, the Commission on Human Rights, does not field resolutions on situations in particular countries but reflects its debate on this agenda item in its summary records. The morning meeting was taken up largely with the remarks of NGOs, of which a long series -- as occurs every year -- had registered to speak.

NGOs charged that human-rights violations were occurring in Afghanistan, India (including Jammu and Kashmir), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Brazil, Guatemala, Algeria, the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, Israel-occupied Palestine, Indonesia (the Moluccas), Turkey, Japan, Malaysia, Cameroon, Mexico, the United States (Puerto Rico), the Western Sahara, and Pakistan.

The International Association for Religious Freedom contended that many violations of human rights were caused by religious extremism; that there had been an notable rise in such extremism applying to all religions; and that such an approach to religions that in their essence advocated peace and tolerance instead resulted in the spread of hatred, violence and destruction in many regions of the world.

International Educational Development remarked that although there were important mediation efforts under way in several of the world's nearly 40 wars, mediation was an underutilised mechanism for resolving armed conflicts and should be advocated more frequently by international bodies such as the Subcommission.

And the American Association of Jurists said that foreign interventions beginning centuries ago with colonialism and continuing today -- sometimes in the form of economic blockades and sometimes even for the expressed cause of aiding human rights -- were frequently the cause of violations.
(more)Also providing statements were the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues; Baha'i International Community; Medecins du Monde International; World Muslim Congress; Centre-Europe Tiers Monde; International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations; International Human Rights Association of American Minorities; International Association of Democratic Lawyers; World Organization against Torture; France Libertes; Consejo International de los Tratados Indies; Asian Buddhist Peace Conference; International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples; Franciscans International; Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization; International Institute for Peace; Pax Romana; and European Union of Public Relations.

Toward the end of the morning meeting, representatives of Iraq and Bahrain took the floor.

Subcommission Expert Francoise Jane Hampson also spoke.

The Subcommission will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue debate of the question of human rights violations anywhere in the world.

Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms

Under this agenda item the Subcommission has before it a note by the High Commissioner for Human Rights transmitting the report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Togo (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/3) which contains allegations against Togo from the Amnesty International report, as well as reactions from the Government of Togo and the actions undertaken jointly by the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. The note recommends the effective implementation of the Commission on Human Rights' recommendations, which should contribute to the establishment of an environment in Togo favourable to respect for human rights, the elucidation of the facts which this inquiry seeks to achieve, and the identification and possible prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of these violations, especially those involving extrajudicial executions.

The note by the High Commissioner also includes three addenda consisting of letters to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, one from the Prime Minister of Togo, and two from the Deputy Secretary-General of Amnesty International.

Statements

GIANFRANCO ROSSI, of the International Association for Religious Freedom, said many violations of human rights were caused by religious extremism; there had been an notable rise in such extremism, and this was true of all religions. Such extremism spread hatred, violence and destruction in many regions of the world. One had only to see the damage wrought by the Taliban in Afghanistan to see what such an approach to religion could do. All religions preached peace and tolerance, but interpretations of them could flout those principles with horrible consequences. There were difficulties for the Christian and Muslim minorities in India as a result of the attacks of Hindu extremists; in Nepal, the conversion of Hindus to another religion was prohibited and could be punished by imprisonment; in Sri Lanka, Buddhist extremists were fighting to transform their country into a purely Buddhist State; in Bhutan, it was forbidden for non-Buddhists to preach their religions.

In Europe, in certain countries where orthodox Christians were in the majority, laws limited the liberties of non-orthodox minorities. There also were problems with Muslim extremism in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen.

ANTOINE MADELIN, of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said in Belarus, an international inquiry had noted a limitation on associations and public meetings. These limitations went hand-in-hand with the plight of human rights defenders. One defender had been condemned to eight years in prison. The death sentences and the conditions of detention were inhuman in that country. In Krygyzstan, human rights activists were harassed. The organizations that protected human rights had been fined, and their offices had been closed. Some human rights defenders had to go into exile, and others were subjected to humiliation or detention. As regards freedom of the press, several newspapers had been closed down, and demonstrations were prohibited. In Uzbekistan, human rights defenders had reported acts of torture that had ended in death.

He said in Egypt, a human rights defender had been sentenced to prison for seven years. In Tunisia, the situation of the defenders of human rights was dangerous. Officials of the Tunisia League of Human Rights had been placed in prisons where torture was an everyday event. In Brazil, human rights defenders were subjected to torture and assassination. In Guatemala, there were an increasing number of aggressions on human rights defenders. In Algeria, thousands of people had been arrested illegally, and some human rights defenders had not been allowed into the country.

