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26 April 2002



ADDRESS OF MR. KRZYSZTOF JAKUBOWSKI
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
AT THE CLOSING OF THE 58th SESSION
OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS



Madam High Commissioner, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Commission on Human Rights is one of the most important organs of the United Nations, and the end of the session is a solemn moment for all of us. We all have in mind, I am sure, the Commission’s historic vision of an International Bill of Human Rights respected and applied in all parts of the world; the Commission’s historic emphasis on the importance of measures of implementation; and the tragedy of gross violations of human rights still taking place in many parts of the world. Vision, implementation and protection must be on our minds at a moment like this.

My first thoughts at this time are of gratitude to you for the honour you have bestowed on me and my country in making me the Chairman of this session. My gratitude goes out also to the Members of the Bureau who have supported me through a testing session of the Commission. I should like to express my thanks to the High Commissioner and her staff, to Maria-Francesca and her staff, and to all parts of the Secretariat who have helped us through a particularly challenging session: interpreters, conference servicing staff and the staff of the United Nations Office in Geneva. To you all I say a deep “thank-you”.

I want to maintain a positive note at the end of this session and, therefore, I will not dwell on the fact that this was a difficult session because of the lack of meeting services. Instead of 35 additional meetings that had been approved, we could only use 3. This required numerous meetings of the Bureau and successive decisions to help us get through our work in the end. It was not easy for any of us, and it is my sincere hope that we will not have to deal with such a situation in the future.

Staying on a positive note, I want to make direct appeal to the non-governmental organizations, to the rapporteurs, and to the representatives of national institutions to join us in a process of reflection as to how we can make sure that these three groups of participants at the Commission are able to contribute to our work meaningfully and effectively. To the NGOs, I say: “Please consult among yourselves and let us have the benefit of your ideas on how we can strengthen the relationship between the Commission and the NGO community.” To the Special Rapporteurs, I say: “Discuss this matter at your annual meeting this summer and let us have the benefit of your thoughts.” To the Coordinating Council of National Institutions, I extend a similar invitation. I do this because I think that all three groups make such an important contribution to the work of the Commission that it is incumbent upon us to facilitate their participation in the Commission.

We have heard a thoughtful address from the High Commissioner, giving her reflections on the outcome of the session. I, for my part, would like to return to the themes of vision, implementation and protection. Let me first deal with vision. On this, I would say that the dignitaries from all parts of the world who addressed us and everyone in this room continues to reaffirm the validity of the human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the principal International Human Rights Conventions. This is an area where we are all united.

Where we start to see nuances in the positions among us is when we come to issues such as the meaning of democracy, the impact of under-development on the prospects for human rights, how the principles of international human rights norms relate to cultures and traditions, how to implement the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and how to carry on a dialogue among us on the centrality of human rights in international relations.

Since we are all agreed on the essence of the international human rights norms and we want to work for their application in our respective societies, we need to think of ways and means of enhancing dialogue among us internationally and regionally. It therefore seems to me that in the future we must attach more importance to organizing exchanges of experience among countries, regionally and internationally, on good practices and experiences in advancing the realization of international human rights norms, in discussing areas where problems are being encountered, and in building upon such exchanges of experience. We need to talk to each other more in cooperative settings so that we can go forward together. I invite the human rights community to a process of reflection on how we can organize more exchanges of information among us.

Turning to implementation, we need to remember that it is precisely the role of the treaty bodies established under various human rights treaties to help States strengthen national implementation of international human rights norms. This leads me to pose the question: Do we need to think more about the relationship between this Commission and the human rights treaty bodies, as well as treaty bodies established in the African, InterAmerican, European, and other regions? Are we satisfied that there is sufficient beneficial interaction between our work and the work of the human rights treaty bodies? Here again one can emphasize positive exchanges of experience and the identification of best practices. I have the impression that we as a Commission need to think more of our relationship with the human rights treaty bodies.

Turning to protection, we now have a series of rapporteurs, representatives, working groups and other mandates reporting to us on the state of human rights thematically and in relation to specific situations. The protection of human rights in conflict situations is something that we are having to grapple with more and more. I do believe that we need to do some deep thinking about how we, as a Commission, can draw more upon the work of our own mechanisms, and that we should think further about how we can enhance the level of protection - building upon the work of the mandate holders we have ourselves decided upon. The way we do business at the present time, these mandate holders address us at different points in time at the Commission, and sometimes their presentations are followed by comments, and at other times they are not. Might it not be a better way of doing things that we bring the mandate holders together as a group or in clusters and that we engage in substantive discussions based on their presentations? I do believe that our mechanisms play an important role in the quest for protection at the United Nations and that we must enhance our work in this area.

Then there is the issue that was much discussed at this session about how we deal with country situations. We need to think carefully about how we approach this issue and to do so on the basis of principle, tact, and in a constructive spirit. As a matter of principle, it has been the policy of the United Nations and this Commission over the years that people who are the victims of gross violations of human rights are entitled to our attention and protection. We must all rally behind the principle of protection, which must unite us all. At the same time, one senses a desire for respect on the part of countries undergoing problems: they do not with to be placed in the dock internationally. We need to recognize that there is a growing feeling on the part of developing countries that there is now a North-South dimension to this issue, with countries of the South on the defensive. If we are to maintain a constructive approach in this situation, it would require us to build on the principle of protection and the principles of respect and confidence-building. I would invite the Members of the Commission to think deep and hard about how we can develop approaches to our work that enable us to blend the principle of protection with the principles of respect and confidence-building.

To conclude, it is my conviction that we must stay faithful to the Commission’s historic vision of an International Bill of Human Rights, respected and applied in all parts of the world. We must strengthen our efforts for implementation. And we must seek to protect human beings against gross violations of human rights - while striving for respect and confidence-building among countries.

Thank-you.