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Statements Commission on Human Rights
Speech by Joschka Fischer, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs
12 April 2000
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Commission on Human Rights
56th Session
Geneva, 22 March 2000
[Translation of advance text]
Yesterday my colleague, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, set out in detail the human rights policies of the European Union, and thus also those of the Federal Republic of Germany. I will therefore confine my comments to points that we consider to be of great significance.
The protection of human rights is a fundamental issue of human ethics. The core rights - the universal basic rights and fundamental freedoms - are inalienable. They therefore may not be weighed up against other foreign policy aims, for example those in the commercial sphere.
In addition to its fundamental ethical dimension, the protection of human rights is of concrete, practical relevance. Only the protection of human rights and the rule of law can guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. "The human rights violations of today are the wars of tomorrow", as Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, succinctly put it. Human rights policies must therefore be the basis of any preventive policy for peace. Moreover, human rights and the rule of law are also crucial requirements for successful, sustainable development. This insight is rightly meeting with ever greater acceptance.
Human rights violations are today no longer tolerated as the unavoidable cost of stabilizing a bipolar world. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs has become history in the human rights field, even if a few individual countries stubbornly refuse to wake up to this reality. When states disintegrate and the civil population is massacred in unending civil wars, no country has the right, as Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated in his trailblazing speech at last year's session of the Commission on Human Rights, to hide behind the principle of state sovereignty in order to violate human rights. The conflict between classic state sovereignty and the protection of human rights continues. But states' rights no longer take absolute precedence over human rights as a matter of principle - this was indeed the key result of last year's UN General Assembly debate.
Especially during the past year, in spite of all setbacks, the willingness not merely to recognize the importance of human rights in the abstract but to actually enforce them, if necessary in the face of resistance, has visibly increased.
1. Justice is prevailing internationally. The indictments against Pinochet and Milosevic were milestones on the path to the international rule of law. The same can be said of the progress made regarding the Arusha Tribunal. Dictators and violators of human rights can no longer rely on never being brought to account.
2. The Kosovo conflict was a most important turning point. The international community was here no longer willing to accept the use of civil war, terror and expulsion as political tools. We have however always emphasized that the steps taken in this case, which were legitimate given the special circumstances, must not set a precedent for undermining the UN Security Council's monopoly on authorizing the legal use of force. It is rather a matter of necessity that the existing UN system be refined to enable it to take timely action against the worst kind of human rights violations, albeit only after all peaceful means of conflict resolution have been exhausted and subject to strict legal limits and controls.
Ladies and gentlemen, the past year has unfortunately also shown clearly that the enforcement of human rights has its limits. The war in Chechnya has seen massive human rights violations on both sides, but the community of states has no effective means of influencing the parties to this conflict. Reports by the Council of Europe and respected human rights organizations about murder, torture, plundering and rape, about cruel outbreaks of violence in the so-called filtration camps give us grave cause for concern. Concern for both the individuals affected and also for the stability in the region and the process of democratization in Russia. We recognize Russia's right to defend its territorial integrity. But we cannot accept the massive, continued and indiscriminate use of military force. The well-documented brutality against the civilian population is incompatible with international and European norms of humanity.
We demand that Russia finally
- suspend military action and begin seriously and recognizably to seek a political solution,
- grant foreign aid agencies unhindered access and permit entry by independent international observers. We are assuming that the High Commissioner for Human Rights will be able to visit the area very soon.
- In Chechnya human rights must be respected and a start must be made to uncompromisingly investigating human rights violations.
We hope and expect the future President of Russia to set the right wheels in motion.
The regrettable conclusion must be drawn that respect for human rights around the world leaves everything to be desired. It is true that there are the occasional positive developments, but in many countries violations of elementary human rights remain the order of the day. In some countries they have even multiplied dramatically. The human rights situation in North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Myanmar is appalling. The tragic fate of child soldiers and of the millions fleeing civil war, as well as the suppression of basic rights for women in many parts of the world, remain incomprehensible to us all.
