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SUBCOMMISSION ON PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS HEARS ALLEGATIONS OF VIOLATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE
04 August 1999
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MORNING
HR/SC/99/4
4 August 1999
The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights heard this morning from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alleging violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in Pakistan, Iran, Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Australia, the United States of America, Morocco, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, the Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, and Bahrain.
Speakers most often expressed concern about the state of human rights in Mexico, followed by criticism of the situation in Pakistan.
The remarks came as the Subcommission began its annual consideration of the “Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial discrimination and segregation, in all countries, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories” -- annually one of the panel’s most contentious agenda items, and the one that draws the most attention from NGOs.
Among the violations alleged in various countries were religious discrimination, ethnic discrimination, discrimination against indigenous peoples, genocide, rape both during peace and conflict, discriminatory provisions within legislation, limitations on freedoms of movement and expression, genocide, torture and forced disappearances. Several speakers decried the presence of armies in civilian situations, saying that often had a negative impact on human rights.
Representatives of NGOs addressing the situation in Mexico -- the subject of a Subcommission resolution last year -- said matters had not improved and complained variously of abuses committed against women, indigenous peoples, human-rights defenders, and the poor, and charged that the presence of armed forces in civilian communities there had not resulted in greater protection for citizens but in mounting violations of their rights.
NGO representatives commenting on the situation in Pakistan contended, among other things, that discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities was widespread and encouraged by domestic law, and that the country was on the verge of turning into a violent theocracy.
Experts addressing the Subcommission cautioned against the dangers of “humanitarian interventions”, saying they could be a pretext under which powerful nations could expand their influence and interfere in the affairs of other countries and of the United Nations.
The speakers were Subcommission Experts Fan Guoxiang and El-Hadji Guisse.
Representatives of the following NGOs delivered formal statements: Association for World Education; the Latin American Human Rights Association; the Association of World Citizens; the International Peace Bureau; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; the Indigenous World Association; the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; the Centre of Economic and Social Studies of the Third World (CHECK PLEASE); the American Association of Jurists; Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America; Centre Europe- Tiers Monde and the Commission for Defence of Human rights in Latin America; Society for Threatened Peoples; the International Organization for the Development of the Freedom of Education; Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization; the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues; Associacion Kunas Unidos por Nabguana; World Federation of Trade Unions; the International Union of Socialist Youth; Franciscans International and Dominicans for Justice and Peace; and the International Inst
itute for Peace.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue its discussion of human-rights violations anywhere in the world.
Statements
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, appealed to the Subcommission to adopt a firm resolution recalling its 1985rResolution; and also to the Government of Pakistan to repeal blasphemy legislation and to restore the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons in its jurisdiction. A mandatory death sentence for blasphemy as prescribed by Pakistani law was in total contradiction with international human rights instruments and should not exist in any State legislation.
There should be firm reactions by United Nations bodies whenever there was direct and public incitement to commit genocide as had occurred in Iran. At a time of change and public debate on the nature and aims of the State in Iran, the Association appealed to the Subcommission and to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to act before the Jewish community in Iran was transformed into a hostage community and a scapegoat. Justice should flow down from the Palais des Nations.
MARCELINO DIAZ DE JESUS, of the Latin American Human Rights Association, said the Subcommission last year adopted a resolution on human rights and fundamental freedoms in Mexico. A year had gone by, and unfortunately, the situation had not changed. There were serious violations of human rights. None of the problems had been solved. Measures had not been taken to combat discrimination. This increased the fears of certain portions of the population that there would never be justice.
Recently, there was public recognition of torture. According to the Mexican National Commission of Human Rights, torture had continued. Last year, it was announced that there would be a study on discrimination against indigenous women. The taking of hostages and rape of women in military camps went on constantly. There had also been sterilization of some men. The Association asked the Subcommission to adopt a resolution requesting Mexico to comply with international instruments on human rights.
RENE WADLOW, of the Association of World Citizens, said the banning by the Government of the People’s Republic of China of the spiritual movement Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa and the subsequent arrest of its leaders, massive destruction of its publications and audio-visual material, and the prohibition of assembly of its practitioners were direct violations of the spirit and provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief. The Subcommission should help the Government to gain a harmonious perspective and to restore the rights of the practitioners of this spiritual movement.
The banning was a qualitative change in the practice of the Government, and there was thus a danger that Government repression would become more widespread and arbitrary. The Government had a duty to avoid another ideological campaign which would violate international norms of freedom of belief and would also be socially damaging. The ban on Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa should be lifted.
S.J. EMMANUEL, of the International Peace Bureau, said conflicts in Sri Lanka could only be resolved through intervention by the international community. The civil war there had caused massive destruction and had displaced over 700,000. The Sri Lankan army had occupied a peaceful shrine and had chased worshippers away into the jungles, in some cases carrying out rape and murder. That had been reported just in the last week. The army recently closed all exits to the war zones. It deliberately, on 29 July, used 220,000 civilians as human shields, and yet this act had not been condemned by the democratic Government. Disappearances and mass graves had been discovered.
