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24 April 1998
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Fifty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
16 March - 24 April 1998
CLOSING STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR JACOB SELEBI,
CHAIRMAN OF THE 54TH SESSION OF THE
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Distinguished delegates,
Six weeks ago, I posed a challenge to all of us: to make a difference to the promotion and protection of human rights. Since we are almost at the end of the session, I should like to give a preliminary answer to that question. I say preliminary because many of the initiatives launched this year will only be realized in the future.
Distinguished delegates,
It is customary for the Chairman at the end of the session to provide you with statistics of the session. This year, the Commission adopted 83 resolutions, 61 by consensus, 18 by roll-call vote and 4 by show of hands. We adopted 13 decisions, 11 by consensus and 2 by roll-call vote. 75% of resolutions and decisions were adopted by consensus.
The total number of meetings was 60 and we had 11 additional meetings. The total time used was 165 hours and 30 minutes. I am pleased to report that the total time lost to late starting was only 1 hour 38 minutes.
This year, 3 118 participants attended the session, a dramatic increase from 1997 when 2 341 participants attended. The number of delegations remained constant at 387.
In total, 444 documents were issued, amounting to over 4 800 pages in English (I wonder how many of these were actually read).
The number of guest speakers this year rose to 70, from 37 last year.
Distinguished delegates,
It has been my great honour and privilege to chair this session, a session that has coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In sum, I believe this session has shown that human rights are important, that we believe in the concept of universality and that none of use is perfect. It is my firm belief that we have made a difference for the following reasons:
- the adoption, after 13 years of negotiations, of a Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,
- greater emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights, inter alia, by creating new mechanisms to focus on the rights to education, the right to development and extreme poverty,
- the holding of an interactive dialogue on human rights of women (I hope this format will become a permanent feature of the Commission, with a theme chosen each year by the Bureau in consultation with the members of the Commission),
- the creation of an open-ended working group to meet during the next session, to make proposals to the Preparatory Commission of the World Conference against Racism,
- cooperation between states and between states and ngos has increased while conflict and open hostility has decreased, (even though we have made some progress, I believe that, during the intersessional period, further attention needs to be paid to this aspect),
- a restructured agenda with special provision for annual review,
- the creation of a body to undertake and facilitate a review of the mechanisms of the Commission and report to the 55th session.
Distinguished delegates,
In so far as we can record some progress, I believe we should also note those areas that remain unfulfilled. Foremost amongst these is that even while we celebrate the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, human rights defenders continue to be persecuted and some have even lost their lives. The adoption of the Declaration, important as it may be, should not let us forget that the issue needs to remain under the scrutiny of the international community. Earlier this week, the Commission observed a minute's silence following the killing of a Colombian human rights lawyer, someone who had previously attended sessions of the Commission. I would urge all parties to ensure that the principles contained in the Declaration are honoured by all and that no one who attended this session need fear persecution when he or she returns home.
Secondly, it seems to me that an element of ritual has set in with some issues; that resolutions, and our approaches to them, cannot change lest they "send the wrong message". We must become more flexible in our approaches. In the same vein, countries must resist the temptation of bringing bilateral disputes into the Commission, thus further, unnecessarily, politicising the work of the Commission.
I believe that one of the hindrance to the promotion and protection of human rights is the group system. Having watched this session from the podium, it occurs to me that group solidarity often comes at the expense of promotion and protection. It is almost as if the question of solidarity is more important than solidarity in defence of human rights. I am not singling out any particular group because I am of the view that this phenomenon is
emblematic to all the groups. One possible solution, for instance, may be for the Holy See to take the lead by transcending group solidarity, in much the same way that the Holy Father has foraged into human rights situations in Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Thirdly, inadequate resources continue to plague the Office of the High Commissioner. While we have been able to take some small steps to address this problem, much remains to be done. I think it is timeous and appropriate for the Commission to make an appeal to the General Assembly for additional resources commensurate with the demands placed upon the High Commissioner's Office. At the same time, we should continue to make up the shortfall in regular budget resources from voluntary contributions, especially for voluntary funds such as racism and torture.