DIANE ALA'I, of the Baha'is International Community, said that during the past year the situation of the Baha'is in Egypt had worsened from an already troubling state; talks with Egyptian authorities over the years had failed to resolve the situation, although the Baha'i community in Egypt had coexisted peacefully with other religious communities there since 1868 and although Baha'is revered the Prophet Muhammad and upheld the Holy Quran. Egypt had stated that the Egyptian Constitution did not recognize the Baha'is right to freedom of belief as that right was restricted to Muslims, Christians and Jews, but this was contrary to the standards set by the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, who asserted that the existence of a State religion should not be exploited at the expense of the rights of minorities and the rights linked to citizenship.

The Egyptian Government must repeal its Presidential Decree of 1960; release from prison nine Baha'is arbitrarily arrested in Sohag; assign responsibility to a civil authority for registering the marriages of Baha'is or give such authority to Baha'i institutions; give Baha'is the same treatment as other religious minorities in matters pertaining to identity, birth and official documentation; and stop media dissemination of incorrect information designed to stir up hatred against Baha'is.

A. KAMAROTOS, of Medecins du Monde International, said in a raid in Chechnya, Russian Federation forces had detained all adults over the age of 14. Grenades had been fired at houses. More devastation took place last month in different Grozny districts. This daily violence contained human rights violations. This was perpetrated by the Russian forces. A significant number of civilian casualties had resulted, and there were over 200,000 Chechnyan refugees. Upcoming was another winter under severe conditions. International humanitarian agencies should be able to enter freely to help these civilians. Access to the population had been difficult though -- there were 26 checkpoints along the roads. Humanitarian organizations were concerned about the Chechnyan Resolution 22 -- its implementation would make it difficult for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to assist the population there.

It was also difficult to treat Palestinian victims in hospitals. Medecins du Monde International called for the respect of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Gaza Strip had been sealed off by the Israeli forces, and there were hundreds of checkpoints on the road. Sixty six per cent of the Palestinian population were isolated and had no access to health care. There had been numerous deaths because of the sealing off of the occupied territories.

MAQBOOL AHMAD, of the World Muslim Congress, said brutal oppression of the people of Chechnya was being studiously ignored by the media and international leaders -- similar atrocities, if perpetrated in the Balkans and Africa, would get the prompt attention of war-crimes tribunals. It was widely believed that the Russian forces had committed crimes against humanity and had violated the Geneva Conventions on a large scale in Chechnya; cruel and humiliating torture and vicious mistreatment were meted out to Chechen detainees in detention centres and military bases, and there was systematic torture, summary executions, and disappearances. An international tribunal to investigate charges of these offenses had yet to be established.

The people of Palestine were under repressive occupation and all their civil, political, economic and social rights were systematically denied by Israel, which had chosen a collision course instead of pursuing peace. In the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian occupation army had carried out numerous atrocities aimed at keeping Kashmiris under forced subjugation. The impunity and frequency with which the army engaged in repeated atrocities, including custodial killings and summary executions, pointed to only one conclusion: it was Government policy to terrorize the Kashmiris.

MALIK OZDEN, Centre Europe-Tiers Monde, said that in spite of repeated promises by the Turkish authorities of democracy, the grave violations of human rights - especially arbitrary arrests, practise of torture, denial of freedom of expression, repression in prisons, and denial of the Kurdish culture - continued unabatted. At the end of June, Turkish economist Fikret Baskaya had again been arrested. He had been sentenced to 16 months in prison and a fine of 3,000 Swiss Francs for writing about the situation of the Kurds. He wrote that the Kurds were often seen as a public order problem, but they were really a national problem. A Turkish human rights group had said that some Kurds were in a terrible state. In prison, authorities punished prisoners by putting them into solitary conrfinement, and many prisoners protested by going on hunger strikes. This situation should end and an impartial commission of inquiry should investigate the situation in these prisons.

KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said the non-governmental organization (NGO) was concerned about the situation of the civilian population in northern Uganda. The Subcommission and the international community should address the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, especially since failure to implement the United Nations plan for a plebiscite in the region was the root cause of the problem there and because the humanitarian-law violations carried out by occupying Indian forces were among the most serious in the world. The Subcommission should condemn these violations; urge the Security Council to seek implementation of its resolutions regarding the plebiscite; reinforce the central position of the Kashmiri people in deciding their own fate; and suggest international mediation as a means of settling the Kashmiri question.