The Sri Lankan conflict had been going on for over 50 years, and war for over 16 years. Excavation of one of the mass graves had just begun after a year of international protest. Very often alleged perpetrators of serious human-rights violations had been promoted in the service. The International Peace Bureau asked the Subcommission to stop aiding the war efforts of the Sri Lankan Government.
LES MALEZER, of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, said Australia should reopen negotiations with the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to conform to their international commitments. Grave violations of the human rights of the aboriginals and Torres Islanders were being perpetrated by the Australian Government, which was limiting and impairing the rights of Aboriginals to own their own lands, as well as inciting racist behaviour in the Parliament and among the people of Australia. It had mis-portrayed the Aboriginal peoples deliberately, and had created an atmosphere of anxiety which had increased a feeling of uncertainty and xenophobia.
This was incompatible with Australia’s obligations under the Convention against Racial Discrimination. Australia should restart negotiations with the Aboriginals in order to find a solution to these problems, and should remove discriminatory provisions from national legislation. A resolution to this effect was requested from the Subcommission, and a Special Rapporteur should be appointed to monitor human-rights violations in Australia.
RONALD BARNES , of the Indigenous World Association, said independent tribes inhabiting an independent territory from Alaska should be granted independent status by the United States. There had been a discovery of documents prior to the 1867 Treaty of Cession, which clearly refuted Russian title and dominion to Alaska. The United States Congress in 1824 had discussed a set of diplomatic communications which gave the historical and legal reasons why Russia had not acquired absolute title to Alaska. Further, in these memoranda, the United States fully recognized that the indigenous peoples of Alaska were independent tribes inhabiting independent territory.
This series of confidential diplomatic memoranda from the United States to Russia was exchanged less than 50 years prior to the so-called 1867 Treaty of Cession. The revelation of this information was very significant since the indigenous peoples of Alaska were only a third party to the treaty. Therefore, the indigenous peoples of Alaska were not legally bound to admit to the treaty. Russia had had no right to sell Alaska to the United Staes since the absolute title was recognized to be in the dominion of the indigenous peoples of Alaska.
ABBA SALEK EL HAISSEN, of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the situation in the Western Sahara, occupied since 1975 by Morocco, remained alarming. During the long occupation, grave and flagrant human-rights violations had been committed by the occupying Moroccan forces, including arbitrary arrest, torture, forced disappearances, false trials, deportations and smothering of the freedom of speech and limitation of the right to move freely. There had been a relative improvement of human rights in Morocco, but violations were still ignored, notably in the case of disappearances of hundreds of Western Saharan men and women.
The Subcommission should oblige Morocco to end arbitrary arrests as well as forced disappearances and torture; to lift the state of siege in the occupied territories, to guarantee freedom of the press, and to allow free access to observers and NGOs. It should call on Morocco to respect the international human-rights conventions it had ratified and to cooperate with United Nations mechanisms and hold a referendum by which the people of the Western Sahara could express themselves and freely determine their future.
LAUR SALINAS BERISTAIN, of the Centro de Estudios Economicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo,the Third World Economic and Social Students Centre said the Mexican situation should be studied with care. In Mexico, there were negotiations and various sectors were working with society. A few years ago there had been an analysis of the legal system focusing on the elimination of racial discrimination. There had been a discussion with the Government, and local legislation had been improved, focusing on women and children.
Full respect for indigenous rights in Mexico was a demand that had not been met. The origin of the problem lay largely with the colonial structure of the Government. Indigenous people should be treated equally and given equal opportunities. Responsible solutions should be found. Mexican society had shown it was ready to have a dialogue. This was a fundamental point of progress.
FAN GUOXIANG, Subcommission Expert, said the members of the Subcommission were facing a serious challenge. It was asserted that ethnic conflicts represented the most outrageous violations of human rights and that every effort, including the use of force should be employed in order to counter inhuman violence by bigger, “humanitarian” violence. This was an irresponsible concept. Inter-ethnic issues were complicated and sensitive, and should be addressed prudently. A balance should be struck between the interests of the majority, the minority, and the nation as a whole. To stir up and use antagonistic elements among various ethnicities had been traditional tricks of colonialists and neo-colonialists to maintain their domination or to find pretexts for aggression.
The right to self-determination was a noble objective. Attention should be drawn to the pretensions of colonialist and neo-colonialist powers, which, while claiming to sustain the right to self-determination, had never been supporters of this right. An international norm against the violent repression of minorities that would take precedence over concerns of state Sovereignty was a clumsy pretext for support some arrogant leaders of big powers. Perpetrators of power politics did not hesitate to engage in aggressive activities under a humanitarian guise. The settlement of issues related to human rights, including rights of minorities, fell essentially within the jurisdiction of indivivdual States. The concern of the international community should be expressed through international cooperation. Confrontational measures should be discouraged and avoided. The threat or use of force could by no means resolve any human-rights problems, and only served to help the big powers bully smaller nations.
