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Commission on Human Rights
59th session
18 March 2003




Statement by Anders B. Johnsson
Secretary General, Inter-Parliamentary Union
to the High-Level segment




Madam President,
Mr. High Commissioner,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to take the floor today on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Let me start, Madam President, by congratulating you upon your election to the Presidency of this august Commission. I look forward to working with you and your colleagues on the Bureau during this coming year in our joint endeavour of forging a parliamentary dimension to the Commission on Human Rights.

Likewise, Mr. Vieira de Mello, let me congratulate you upon your election as High Commissioner for Human Rights, wish you all the best in fulfilling your mandate and assure that the IPU will do what it can to assist you.

Madam President,

As this year's Commission opens its session, the world is embroiled in crisis. The international political situation is fraught with real danger, which obliges us to pause and reflect.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union is founded on core values that relate to the dignity of the individual, respect for others and the need to solve differences through dialogue. The IPU was born at a time when no international political institutions existed. It was set up precisely to assist in creating a world in which States would solve their differences through political dialogue, not war.

I cannot claim that the early protagonists of the peace movement achieved their ambitions. Indeed, if they had, the previous century would not have witnessed the appalling convulsions that it did. Undaunted, the IPU has pleaded throughout its long history for respect for the rule of law, both on the domestic front and in the relationship between States. It played a part in the development of international law, and accompanied the establishment of the United Nations System.

It is worth recalling these basic facts at a time when the system for multilateral cooperation is under severe stress. In the view of the IPU, the ideals of yesteryear are as valid today as they have always been. The United Nations is needed more than ever before and it must remain the cornerstone of strong and effective global cooperation.

Madam President,

The IPU has a specific mission to promote democracy, which it views as essential to building a peaceful world. We have therefore devoted considerable time and resources over recent years to inculcating a better understanding of the meaning of democracy and to helping foster it at the national level through practical programmes and activities, including technical assistance and institution building.

By the same token, in 1997 the IPU developed and adopted a Universal Declaration on Democracy which has guided much of our action for the last five years. For the IPU, democracy is a universally recognised ideal based on values shared by people throughout the world irrespective of cultural, political, social and economic differences. It is a goal that links all humanity. Moreover, it is a system of government that is applied in differing ways, reflecting the diversity of experiences.

According to the IPU, any democracy worthy of the name must aim to protect the dignity and fundamental rights of the individual. It must seek to bring about social justice, nurture the economic and social welfare of the community and invigorate the fabric of society.

For the IPU, the legislative branch of government holds the key to the institution of democracy. Parliament has crucial functions in law-making and overseeing government. It is the sovereign institution by which a country can ensure government by the people and for the people. By playing its representational role efficiently, parliaments make sure that the voices of all the society are heard and their interests adequately articulated.

I have underscored this aspect of our work, Madam President, because I am convinced that the IPU can make a particular contribution to this Commission on the subject of democracy, which is on your agenda.

Let me add that the IPU places specific emphasis on the role of women in democracies. Indeed, the IPU maintains that in a democracy there is a need for equality and partnership between men and women. This means that women must play a much more active role in political and public life. Currently, less than fifteen percent of the seats in the world's parliaments are occupied by women - a shockingly low figure.

The IPU is striving to change this wholly unacceptable state of affairs by developing action programmes and running seminars and technical assistance projects at the field level. It has also approved rules to ensure the presence of women parliamentarians at its own meetings.

I would now like to turn to the specific role that parliaments can and do play in regard to human rights. Parliament is in fact the State institution that lies at the very heart of human rights. It embodies the fundamental human right of every people to determine their fate and to take part in the management of the public affairs of the nation.

It is in parliaments that the diverging interests of a nation compete and are, or should be, channelled towards the single objective of ensuring the common good. As activities of parliaments cover the entire spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, their decisions inevitably affect the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Parliaments are uniquely well placed to promote and protect human rights. The human rights norms which your Commission elaborates and which are later signed by Governments as treaties, can only become a reality at the national level if parliaments ratify those treaties and transpose their provisions adequately into domestic law. Likewise, recommendations made by treaty bodies or under your special procedures very often require parliamentary debate and action.

In carrying out their function of overseeing the action of the Executive branch, parliaments and their members monitor respect for human rights and curb abuses. As the authority which adopts the national budget, parliaments steer funds towards sectors of primary impact for the enjoyment of human rights. Last but not least, members of parliament everywhere are opinion leaders who can do much to instil public awareness within society, who can do much to ensure that it is imbued with the values underpinning democracy and human rights.

Parliament is therefore a natural partner for the United Nations in its work in the area of democracy and human rights, and in particular for your Commission as the pre-eminent United Nations body in this field.

I believe that this principle is fully acknowledged by the United Nations, by this Commission and by governments at the highest level. In 1999, the IPU and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights signed a memorandum of understanding. The following year the Heads of State and government adopted a Millennium Declaration in which they called for strengthened cooperation between the UN and national parliaments. They further specified that this cooperation should take place through the IPU, inter alia in relation to issues of human rights and democracy.

However, the ability of the IPU to give full meaning to the Millennium Declaration was limited by its former status as an organisation with consultative status with ECOSOC. As you know, this situation has now changed, as the Inter-Parliamentary Union was granted permanent observer status by the United Nations General Assembly in November last year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those governments which took an active and supportive part in making this change a reality.

At a meeting which took place in Geneva less than a month ago, the newly elected President of the IPU governing Council, Senator Páez Verdugo of Chile and the members of the IPU Executive Committee called for the development of a work programme through which the IPU could provide what has come to be referred to as a parliamentary dimension to international cooperation.

On President Páez' behalf, I would like to invite members of this Commission to reflect on the core issues that - in your view - would benefit from priority attention by our organisation. The aim should be to identify issues on which national parliaments, working through the IPU, could make a measurable contribution to your Commission.

Let me state here that the IPU already has a fairly extensive programme to support and defend human rights. A significant part of it concentrates on the need to defend the human rights of members of parliament. In far too many countries, governments still fear the freedom of expression that is meant to prevail in the debating chamber and members of parliament, particularly those who belong to the opposition, run serious risks in expressing themselves freely.

This is a subject that preoccupies the IPU. Twenty-five years ago it set up a mechanism for the protection of the human rights of parliamentarians. This body instituted its own procedures, part public, part confidential, to hear cases of violations. It is currently seized of the full gamut of abuses, from unwarranted interference with parliamentary prerogatives to outright murder of MPs. Its record is a solid one - I think it can proudly claim to have assisted in a great many instances in upholding the right to freedom of speech and opinion and to have made it possible for parliamentarians and their institution to represent better the people who have elected them to defend their rights.

We have also taken various steps to promote the work of parliaments in the field of human rights. We are currently holding talks with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to determine activities we can undertake to assist the High Commissioner in shoring up worldwide respect for human rights. As part of that effort, we are working together to develop a parliamentary handbook on human rights. We are also looking at ways to assist parliamentary human rights committees and similar bodies in upgrading their knowledge of the international human rights machinery and in making their work more effective.

This will certainly involve organising parliamentary meetings here in Geneva, as we did for the first time at last year's Commission on Human Rights. However, it will also involve taking these activities to the national level which, at the end of the day, is where you Mr. High Commissioner and we in the IPU would hope to make a tangible contribution to the improvement in human rights.

Madam President, I would like to conclude by expressing the wish that, in the coming months and years, this Commission and the Inter-Parliamentary Union can together develop a full programme of cooperation.

Thank you.