Fourthly, the Commission continues to struggle with the concepts of non-state party actors and terrorism and their relationship to human rights. Clearly, this is an area that the Commission shall have to address in the coming years, also in relation to the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Finally, the voluminous reports of special rapporteurs suggest that serious violations in all parts of the world continue to occur, and that some countries do not extend to rapporteurs the necessary cooperation to enable them to discharge their functions. We can never congratulate ourselves while these violations occur. We must try to encourage measurable progress at the national level. Nothing illustrates this point more that the following incident, which I should like to share with you:
Over the past six weeks, scores of states, groups and individuals have come to see me. Some three weeks ago, a young man came to my office. He lives in Geneva now because the country in which he was born has arbitrarily deprived him of his nationality. Unfortunately for him, this particular country is not in the media spotlight. This young man told me that his case is one of a thousand similar ones. For him, alas, our Commission has made no difference and his life has not improved at all. He still can not go back to the country where he was born and where he grew up.
Distinguished delegates,
For the first time this year, I realise how many individuals contribute towards the running of the Commission.
Firstly, I should like to thank my colleagues in the Bureau: Ambassador Iftekhar Chowdhury of Bangladesh, Ambassador Luis Gallegos Chiriboga of Ecuador, Mr. Ross Hynes of Canada, and Mr. Roman Kuzniar of Poland. To a very great extent, the success of the 54th session is due in no small measure to their individual capabilities but also to the cordial relations that characterised Bureau meetings. I am very grateful to them and look forward to our inter-sessional work.
Secondly, given the very high number of delegates attending the session, as well as the new procedures relating to security, the Secretariat was called upon to play an enhanced role, and to do so with less human resources. I should like to thank all members of the Secretariat of the Commission, from the Secretary, Ms. Helga Klein-Bidmon and her colleagues, Mrs. maria-Francisca Ize-Charrin and Mr. Guennadi Lebakine to the many colleagues in the "back- room" who have worked tirelessly to prepare resolutions and documents. The security staff, the precis writers and the translators also deserves our thanks.
Mary Robinson and Enrique ter Horst were a source of great inspiration to all of us and I wish to record my appreciation to them and to wish them well in their future endeavours.
Finally, my thanks go to you, distinguished delegates, for the constructive manner in which you have participated. I said at the outset that I wanted a calm and serious session and I think, for the most part, that this has been achieved. I realized that the price for this has sometimes been high: delegates, after the first few days, stopped wearing distinct colours for fear of being "called to order", the walls of room 18 started to lean forward because delegates could not prop them up and while we clustered agenda items, we did not allow clusters of-people to congregate in the room.
Distinguished delegates,
I'm sure you've all heard enough statements, so I don't want to prolong this one. It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights closed.
16 March - 24 April 1998
CLOSING STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR JACOB SELEBI,
CHAIRMAN OF THE 54TH SESSION OF THE
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Distinguished delegates,
Six weeks ago, I posed a challenge to all of us: to make a difference to the promotion and protection of human rights. Since we are almost at the end of the session, I should like to give a preliminary answer to that question. I say preliminary because many of the initiatives launched this year will only be realized in the future.
Distinguished delegates,
It is customary for the Chairman at the end of the session to provide you with statistics of the session. This year, the Commission adopted 83 resolutions, 61 by consensus, 18 by roll-call vote and 4 by show of hands. We adopted 13 decisions, 11 by consensus and 2 by roll-call vote. 75% of resolutions and decisions were adopted by consensus.
The total number of meetings was 60 and we had 11 additional meetings. The total time used was 165 hours and 30 minutes. I am pleased to report that the total time lost to late starting was only 1 hour 38 minutes.
This year, 3 118 participants attended the session, a dramatic increase from 1997 when 2 341 participants attended. The number of delegations remained constant at 387.
In total, 444 documents were issued, amounting to over 4 800 pages in English (I wonder how many of these were actually read).
The number of guest speakers this year rose to 70, from 37 last year.
Distinguished delegates,
It has been my great honour and privilege to chair this session, a session that has coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In sum, I believe this session has shown that human rights are important, that we believe in the concept of universality and that none of use is perfect. It is my firm belief that we have made a difference for the following reasons:
- the adoption, after 13 years of negotiations, of a Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,
- greater emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights, inter alia, by creating new mechanisms to focus on the rights to education, the right to development and extreme poverty,
- the holding of an interactive dialogue on human rights of women (I hope this format will become a permanent feature of the Commission, with a theme chosen each year by the Bureau in consultation with the members of the Commission),
- the creation of an open-ended working group to meet during the next session, to make proposals to the Preparatory Commission of the World Conference against Racism,
- cooperation between states and between states and ngos has increased while conflict and open hostility has decreased, (even though we have made some progress, I believe that, during the intersessional period, further attention needs to be paid to this aspect),
- a restructured agenda with special provision for annual review,
- the creation of a body to undertake and facilitate a review of the mechanisms of the Commission and report to the 55th session.