EL-HADJI GUISSE, Subcommission Expert, said there had been no conflicts as serious as the last world war. But as all the various lesser conflicts were looked at, one realized that the suffering and violence of the last world war had increased many times over. Valuable standards had been produced, but there was a lack of courage in implementing them.
The United Nations today had been rendered more fragile, and it was dominated by certain powers that used and abused its powers. The UN must promote universal respect for human rights. Its recommendations to States ought to be looked at more closely. Concern had been expressed about the already discriminatory practice of the application of standards.
The whole concept of democracy was at stake. Wanting to live within one’s own religious beliefs was a crime in some countries. The term human rights had been depreciated. In Sierra Leone, the authors of serious acts of violence must not escape trial and punishment. The violence in Sierra Leone was most serious, inhuman, and could not be forgotten. It was a question of whether a person wanted his arm cut off at the wrist or at the forearm.
ANDRESS PEREZ BERRIO, of the American Association of Jurists, said the permanent presence of a large number of soldiers often led to an increase in prostitution and alcoholism, as well as civilian deaths during brawls. The United States had continued to occupy the island of Vieques, in contradiction opposition to their international commitments. This had resulted in pollution of the air and water. In Peru, there was no rule of law. The fundamental human rights were not respected, and any opposition was brutally repressed, with torture routinely used. The Peruvian authorities should remedy the situation, and the international community should express its opinion.
Human-rights violations in Colombia were not declining. The serious problems of Colombia should be solved by Colombia’s own people with the help and support of the international community, within the context of internationaly recognized legal standards. The United States should not interfere in Colombia, whether under the pretext of humanitarian action or as a continental intervention, nor should it intrude in the affairs of other countries of the region.
PABLO VAZQUEZ RUIZ, of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America, said that on 22 December 1997, 45 members of the organization, mostly children and women, had been murdered in Mexico by a paramilitary group. No one had been arrested or convicted for committing this atrocity, and there were still soldiers present in the community. When people tried to buy coffee in a Mexican community a few months ago, a paramilitary group had threatened them and the authorities had done nothing to defend them.
Education had worsened: children could not go to school because they had been displaced. Many of the displaced persons had died because they had very poor housing. Everyone of them was fighting for justice, and often they were imprisoned when they asked for justice. Death threats were received. There were 10,500 displaced persons, and they had not be able to return to their homes because they feared for their safety.
VICTORIA MILLER of the Centre Europe – Tiers Monde and the Commission for Defence of Human Rights in Latin America, said the serious environmental pollution in Panama was a matter of concern. This pollution had spread during the occupation by the United States. There was concern over the
refusal of the United States to fulfil its commitment to leave the area clean and unpolluted. Since it was not its own national security that was at stake, the United States Government was not concerned about the pollution.
The Panamanian Government wished the United States Government to know that it did not free the United States Government of its responsibility to clean the polluted areas and to compensate the victims of that pollution. Areas with unexploded ammunition should be cleaned, and the population informed. International solidarity was needed to pressure the United States Government to fulfil its obligations and to clean up contaminated areas.
ANNA LENA SCHMIDT, of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said three months after the signature of the New York treaties of 5 May 1999 by Portugal and Indonesia on a peaceful solution to the East Timor conflict, a terrible balance could be made up -- each and every regulation of the treaties, valid under international law, had been violated by Indonesia again and again. The human-rights situation, which had been rather tense before, had not improved in any respect. On the contrary, the intimidation and terror campaign by pro-Indonesian militias supported by the Indonesian authorities and the army had created an atmosphere of violence which made a free and democratic plebiscite on the future of East Timor more than doubtful.
Because of intimidation, coercion, raids, pillaging, theft, abductions, rapes, arbitrary arrests and executions, the population was systematically frightened and terrorized. The militas' violence had caused the flight of up to 85,000 people, which had further aggravated the difficult humanitarian situation. More than two months after the arrival of the first UN representatives, the UN had had to look on without being able to intervene while tens of thousands of refugees in the west of East Timor were cut off from any humanitarian aid by roadblocks and arbitrary militia violence. The Secretary-General should mention in public the violation of neutrality by the Indonesian police and should take measures to send UN peacekeeping forces to East Timor immediately to prevent further bloodshed.
MARIO SAUCEDO PEREZ, of the International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education, said there was concern about increasing violations of human rights in Mexico. These abuses had led to instability and affected millions of Mexicans. Some 26 million lived in conditions of extreme poverty, and 10 million indigenous inhabitants suffered from discrimination and lack of financial support. There had been a substantial decrease in social programmes. Millions were denied their right to education, housing, and life itself. The cultural heritage of the nation had been placed at risk.
