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16 March 1998
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Fifty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
16 March - 24 April 1998
OPENING STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR JACOB SELEBI,
CHAIRMAN OF THE 54th SESSION OF
THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr Secretary-General, Madam High Commissioner, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great privilege and honour for my country, and me personally, to have been elected Chairman of the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights. I should like to thank the African Group for nominating me and the members of the Commission for the support and confidence expressed in electing me Chairman. In particular, I should like to thank the representatives of ... for the kind words addressed to me.
Ambassador Somol, my immediate predecessor, deserves our special thanks for his enthusiasm and indefatigable spirit, not only during the past session but also over the intervening period.
Distinguished delegates,
By electing a South African to this most important of international human rights bodies, the Commission is sending a very important and symbolic message. No country or situation before or since has captured the attention of the Commission in the way that apartheid South Africa did. Over several decades, the Commission adopted scores of resolution condemning apartheid. It created several mechanisms to investigate the massive and systematic violations perpetrated in South Africa under the pernicious system of racial discrimination and the flagrant abuses of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. In 1995, the Commission was finally able to remove the question of apartheid from its agenda, in recognition of the developments that had taken place in South Africa during the previous year.
Today, it is very different South Africa that is able to participate in the UN. We are a country and people that cherish our hard-won liberties and we are rightly proud of our new Constitution, our national institutions designed to strengthen, promote and protect human rights, and our vibrant civil society. In saying these things, I am not trying to suggest that we have a perfect human rights record: we do not. The stresses and strains placed upon our society by decades of humiliation and human rights abuses cannot be expunged overnight. Like other societies, we are coming to terms with our past and struggling to create our future.
Distinguished delegates,
This year, our deliberations coincide with the 50th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the coming weeks, we shall have many occasions to speak to the importance of this instrument. At this stage, I should like to share with you my vision of how the Commission should honour this event.
I can think of no better way for the Commission to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration than for us to express our support for those who devote themselves to defending the ideals enshrined in this document. This brings me to the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which was adopted by the Working Group, by consensus, earlier this month. The importance of this instrument has been recorded over many previous sessions of the Commission. I am very grateful to the excellent work done by the Chairman of the Working Group, Professor Jan Helgesen and his two predecessors. The fruits of the Working Group underline the importance of dialogue and the need for co- operation, both between states and between states and ngos.
Distinguished delegates,
Over the past 51 years of its existence, the Commission has built an impressive history of achievements in the field of standard- setting and monitoring human rights. From the ashes of the Second World War, the Commission has been able to articulate a set of shared values dealing with human rights and fundamental freedoms. While these noble standards and principles are aspirational, they have contributed to the fact that, at no other time in history, have so many people lived under democracy and freedom. This is no small achievement.
And yet, who amongst us can be content when untold horrors are being committed throughout the world. Wars, conflict, ethnic strife, abuses and poverty rob men and women of their dignity and worth, whether they are a refugee fleeing conflict, or an unemployed labourer whose children work when they should be at school, or a migrant who is arbitrarily detained, or a person who on account of his colour is marginalised or a child who dies of malaria. There is much work still ahead of us.
Distinguished delegates,
The Commission has played and should continue to play an important role in the promotion and protection of human rights. But to continue to do so, it must, at all times, be relevant and credible and it must take an integrated and co- operative approach. I am therefore proposing to you, members of the Commission, that we bring our agenda into line with the world in which we live. Over the past few years, several attempts have been made towards reforming the agenda, including an important proposal two years ago by my predecessor, Ambassador Saboia of Brazil. I believe that we should use the occasion of this important year to consider how best to implement the proposals.
Secondly, important developments over the past few years suggest that the mechanisms of the Commission are not working as they should. The Secretary- General himself recognised this when, in his far-ranging proposals of 16 July 1997, he requested the High Commissioner to undertake a review of the mechanisms. Some states are clearly not respecting the mechanisms of the Commission but, at the same time, certain of the mechanisms are not earning respect. We have an opportunity to do something about this. Not to make the mandates weaker, as some fear, or more meddling, as others want, but to make them more effective and enhance their relevance. What I am proposing is a review of all the mechanisms, from the Sub-Commission to the working groups to the special procedures, that would be undertaken by two members of the bureau, working in concert with the High Commissioner, who would report to the 55th session. I am suggesting that these two vice-chairmen would make recommendations or proposals to the next session based upon their consultations with states, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and ngos.
Distinguished delegates,
My last plea to you is this: we, collectively, can make the Commission a more relevant and effective body for the promotion and protection of human rights so that dignity can be enhanced and all freedoms fostered. I sincerely believe that we can best do so in a climate of seriousness and calm. I therefore appeal to all delegates, member states and observers, not to use this forum to advance political agendas and engender confrontation, which belong elsewhere, but to promote a genuine spirit of co-operation towards the realisation of all human rights.
In closing, I should like to set a challenge to all of us: when our work concludes in six week's time, we should be able to ask ourselves "Did we make a difference?" "Has someone's life been improved because of what we did over the past six weeks in Geneva?" That should be our yardstick.