Mediation was an under-utilised mechanism for resolving armed conflicts, although there were important mediation efforts under way in several of the world's nearly 40 wars. It was sad that the Norwegian mediation effort in Sri Lanka had stalled because of a political crisis related to the war there, and the Subcommission should urge the reactivation of the process. Concern also had to be expressed about the situation in the Moluccas, where Indonesian forces committed numerous abuses, and the Subcommission should propose mediation for that long-running problem.

MUHAMMAD SAFI, of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations, said that to his deep regret, the situation of human rights in many parts of the world had deteriorated over the last year. Certain situations such as the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir were of particular and grave concern. There were a number of common factors shared by these two situations countries. In both cases, the occupying power held on to their illegal occupation against the wishes of the people of the occupied territories in defiance of Security Council resolutions. Both had reneged from their obligations under the resolutions. Both Israel and India had expressed their preference for fascist practices and a policy of repression against civilian and unarmed populations. They had both circumvented the negotiations with the representatives of the occupied people on one pretext or the other. Also, both countries had deployed disproportionate force to suppress the legitimate political aspirations of the occupied people.

Israel had used the cover of security concerns to justify its brutal force against Palestinian people, while India on the other hand had used the terms separatists and terrorists to camouflage its brutal use of force against the Kashmiri people. While there was welcome progress in the apparent reconciliation between the two countries, India should be condemned strongly for its occupation and unabated campaign of violence against the Kashmiri people.

MAHSOOD IHRAAM, of the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, said the Indian Government's failure to honour United Nations resolutions had the cause of turbulence and violence in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947, and worst of all the Indian occupation had kept the people of Jammu and Kashmir away from their family members and loved ones on the other side of the cease-fire line. Indian claims that the territory of Kashmir occupied and retained by its 700,000 troops was an integral part of India were utterly fallacious; the Indian claim was legally and morally untenable; yet India was able to take advantage of a docile international audience as it carried out massacres of the Kashmiri people, who had lost more than 70,000 men, women and children to Indian brutalities; after frequent humiliations, Kashmiris were regularly put in detention centres where they suffered from torture and brutal force.

Kashmiris could not understand why the Subcommission and other human rights bodies were silent and year after year did not even mention the situation in Kashmir; the Subcommission was urged to make the situation a formal item or sub-item on its agenda. The recent summit meetings between the leaders of India and Pakistan, meanwhile, would never be complete without the participation of Kashmiris.

YORID SHIGKWA, of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said there were inferior human rights conditions for labourers in Japan. In a counter-report to a Government report in 1998, the International Association had described the gender discrimination in Japan, as well as discrimination in employment, the infringement of workers' rights to organize, among others. It was noteworthy that Japanese workers' rights were violated not only by private enterprises, but also by the Government.

There was also age discrimination that was particular to Japan, and was not found in any other country. In Japan, there was a compulsory retirement system. In a period when the average Japanese life span was 55, pensions were not paid until the age of 60, even though the retirement age was 55. As Japanese labourers were aging, it became difficult for them to live unless the retirement age was prolonged from 55 to 60. Labourers and labour unions unwillingly had to accept cutting down their wages in order to continue working past 55. In the banking industry, wages were almost cut in half. There was an appeal to the international community to take note of these systems, as well as other violations which trampled the dignity of human beings. These systems should be reformed.

FRANCOISE JANE HAMPSON, Subcommission Expert, said that some might argue that there was no reason for the Subcommission to continue its discussion of violations in specific countries if it could no longer pass resolutions on the matter. She disagreed. Silence was the best friend of human rights violations. Yesterday an Israeli attack had killed eight people, including two children. Israel called this a strategy for active defense, but it appeared to be a policy of assassination. If Israel had evidence that the victims of such attacks were guilty of violations of law, it should arrest them and bring them to trial. Nothing of the sort had even been attempted by Israel, and attacks of the sort it had carried out did not observe judicial standards and of course risked damage to innocent people, as had occurred yesterday.

Situations of ongoing conflict, including those in Angola, Indonesia, and the Philippines were ripe territory for serious human rights violations, such as extrajudicial executions and disappearances. To prevent such violations what was clearly needed was an effective system of accountability and enforcement of national and international criminal law.