Reports by Non-governmental representatives had recounted instances of torture, threats, repression against national and foreign human-rights defenders, kidnappings, and forced disappearances. There was concern over the presence of the army across the country, due to the attendant human-rights violations. A Special Rapporteur should be appointed to investigate the plight of Mexico’s indigenous people.
ARIF MAHMOOD QURESHI, of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, said Pakistan called itself a democracy, but it was really a military State in a civilian disguise. According to the Pakistani media, the ruler was playing with statistics to downplay the number of minorities.
The international community should pressure Pakistan to grant the minorities their full rights.
ELENI PETROULA, of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said the organization wished to express concern over human-rights violations in Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, Mexico and Bahrain. These took place mostly under the form of the violation of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary detention, deportations, disappearances, and legislation restricting civil liberties.
The International Federation also was concerned about the existence and activities of unregulated militias.
MARGARITA GUTIERREZ, of Association Kunas Unidos por Nabguana, said the violence against indigenous people in Mexico, especially women and particularly in the militarized zone, affected the role of women and the entire community. Today in Mexico, women were working with men on equal footing to achieve equal rights. Last year, the Subcommission had adopted a resolution about the human-rights situation of indigenous peoples in Mexico. There had been many rapes of women, and considering that not all rapes were reported, the figures were alarming.
The Government argued that the military presence in the affected regions was to protect communities, but to protect them from what? They did not need the protection that brought rapes, torture and murders. The Association asked for a Subcommission resolution to force the Mexican Government to fulfil its obligations under international human-rights instruments. The land of Mexico did not need any more violence.
KAREN TALBOT, of the World Federation of Trade Unions, said the evolving situation in South Asia, notably the fighting between India and Pakistan, was grounds for concern. Pakistan today was facing a crisis of identity. It was unable to decide whether it was to belong to the club of democratic nations or whether it would be an Islamic theocracy. Members of minorities were legally relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Ethnic groups continued to be persecuted. There was a crisis of civil society. Obfuscation and falsehood had become a tenet of State policy.
Human rights in Pakistan, and increasingly in its neighbourhood, were hostage to the ethos and institutions fashioned by Pakistan’s leaders since the country’s independence. Pakistan should be encouraged to shed its current ethos and establish its identity as a responsible State. Then alone could it be deemed a worthy interlocutor with which to interact on issues relating to the welfare of its own peoples and of the world community.
KARMA LOBSANG, of International Union of Socialist Youth, said Tibet had experienced more than 40 years of unchecked human-rights abuses and the deaths of 1.2 million innocent Tibetans. Since the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to Tibet in 1994, the Chinese authorities had banned the public display of the Dalai Lama's photograph and had jailed 10-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet, at an undisclosed location. Beijing now wanted to transform Tibet into an atheist region and during the past two years 9,977 monks and nuns had been expelled for opposing China's patriotic re-education campaign at monasteries and nunneries.
The vast majority of the 135 arrests of Tibetans in 1998 were arbitrary; they had been imprisoned on ambiguous charges of "endangering state security", the new word for counter-revolutionary crimes. Incarcerated for exercising their basic rights, the prisoners were denied their rights while in detention. Twelve new cases of disappearance had been reported in Tibet in 1998 despite the concern expressed by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the emerging pattern of disappearances in Tibet.
ALEXANDRA AULA,- of Franciscans International and Dominicans for Justice and Peace, said the organization felt grave concern over the situation of human rights in Mexico. Violations continued while the Government continued to reassure the international community that all was well in the country. The situation for women was grave. Reports of the rape of indigenous women were still being received. The number of arbitrary executions in which the army had participated directly had increased.
Statistics provided by the Government had been manipulated, with human-rights violations such as torture and summary executions being recategorized as wounding and abuses of authority. There was an acceleration of militarization in the country which was also a matter of concern.
LAURA BACHMAN, of International Institute for Peace, said that on the eve of the next century, there appeared to be a trend in some countries to move away from domestic norms in the pursuit of power. The growth of fundamentalism, manifested in a perversion of the systems of education and in the institution of constitutional and legal norms that justified oppression and segregation, presented a threat not only to countries where such phenomena were occurring, but to the entire free world.
Professor Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a professor in a supposed seat of learning in Pakistan, said democracy was among the menaces the country had inherited. That statement reflected the environment in which Pakistan's future generations would grow to maturity and the kind of education being imparted in the thousands of religious schools that the rulers of Pakistan had allowed to flourish. Already the consequences were apparent Sectarian violence was rife, perpetrated by the graduates of the madrassas, with the minority Shia sect at the receiving end. Religious minorities were persecuted under legal and institutional structures set in place to perpetuate discrimination. The women of Pakistan remained in dread of the Talibanization of Pakistan, a distinct possibility when one remembered that the Taliban had emerged from the same breed of madrassas and had been fashioned by the same ideology articulated by the Harkat ul Mujahideen.