Distinguished delegates,
In so far as we can record some progress, I believe we should also note those areas that remain unfulfilled. Foremost amongst these is that even while we celebrate the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, human rights defenders continue to be persecuted and some have even lost their lives. The adoption of the Declaration, important as it may be, should not let us forget that the issue needs to remain under the scrutiny of the international community. Earlier this week, the Commission observed a minute's silence following the killing of a Colombian human rights lawyer, someone who had previously attended sessions of the Commission. I would urge all parties to ensure that the principles contained in the Declaration are honoured by all and that no one who attended this session need fear persecution when he or she returns home.
Secondly, it seems to me that an element of ritual has set in with some issues; that resolutions, and our approaches to them, cannot change lest they "send the wrong message". We must become more flexible in our approaches. In the same vein, countries must resist the temptation of bringing bilateral disputes into the Commission, thus further, unnecessarily, politicising the work of the Commission.
I believe that one of the hindrance to the promotion and protection of human rights is the group system. Having watched this session from the podium, it occurs to me that group solidarity often comes at the expense of promotion and protection. It is almost as if the question of solidarity is more important than solidarity in defence of human rights. I am not singling out any particular group because I am of the view that this phenomenon is
emblematic to all the groups. One possible solution, for instance, may be for the Holy See to take the lead by transcending group solidarity, in much the same way that the Holy Father has foraged into human rights situations in Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Thirdly, inadequate resources continue to plague the Office of the High Commissioner. While we have been able to take some small steps to address this problem, much remains to be done. I think it is timeous and appropriate for the Commission to make an appeal to the General Assembly for additional resources commensurate with the demands placed upon the High Commissioner's Office. At the same time, we should continue to make up the shortfall in regular budget resources from voluntary contributions, especially for voluntary funds such as racism and torture.
Fourthly, the Commission continues to struggle with the concepts of non-state party actors and terrorism and their relationship to human rights. Clearly, this is an area that the Commission shall have to address in the coming years, also in relation to the establishment of the International Criminal Court.
Finally, the voluminous reports of special rapporteurs suggest that serious violations in all parts of the world continue to occur, and that some countries do not extend to rapporteurs the necessary cooperation to enable them to discharge their functions. We can never congratulate ourselves while these violations occur. We must try to encourage measurable progress at the national level. Nothing illustrates this point more that the following incident, which I should like to share with you:
Over the past six weeks, scores of states, groups and individuals have come to see me. Some three weeks ago, a young man came to my office. He lives in Geneva now because the country in which he was born has arbitrarily deprived him of his nationality. Unfortunately for him, this particular country is not in the media spotlight. This young man told me that his case is one of a thousand similar ones. For him, alas, our Commission has made no difference and his life has not improved at all. He still can not go back to the country where he was born and where he grew up.
Distinguished delegates,
For the first time this year, I realise how many individuals contribute towards the running of the Commission.
Firstly, I should like to thank my colleagues in the Bureau: Ambassador Iftekhar Chowdhury of Bangladesh, Ambassador Luis Gallegos Chiriboga of Ecuador, Mr. Ross Hynes of Canada, and Mr. Roman Kuzniar of Poland. To a very great extent, the success of the 54th session is due in no small measure to their individual capabilities but also to the cordial relations that characterised Bureau meetings. I am very grateful to them and look forward to our inter-sessional work.
Secondly, given the very high number of delegates attending the session, as well as the new procedures relating to security, the Secretariat was called upon to play an enhanced role, and to do so with less human resources. I should like to thank all members of the Secretariat of the Commission, from the Secretary, Ms. Helga Klein-Bidmon and her colleagues, Mrs. maria-Francisca Ize-Charrin and Mr. Guennadi Lebakine to the many colleagues in the "back- room" who have worked tirelessly to prepare resolutions and documents. The security staff, the precis writers and the translators also deserves our thanks.
Mary Robinson and Enrique ter Horst were a source of great inspiration to all of us and I wish to record my appreciation to them and to wish them well in their future endeavours.
Finally, my thanks go to you, distinguished delegates, for the constructive manner in which you have participated. I said at the outset that I wanted a calm and serious session and I think, for the most part, that this has been achieved. I realized that the price for this has sometimes been high: delegates, after the first few days, stopped wearing distinct colours for fear of being "called to order", the walls of room 18 started to lean forward because delegates could not prop them up and while we clustered agenda items, we did not allow clusters of-people to congregate in the room.
Distinguished delegates,
I'm sure you've all heard enough statements, so I don't want to prolong this one. It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights closed.