Conditions of detention were often a cause of human rights violations, as in Greece, the Chechen Republic, and Brazil; or certain groups of detainees were singled out for ill-treatment -- in several European countries that appeared to be true for asylum-seekers or the Roma. How a community treated detainees was a mark of the level of civilization of that community. The small number of investigations carried out against alleged perpetrators was especially worrisome.

Some situations continued to fail to attract international attention. Often the State involved was powerful enough to avoid scrutiny or simply did not appear on the international agenda, or the difficulties were not massive, although they certainly seemed so to the victims. The Subcommission's Independent Experts had a particular responsibility to speak out in such situations. Not enough attention had been paid to situations in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Tanzania, Fiji, and Bhutan. Among powerful States that avoided scrutiny despite deserving it were Saudi Arabia, and China.

Impunity continued to be a problem in Algeria, Guatemala, Mexico and Nepal. Laws protecting human rights were not enough -- they had to be enforced, offenses investigated, and perpetrators tried and punished. She was saddened by the recent decision of the United States to pull out of negotiations for a protocol on implementation of the Bacteriological Weapons Convention.

MICHAEL ANTHONY, of the World Organization against Torture, said there were grave human rights violations linked to the repression of certain groups' right to freedom of expression and freedom of association. The situation in Malaysia was worsening, and had recently been the stage for a wave of arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions of demonstrators and human rights defenders who were attempting to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association. The Internal Security Act granted the police the power to perform systematic arrests of any persons considered to be presenting a threat to state security, the definition of which was highly elastic. Detainees could be held for an initial period of 60 days without being charged or tried, which could then, with the approval of the Minister of Home Affairs, be extended by consecutive periods indefinitely. This power had been exercised frequently since April 2001.

The situation in Cameroon was also a cause for grave concern. At the end of March 2001, the floor above the World Oganization=s Cameroon office was set on fire and it was believed that the office was targeted. The World Organization was informed of the arrest and detention of 10 persons engaged in organizing a rally. They were released on bail two weeks later. In many countries, the setting up of associations was submitted to a system of declaration and a refusal decision had to be motivated. However, the authorities often acted as if the creation of associations depended on prior authorization. In Tunisia, for example, association in contradiction with the law could be declared non-existent and those persons who were considered to have broken the law faced one to six months in prison. The funding argument was often used by governments to lead a smear campaign against human rights defenders being perceived as serving Western interests. In Egypt, a clause that required the prior consent of the authorities for any foreign funding had been included in the new legislation on associations. Several organizations were facing legal proceedings and arrests and were even threatened with prohibition because they had solicited, received, or used resources for promoting or protecting human rights. In Guatemala, there had been a number of aggressions against human rights organizations, in particular those involved in the fight against impunity.

ANDREA COLLINS, of France Libertes, said four Turkish deputies had been imprisoned in Turkey for over seven years because they had demonstrated their Kurdish origin in a peaceful way and had worn their traditional Kurdish colours and had spoken before the National Assembly of Turkey in their Kurdish mother tongue, leading to court proceedings against them. They had been accused of treason, a crime punishable by penalties as serious as death in Turkey, and a court of appeals had confirmed guilty verdicts against these deputies. Human rights organizations had denounced these sentences on a number of occasions and had condemned the legal proceedings leading to them, which had not been independent and impartial. The deputies had done nothing violent; there was nothing to indicate they were separatists; they had simply peacefully demonstrated based on their convictions. They were prisoners of conscience.

The prisoners had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming violations of their right to freedom of expression; and the Court had condemned Turkey for an unfair trial. It was unacceptable that these deputies were still imprisoned. The Subcommission should request the Turkish Government to liberate the deputies immediately and unconditionally.

MARCELINO DIAZ DE JESUS, of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the Subcommission had often looked at the human rights situation with indigenous peoples in Mexico. Nevertheless, the Government publicly declared past resolutions had no binding character, and it was not obliged to comply with its terms. Mrs. Robinson and other officials were invited by the Government, and what they saw had confirmed what the Subcommission had been hearing. In the election of July 2000, the Presidency had changed. Still, families of the disappeared did not know if a Truth Commission or a special prosecutor would be appointed to learn their fate. Congress was drafting a law within the guidelines of the San Andreas agreement, but eventually, an entirely different law was passed. It was hoped that it would not be ratified. The indigenous populations had been betrayed. Eighteen had been accused of mobbing and of sabotage. The Indigenous peoples would not give up the fight, even if they were thrown in jail. There was a policy of coverup with the new Government, it was not choosing dialogue and reconciliation.