HR/SC/99/4
4 August 1999
The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights heard this morning from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alleging violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in Pakistan, Iran, Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Australia, the United States of America, Morocco, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, the Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, and Bahrain.
Speakers most often expressed concern about the state of human rights in Mexico, followed by criticism of the situation in Pakistan.
The remarks came as the Subcommission began its annual consideration of the “Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial discrimination and segregation, in all countries, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories” -- annually one of the panel’s most contentious agenda items, and the one that draws the most attention from NGOs.
Among the violations alleged in various countries were religious discrimination, ethnic discrimination, discrimination against indigenous peoples, genocide, rape both during peace and conflict, discriminatory provisions within legislation, limitations on freedoms of movement and expression, genocide, torture and forced disappearances. Several speakers decried the presence of armies in civilian situations, saying that often had a negative impact on human rights.
Representatives of NGOs addressing the situation in Mexico -- the subject of a Subcommission resolution last year -- said matters had not improved and complained variously of abuses committed against women, indigenous peoples, human-rights defenders, and the poor, and charged that the presence of armed forces in civilian communities there had not resulted in greater protection for citizens but in mounting violations of their rights.
NGO representatives commenting on the situation in Pakistan contended, among other things, that discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities was widespread and encouraged by domestic law, and that the country was on the verge of turning into a violent theocracy.
Experts addressing the Subcommission cautioned against the dangers of “humanitarian interventions”, saying they could be a pretext under which powerful nations could expand their influence and interfere in the affairs of other countries and of the United Nations.
The speakers were Subcommission Experts Fan Guoxiang and El-Hadji Guisse.
Representatives of the following NGOs delivered formal statements: Association for World Education; the Latin American Human Rights Association; the Association of World Citizens; the International Peace Bureau; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; the Indigenous World Association; the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; the Centre of Economic and Social Studies of the Third World (CHECK PLEASE); the American Association of Jurists; Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America; Centre Europe- Tiers Monde and the Commission for Defence of Human rights in Latin America; Society for Threatened Peoples; the International Organization for the Development of the Freedom of Education; Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization; the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues; Associacion Kunas Unidos por Nabguana; World Federation of Trade Unions; the International Union of Socialist Youth; Franciscans International and Dominicans for Justice and Peace; and the International Inst
itute for Peace.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue its discussion of human-rights violations anywhere in the world.
Statements
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, appealed to the Subcommission to adopt a firm resolution recalling its 1985rResolution; and also to the Government of Pakistan to repeal blasphemy legislation and to restore the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons in its jurisdiction. A mandatory death sentence for blasphemy as prescribed by Pakistani law was in total contradiction with international human rights instruments and should not exist in any State legislation.
There should be firm reactions by United Nations bodies whenever there was direct and public incitement to commit genocide as had occurred in Iran. At a time of change and public debate on the nature and aims of the State in Iran, the Association appealed to the Subcommission and to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to act before the Jewish community in Iran was transformed into a hostage community and a scapegoat. Justice should flow down from the Palais des Nations.
MARCELINO DIAZ DE JESUS, of the Latin American Human Rights Association, said the Subcommission last year adopted a resolution on human rights and fundamental freedoms in Mexico. A year had gone by, and unfortunately, the situation had not changed. There were serious violations of human rights. None of the problems had been solved. Measures had not been taken to combat discrimination. This increased the fears of certain portions of the population that there would never be justice.
Recently, there was public recognition of torture. According to the Mexican National Commission of Human Rights, torture had continued. Last year, it was announced that there would be a study on discrimination against indigenous women. The taking of hostages and rape of women in military camps went on constantly. There had also been sterilization of some men. The Association asked the Subcommission to adopt a resolution requesting Mexico to comply with international instruments on human rights.
RENE WADLOW, of the Association of World Citizens, said the banning by the Government of the People’s Republic of China of the spiritual movement Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa and the subsequent arrest of its leaders, massive destruction of its publications and audio-visual material, and the prohibition of assembly of its practitioners were direct violations of the spirit and provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief. The Subcommission should help the Government to gain a harmonious perspective and to restore the rights of the practitioners of this spiritual movement.
The banning was a qualitative change in the practice of the Government, and there was thus a danger that Government repression would become more widespread and arbitrary. The Government had a duty to avoid another ideological campaign which would violate international norms of freedom of belief and would also be socially damaging. The ban on Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa should be lifted.
S.J. EMMANUEL, of the International Peace Bureau, said conflicts in Sri Lanka could only be resolved through intervention by the international community. The civil war there had caused massive destruction and had displaced over 700,000. The Sri Lankan army had occupied a peaceful shrine and had chased worshippers away into the jungles, in some cases carrying out rape and murder. That had been reported just in the last week. The army recently closed all exits to the war zones. It deliberately, on 29 July, used 220,000 civilians as human shields, and yet this act had not been condemned by the democratic Government. Disappearances and mass graves had been discovered.