I thank you
16 March - 24 April 1998
OPENING STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR JACOB SELEBI,
CHAIRMAN OF THE 54th SESSION OF
THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr Secretary-General, Madam High Commissioner, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great privilege and honour for my country, and me personally, to have been elected Chairman of the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights. I should like to thank the African Group for nominating me and the members of the Commission for the support and confidence expressed in electing me Chairman. In particular, I should like to thank the representatives of ... for the kind words addressed to me.
Ambassador Somol, my immediate predecessor, deserves our special thanks for his enthusiasm and indefatigable spirit, not only during the past session but also over the intervening period.
Distinguished delegates,
By electing a South African to this most important of international human rights bodies, the Commission is sending a very important and symbolic message. No country or situation before or since has captured the attention of the Commission in the way that apartheid South Africa did. Over several decades, the Commission adopted scores of resolution condemning apartheid. It created several mechanisms to investigate the massive and systematic violations perpetrated in South Africa under the pernicious system of racial discrimination and the flagrant abuses of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. In 1995, the Commission was finally able to remove the question of apartheid from its agenda, in recognition of the developments that had taken place in South Africa during the previous year.
Today, it is very different South Africa that is able to participate in the UN. We are a country and people that cherish our hard-won liberties and we are rightly proud of our new Constitution, our national institutions designed to strengthen, promote and protect human rights, and our vibrant civil society. In saying these things, I am not trying to suggest that we have a perfect human rights record: we do not. The stresses and strains placed upon our society by decades of humiliation and human rights abuses cannot be expunged overnight. Like other societies, we are coming to terms with our past and struggling to create our future.
Distinguished delegates,
This year, our deliberations coincide with the 50th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the coming weeks, we shall have many occasions to speak to the importance of this instrument. At this stage, I should like to share with you my vision of how the Commission should honour this event.
I can think of no better way for the Commission to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration than for us to express our support for those who devote themselves to defending the ideals enshrined in this document. This brings me to the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which was adopted by the Working Group, by consensus, earlier this month. The importance of this instrument has been recorded over many previous sessions of the Commission. I am very grateful to the excellent work done by the Chairman of the Working Group, Professor Jan Helgesen and his two predecessors. The fruits of the Working Group underline the importance of dialogue and the need for co- operation, both between states and between states and ngos.
Distinguished delegates,
Over the past 51 years of its existence, the Commission has built an impressive history of achievements in the field of standard- setting and monitoring human rights. From the ashes of the Second World War, the Commission has been able to articulate a set of shared values dealing with human rights and fundamental freedoms. While these noble standards and principles are aspirational, they have contributed to the fact that, at no other time in history, have so many people lived under democracy and freedom. This is no small achievement.
And yet, who amongst us can be content when untold horrors are being committed throughout the world. Wars, conflict, ethnic strife, abuses and poverty rob men and women of their dignity and worth, whether they are a refugee fleeing conflict, or an unemployed labourer whose children work when they should be at school, or a migrant who is arbitrarily detained, or a person who on account of his colour is marginalised or a child who dies of malaria. There is much work still ahead of us.
Distinguished delegates,
The Commission has played and should continue to play an important role in the promotion and protection of human rights. But to continue to do so, it must, at all times, be relevant and credible and it must take an integrated and co- operative approach. I am therefore proposing to you, members of the Commission, that we bring our agenda into line with the world in which we live. Over the past few years, several attempts have been made towards reforming the agenda, including an important proposal two years ago by my predecessor, Ambassador Saboia of Brazil. I believe that we should use the occasion of this important year to consider how best to implement the proposals.
Secondly, important developments over the past few years suggest that the mechanisms of the Commission are not working as they should. The Secretary- General himself recognised this when, in his far-ranging proposals of 16 July 1997, he requested the High Commissioner to undertake a review of the mechanisms. Some states are clearly not respecting the mechanisms of the Commission but, at the same time, certain of the mechanisms are not earning respect. We have an opportunity to do something about this. Not to make the mandates weaker, as some fear, or more meddling, as others want, but to make them more effective and enhance their relevance. What I am proposing is a review of all the mechanisms, from the Sub-Commission to the working groups to the special procedures, that would be undertaken by two members of the bureau, working in concert with the High Commissioner, who would report to the 55th session. I am suggesting that these two vice-chairmen would make recommendations or proposals to the next session based upon their consultations with states, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and ngos.
Distinguished delegates,
My last plea to you is this: we, collectively, can make the Commission a more relevant and effective body for the promotion and protection of human rights so that dignity can be enhanced and all freedoms fostered. I sincerely believe that we can best do so in a climate of seriousness and calm. I therefore appeal to all delegates, member states and observers, not to use this forum to advance political agendas and engender confrontation, which belong elsewhere, but to promote a genuine spirit of co-operation towards the realisation of all human rights.
In closing, I should like to set a challenge to all of us: when our work concludes in six week's time, we should be able to ask ourselves "Did we make a difference?" "Has someone's life been improved because of what we did over the past six weeks in Geneva?" That should be our yardstick.
I thank you