J. BARUA, of the Asian Buddhist Peace Conference, said there were serious violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir including rape, torture, extrajudicial executions and disappearances in. Occupation soldiers indulged in a pattern of serious abuses in Kashmir, protected by laws that granted them impunity and prohibited their prosecution. The territory of Jammu and Kashmir was in the grip of 700,000 Indian security troops and Kashmiris hence were kept from exercising their right to self-determination in contradiction to United Nations resolutions calling for the exercise of that right. It was necessary to improve the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

There also were serious human rights problems in other parts of India. The very right to life was being flouted. A culture of impunity prevailed among the Indian military. The international community must speak out against such violations. Perpetrators of human-rights violations should not escape justice and human rights for all should be upheld.

JULIEN ARZLIGA, of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of People, said Vieques, Puerto Rico had been used as a place of training by the United States, which had caused health and environmental problems. The continuing military practices had to stop, the Navy should evacuate and the land should be cleansed. The Governor had said the people had spoken clearly, 80 per cent of the 5,900 voters had supported these requests, and she would deliver the message to the President and the Congress of the United States. The Vieques citizens had little possibility of having their results respected. Puerto Rico was one of the areas where there was no movement toward decolonization. Puerto Ricans should be able to choose self-determination.

In the case of the Western Sahara, it was difficult to understand why the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity's plan to carry out the self-determination plan could be replaced by a new plan. This new plan only offered restricted autonomy. At this point, this situation became more tense, increasing the possibility of a return to war. Both of these circumstances reaffirmed the right to self-determination needed to be applied urgently.

P. LEBLANC, of Franciscans International, said there were serious human rights violations in Pakistan. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Governments and United Nations reports had documented the gravity of the situation, including those of the Special Rapporteur on torture, who reported that torture was widespread and endemic in Pakistan. There also were rapes and other forms of cruel treatment, beating and abuse of those arrested; arbitrary detention in the context of extreme political or religious conflicts; and poor prison conditions. Political leadership and martial law regimes had used Islam to legitimize their rule to the disadvantage of religious minorities. The Lahore High Court recently had reversed its acquittal of a conviction and death sentence given to Ayub Masih, who was charged under the country's blasphemy laws.

The new structure of local Government further discriminated against minorities; and women could not realistically participate in the electoral process. The Government must take numerous steps to establish good governance, observe international human rights standards, and repeal discriminatory laws. Pakistan further should invite the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance to make a second visit to Pakistan.

G. GLAVICH, of the Association of American Jurists, said the history of Latin America and Africa in the nineteenth century had been a difficult one. The colonization of countries had cost them their precious natural resources. Examples ranged from the Opium Wars in China and before, to the twemtieth century, with the interference in Iran in 1953, Chile in 1973, Guatemala in 1954, Cuba in 1961, the Dominican Republic in 1965, Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989. These were examples of circumstances that continued today with the United States' economic blockade of Cuba, and the economic sanctions against Iraq. The United States had their largest military operation since the Viet Nam War in Kosovo.

In a new book, a French general said the United States had taken advantage of war, and he used the example of the war in the Balkans. The United Nations should not act as a satellite of the United States, and should begin its job in ensuring peace and security. It should start in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

KEITH BENNET, of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization, said the Pinochets and Milosevics of the world had reason to be afraid today, and that was a major success for the international community; but there was a continued failure to bring terrorists to account. Militancy, a euphemism for random violence and terror, was increasingly being practiced in the name of self-determination -- that noble ideal was being usurped by those who feared democracy or sought to exploit terror to grab power. Terrorists sought refuge in places where administrative powers protected them -- that was why Afghanistan under the Taliban had emerged as a cradle of modern-day terrorism. But the blame also lay with those who nurtured and unleashed terrorists upon the world.

If one examined the motivations of these groups one discovered that many of them expounded variations of the same violent ideology born of the madrasses of Pakistan. The international community should focus its energies against States that not only usurped democratic norms and denied fundamental rights to large segments of their own societies, but allowed their territories to be used to breed cadres of armed terrorists calling for holy wars against established, functioning democratic States.