The Sri Lankan conflict had been going on for over 50 years, and war for over 16 years. Excavation of one of the mass graves had just begun after a year of international protest. Very often alleged perpetrators of serious human-rights violations had been promoted in the service. The International Peace Bureau asked the Subcommission to stop aiding the war efforts of the Sri Lankan Government.
LES MALEZER, of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, said Australia should reopen negotiations with the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to conform to their international commitments. Grave violations of the human rights of the aboriginals and Torres Islanders were being perpetrated by the Australian Government, which was limiting and impairing the rights of Aboriginals to own their own lands, as well as inciting racist behaviour in the Parliament and among the people of Australia. It had mis-portrayed the Aboriginal peoples deliberately, and had created an atmosphere of anxiety which had increased a feeling of uncertainty and xenophobia.
This was incompatible with Australia’s obligations under the Convention against Racial Discrimination. Australia should restart negotiations with the Aboriginals in order to find a solution to these problems, and should remove discriminatory provisions from national legislation. A resolution to this effect was requested from the Subcommission, and a Special Rapporteur should be appointed to monitor human-rights violations in Australia.
RONALD BARNES , of the Indigenous World Association, said independent tribes inhabiting an independent territory from Alaska should be granted independent status by the United States. There had been a discovery of documents prior to the 1867 Treaty of Cession, which clearly refuted Russian title and dominion to Alaska. The United States Congress in 1824 had discussed a set of diplomatic communications which gave the historical and legal reasons why Russia had not acquired absolute title to Alaska. Further, in these memoranda, the United States fully recognized that the indigenous peoples of Alaska were independent tribes inhabiting independent territory.
This series of confidential diplomatic memoranda from the United States to Russia was exchanged less than 50 years prior to the so-called 1867 Treaty of Cession. The revelation of this information was very significant since the indigenous peoples of Alaska were only a third party to the treaty. Therefore, the indigenous peoples of Alaska were not legally bound to admit to the treaty. Russia had had no right to sell Alaska to the United Staes since the absolute title was recognized to be in the dominion of the indigenous peoples of Alaska.
ABBA SALEK EL HAISSEN, of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the situation in the Western Sahara, occupied since 1975 by Morocco, remained alarming. During the long occupation, grave and flagrant human-rights violations had been committed by the occupying Moroccan forces, including arbitrary arrest, torture, forced disappearances, false trials, deportations and smothering of the freedom of speech and limitation of the right to move freely. There had been a relative improvement of human rights in Morocco, but violations were still ignored, notably in the case of disappearances of hundreds of Western Saharan men and women.
The Subcommission should oblige Morocco to end arbitrary arrests as well as forced disappearances and torture; to lift the state of siege in the occupied territories, to guarantee freedom of the press, and to allow free access to observers and NGOs. It should call on Morocco to respect the international human-rights conventions it had ratified and to cooperate with United Nations mechanisms and hold a referendum by which the people of the Western Sahara could express themselves and freely determine their future.
LAUR SALINAS BERISTAIN, of the Centro de Estudios Economicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo,the Third World Economic and Social Students Centre said the Mexican situation should be studied with care. In Mexico, there were negotiations and various sectors were working with society. A few years ago there had been an analysis of the legal system focusing on the elimination of racial discrimination. There had been a discussion with the Government, and local legislation had been improved, focusing on women and children.
Full respect for indigenous rights in Mexico was a demand that had not been met. The origin of the problem lay largely with the colonial structure of the Government. Indigenous people should be treated equally and given equal opportunities. Responsible solutions should be found. Mexican society had shown it was ready to have a dialogue. This was a fundamental point of progress.
FAN GUOXIANG, Subcommission Expert, said the members of the Subcommission were facing a serious challenge. It was asserted that ethnic conflicts represented the most outrageous violations of human rights and that every effort, including the use of force should be employed in order to counter inhuman violence by bigger, “humanitarian” violence. This was an irresponsible concept. Inter-ethnic issues were complicated and sensitive, and should be addressed prudently. A balance should be struck between the interests of the majority, the minority, and the nation as a whole. To stir up and use antagonistic elements among various ethnicities had been traditional tricks of colonialists and neo-colonialists to maintain their domination or to find pretexts for aggression.
The right to self-determination was a noble objective. Attention should be drawn to the pretensions of colonialist and neo-colonialist powers, which, while claiming to sustain the right to self-determination, had never been supporters of this right. An international norm against the violent repression of minorities that would take precedence over concerns of state Sovereignty was a clumsy pretext for support some arrogant leaders of big powers. Perpetrators of power politics did not hesitate to engage in aggressive activities under a humanitarian guise. The settlement of issues related to human rights, including rights of minorities, fell essentially within the jurisdiction of indivivdual States. The concern of the international community should be expressed through international cooperation. Confrontational measures should be discouraged and avoided. The threat or use of force could by no means resolve any human-rights problems, and only served to help the big powers bully smaller nations.
EL-HADJI GUISSE, Subcommission Expert, said there had been no conflicts as serious as the last world war. But as all the various lesser conflicts were looked at, one realized that the suffering and violence of the last world war had increased many times over. Valuable standards had been produced, but there was a lack of courage in implementing them.
The United Nations today had been rendered more fragile, and it was dominated by certain powers that used and abused its powers. The UN must promote universal respect for human rights. Its recommendations to States ought to be looked at more closely. Concern had been expressed about the already discriminatory practice of the application of standards.
The whole concept of democracy was at stake. Wanting to live within one’s own religious beliefs was a crime in some countries. The term human rights had been depreciated. In Sierra Leone, the authors of serious acts of violence must not escape trial and punishment. The violence in Sierra Leone was most serious, inhuman, and could not be forgotten. It was a question of whether a person wanted his arm cut off at the wrist or at the forearm.
ANDRESS PEREZ BERRIO, of the American Association of Jurists, said the permanent presence of a large number of soldiers often led to an increase in prostitution and alcoholism, as well as civilian deaths during brawls. The United States had continued to occupy the island of Vieques, in contradiction opposition to their international commitments. This had resulted in pollution of the air and water. In Peru, there was no rule of law. The fundamental human rights were not respected, and any opposition was brutally repressed, with torture routinely used. The Peruvian authorities should remedy the situation, and the international community should express its opinion.
Human-rights violations in Colombia were not declining. The serious problems of Colombia should be solved by Colombia’s own people with the help and support of the international community, within the context of internationaly recognized legal standards. The United States should not interfere in Colombia, whether under the pretext of humanitarian action or as a continental intervention, nor should it intrude in the affairs of other countries of the region.
PABLO VAZQUEZ RUIZ, of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America, said that on 22 December 1997, 45 members of the organization, mostly children and women, had been murdered in Mexico by a paramilitary group. No one had been arrested or convicted for committing this atrocity, and there were still soldiers present in the community. When people tried to buy coffee in a Mexican community a few months ago, a paramilitary group had threatened them and the authorities had done nothing to defend them.
Education had worsened: children could not go to school because they had been displaced. Many of the displaced persons had died because they had very poor housing. Everyone of them was fighting for justice, and often they were imprisoned when they asked for justice. Death threats were received. There were 10,500 displaced persons, and they had not be able to return to their homes because they feared for their safety.
VICTORIA MILLER of the Centre Europe – Tiers Monde and the Commission for Defence of Human Rights in Latin America, said the serious environmental pollution in Panama was a matter of concern. This pollution had spread during the occupation by the United States. There was concern over the
refusal of the United States to fulfil its commitment to leave the area clean and unpolluted. Since it was not its own national security that was at stake, the United States Government was not concerned about the pollution.
The Panamanian Government wished the United States Government to know that it did not free the United States Government of its responsibility to clean the polluted areas and to compensate the victims of that pollution. Areas with unexploded ammunition should be cleaned, and the population informed. International solidarity was needed to pressure the United States Government to fulfil its obligations and to clean up contaminated areas.
ANNA LENA SCHMIDT, of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said three months after the signature of the New York treaties of 5 May 1999 by Portugal and Indonesia on a peaceful solution to the East Timor conflict, a terrible balance could be made up -- each and every regulation of the treaties, valid under international law, had been violated by Indonesia again and again. The human-rights situation, which had been rather tense before, had not improved in any respect. On the contrary, the intimidation and terror campaign by pro-Indonesian militias supported by the Indonesian authorities and the army had created an atmosphere of violence which made a free and democratic plebiscite on the future of East Timor more than doubtful.
Because of intimidation, coercion, raids, pillaging, theft, abductions, rapes, arbitrary arrests and executions, the population was systematically frightened and terrorized. The militas' violence had caused the flight of up to 85,000 people, which had further aggravated the difficult humanitarian situation. More than two months after the arrival of the first UN representatives, the UN had had to look on without being able to intervene while tens of thousands of refugees in the west of East Timor were cut off from any humanitarian aid by roadblocks and arbitrary militia violence. The Secretary-General should mention in public the violation of neutrality by the Indonesian police and should take measures to send UN peacekeeping forces to East Timor immediately to prevent further bloodshed.
MARIO SAUCEDO PEREZ, of the International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education, said there was concern about increasing violations of human rights in Mexico. These abuses had led to instability and affected millions of Mexicans. Some 26 million lived in conditions of extreme poverty, and 10 million indigenous inhabitants suffered from discrimination and lack of financial support. There had been a substantial decrease in social programmes. Millions were denied their right to education, housing, and life itself. The cultural heritage of the nation had been placed at risk.