MUMTAZ KHAN, of the International Institute for Peace, said human rights violations were manifest in numerous ways and forms. In some countries, human rights violators were committed officially through their secret agencies, police, border forces and in some countries, such abuses took place unofficially through their renegades and sponsored militant groups. Today, in Afghanistan, one gender had totally been deprived of fundamental rights in the name of religion. In Afghanistan, women had been deprived of the right of employment, right of education, and right of assembly. Recently, the Taliban Government had passed the decree according to which 20 cosmetic items had been banned while non-whabi sects were being eliminated by the Taliban.

Some fundamentalist forces were gaining ground in Pakistan, where they openly vowed to target what they declared un-Islamic, including television. Fundamentalists had broken into some houses in Karachi and broken televisions. The Pakistani Government that often made a hue and cry regarding the right of self-determination of Kashmiris and highlighted human rights violations in India recently held so-called elections in Pakistan. All 32 candidates of the All Parties National Alliance had had their nomination papers rejected, and were barred from contesting the elections. More than 200 activists were severely beaten by the Army and the police.

KHALIL TAHIR, of Pax Romana, said 97 per cent of the population of Pakistan was made up of Muslims, and the remaining 3 per cent were religious minorities who were subjected to all sorts of discrimination and human rights violations. Pakistan was a symbol for intolerance, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Human rights violations especially continued against religious minorities. Discrimination began at a high level; there were still places were non-Muslims were not allowed to use the same utensils and tables; politically, the religious minorities were marginalized through a system of separate electorates. The system had proved catastrophic, leading to increased intolerance. There had been attacks against places of worship and blasphemy cases brought against religious minorities.

The human rights of all citizens of Pakistan should be recognized and protected without any discrimination. The Constitution of Pakistan, which discriminated against religious minorities, and numerous Pakistani laws, had to be changed. The system of separate electorates must be eliminated. Protections of women must be increased and all complaints of human rights violations must be investigated and perpetrators brought to justice.

F. SYED, of the European Union for Public Relations, said while there were many countries where there were violations of human rights, it was worth noting the situation of the freedom of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in India. The violation of the rights of these peoples' rights arose from the external armed groups who clandestinely infiltrated the state and indulged in large-scale killings, kidnappings and vandalising. These armed groups were sponsored, armed and supported by a neighbouring country, and were termed by that country as freedom fights. The people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir attained freedom back in 1947 after waging an anti-autocracy struggle for more than 30 long years. The armed gangs now prevented the people of Kashmir from enjoying the fruits of the right to self-determination, which they exercised more than half a century ago. These armed groups were not sparing even the pilgrims and nearly 20 of them were killed while they were proceeding along high mountains to a holy cave for a visit.

The externally sponsored armed groups claimed that they were religious fighters fighting a jihad in Kashmir. But the irony was that the largest number of their victims was their co-religionists. They killed them for cooperating with their designs of destroying Kashmir and its economy, as well as its peaceful life. The Subcommission was expected to distinguish between a true freedom movement, and a religious-oriented struggle for political ends.

A. YONIS, (Iraq) said despite the efforts of the international community to improve human rights, abuses continued around the world. Economic, political and social conditions were integrally connected to questions of human rights, and this situation was especially difficult for the citizens of Iraq subjected to the economic embargo imposed against Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, most of them women and children, had died as a result of the sanctions. In addition, the no-fly zones imposed against Iraq were illegal and illegitimate; there was no relevant Security Council resolution to justify the no-fly zones. Aerial bombardments carried out to protect the no-fly zones had caused the deaths of more than 300 Iraqis.

The United States also was interfering in Iraq's internal affairs by sponsoring mercenaries who aimed at destabilizing the country. Despite these huge obstacles, Iraq continued to strive to protect the human rights of its citizens. The Subcommission must condemn these violations which were victimizing Iraqis.

SAEED AL-FAIHANI (Bahrain) said a strengthening of human rights was of concern to the international community. The international community was aware of the importance of these rights, and that was why it defended them -- to ensure a better future. Bahrain attached importance to the contributions of the Subcommission. The World Conference against Racism was a historic for the international community to reaffirm its will to defend human rights. All forms of discrimination should be put to an end. That was why it was hoped that the international community would come up with a Plan of Action. In Bahrain, the Head of State had tried to strengthen the rule of human rights, to meet the expectation of the people. He said that it was worthwhile to ensure that the Plan of Action be implemented. Bahrain also attached great importance to freedom of expression -- that was important to living in a democracy. The Head of State granted amnesty to all prisoners of opinion, and the laws on state security had been abolished. Further, judicial independence had been ensured by the creation of a judicial magistrate.