Reports by Non-governmental representatives had recounted instances of torture, threats, repression against national and foreign human-rights defenders, kidnappings, and forced disappearances. There was concern over the presence of the army across the country, due to the attendant human-rights violations. A Special Rapporteur should be appointed to investigate the plight of Mexico’s indigenous people.
ARIF MAHMOOD QURESHI, of the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, said Pakistan called itself a democracy, but it was really a military State in a civilian disguise. According to the Pakistani media, the ruler was playing with statistics to downplay the number of minorities.
The international community should pressure Pakistan to grant the minorities their full rights.
ELENI PETROULA, of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said the organization wished to express concern over human-rights violations in Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, Mexico and Bahrain. These took place mostly under the form of the violation of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary detention, deportations, disappearances, and legislation restricting civil liberties.
The International Federation also was concerned about the existence and activities of unregulated militias.
MARGARITA GUTIERREZ, of Association Kunas Unidos por Nabguana, said the violence against indigenous people in Mexico, especially women and particularly in the militarized zone, affected the role of women and the entire community. Today in Mexico, women were working with men on equal footing to achieve equal rights. Last year, the Subcommission had adopted a resolution about the human-rights situation of indigenous peoples in Mexico. There had been many rapes of women, and considering that not all rapes were reported, the figures were alarming.
The Government argued that the military presence in the affected regions was to protect communities, but to protect them from what? They did not need the protection that brought rapes, torture and murders. The Association asked for a Subcommission resolution to force the Mexican Government to fulfil its obligations under international human-rights instruments. The land of Mexico did not need any more violence.
KAREN TALBOT, of the World Federation of Trade Unions, said the evolving situation in South Asia, notably the fighting between India and Pakistan, was grounds for concern. Pakistan today was facing a crisis of identity. It was unable to decide whether it was to belong to the club of democratic nations or whether it would be an Islamic theocracy. Members of minorities were legally relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Ethnic groups continued to be persecuted. There was a crisis of civil society. Obfuscation and falsehood had become a tenet of State policy.
Human rights in Pakistan, and increasingly in its neighbourhood, were hostage to the ethos and institutions fashioned by Pakistan’s leaders since the country’s independence. Pakistan should be encouraged to shed its current ethos and establish its identity as a responsible State. Then alone could it be deemed a worthy interlocutor with which to interact on issues relating to the welfare of its own peoples and of the world community.
KARMA LOBSANG, of International Union of Socialist Youth, said Tibet had experienced more than 40 years of unchecked human-rights abuses and the deaths of 1.2 million innocent Tibetans. Since the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to Tibet in 1994, the Chinese authorities had banned the public display of the Dalai Lama's photograph and had jailed 10-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet, at an undisclosed location. Beijing now wanted to transform Tibet into an atheist region and during the past two years 9,977 monks and nuns had been expelled for opposing China's patriotic re-education campaign at monasteries and nunneries.
The vast majority of the 135 arrests of Tibetans in 1998 were arbitrary; they had been imprisoned on ambiguous charges of "endangering state security", the new word for counter-revolutionary crimes. Incarcerated for exercising their basic rights, the prisoners were denied their rights while in detention. Twelve new cases of disappearance had been reported in Tibet in 1998 despite the concern expressed by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the emerging pattern of disappearances in Tibet.
ALEXANDRA AULA,- of Franciscans International and Dominicans for Justice and Peace, said the organization felt grave concern over the situation of human rights in Mexico. Violations continued while the Government continued to reassure the international community that all was well in the country. The situation for women was grave. Reports of the rape of indigenous women were still being received. The number of arbitrary executions in which the army had participated directly had increased.
Statistics provided by the Government had been manipulated, with human-rights violations such as torture and summary executions being recategorized as wounding and abuses of authority. There was an acceleration of militarization in the country which was also a matter of concern.
LAURA BACHMAN, of International Institute for Peace, said that on the eve of the next century, there appeared to be a trend in some countries to move away from domestic norms in the pursuit of power. The growth of fundamentalism, manifested in a perversion of the systems of education and in the institution of constitutional and legal norms that justified oppression and segregation, presented a threat not only to countries where such phenomena were occurring, but to the entire free world.
Professor Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a professor in a supposed seat of learning in Pakistan, said democracy was among the menaces the country had inherited. That statement reflected the environment in which Pakistan's future generations would grow to maturity and the kind of education being imparted in the thousands of religious schools that the rulers of Pakistan had allowed to flourish. Already the consequences were apparent Sectarian violence was rife, perpetrated by the graduates of the madrassas, with the minority Shia sect at the receiving end. Religious minorities were persecuted under legal and institutional structures set in place to perpetuate discrimination. The women of Pakistan remained in dread of the Talibanization of Pakistan, a distinct possibility when one remembered that the Taliban had emerged from the same breed of madrassas and had been fashioned by the same ideology articulated by the Harkat ul Mujahideen.
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