In the People's Republic of China the major modernizing impetus has no doubt not only improved the economic situation but also legal certainty and personal freedom for many Chinese. It is thus all the more regrettable that the human rights situation in China has not developed at all positively during the past year. The persecution and harassment of dissidents - political dissidents, members of Falun Gong and Christian groups, members of ethnic minorities, primarily Tibetans and Uighur - have again been on the increase last year. The suppression of freedom of expression, assembly and religion, as well as other serious infringements of the rule of law, such as show trials, torture and imprisonment without due process are still in evidence today. It is particularly shocking that more people continue to be executed by China than by all other states of the world together. In 1998 alone 1769 people were put to death, according to figures from Amnesty International.
We call on China
- to put an end to the persecution of political dissidents and to release those imprisoned due to their political and religious beliefs,
- to abolish the death penalty and other practices that are contrary to the rule of law, and to ratify and implement the two UN human rights covenants as soon as possible,
- to grant religious freedoms, in particular to bring an end to the suppression of the Tibetan culture and religion,
- we expect direct dialogue to be commenced with the Dalai Lama,
- we expect the issues between Beijing and Taipei to be dealt with peacefully and constructively.
Ladies and gentlemen, five points will be of particular importance this year.
Firstly, the most important precondition for a successful human rights policy is the universality of human rights. On each continent and in every culture, the idea of human rights is derived from varying historical, social, religious and philosophical backgrounds. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights alone names in its preamble eight different reasons for the respect of human rights. The fact that it was possible, despite this diversity, to establish universally valid human rights fixed by treaty was a major historical achievement.
Anyone who thinks they can find a way to override or ignore the indivisible, inalienable and equal nature of human rights is putting in question the most important foundation on which they are built. This we cannot tolerate. All attempts to limit or relativize this fundamental principle of humanity must be vigorously repudiated.
Secondly, the rule of law must be further extended. I call on all states to safeguard the integrity of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, to sign and to ratify it rapidly so that the tribunal may begin its work as soon as possible. Germany and the European Union will in addition continue to push hard for a substantive resolution on the abolition of the death penalty all over the world. Simply dismissing this idea by referring to state sovereignty is not acceptable to us under any circumstances.
The swift adoption of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography remains a top priority for Germany. A topic to which we should in the future pay greater attention is the protection of the freedom of the press. We must think of practical solutions and ways of improving legal protection for journalists.
Thirdly, the protection of human rights is closely and inherently linked to democracy and the rule of law. Human rights can only be realized long-term in an environment in which all people have equal dignity and equality before the law prevails and in which the human spirit is given full freedom to develop itself. Such an environment can only exist within a democratic society based on the rule of law. This is definitely not just a "western" view. It is not for nothing that the human rights covenants place a state's right to external self-determination on a level with its people's right to internal self-determination, i.e. their sovereignty and their right of participation. In accordance with this principle you almost unanimously adopted, last year in Geneva, a resolution to promote democracy. Germany and the European Union will continue to support democracy and the rule of law and the dissemination of a democratic political culture world-wide. It is commendable that these topics will be the focus of two important conferences this year, in Warsaw and in Cotonou.
Thousands of human rights activists around the world must fight for the right to be able to go about their business free of Government harassment. They often do their work in the face of severe resistance and at great personal risk and sacrifice. They must urgently be given help. I hope very much that this year's Commission on Human Rights will succeed in implementing a mechanism that helps ease the difficult working conditions of human rights activists. This will be a central issue for the German delegation.
Fourthly, the implementation of human rights presupposes that multilateral organs, above all the UN Security Council, are able to act. It was however blocked during the Rwanda and Kosovo conflicts and was not able to fulfil its obligations under the UN Charter, with catastrophic consequences for the peoples concerned. These conflicts provide a serious incentive for the long overdue reform of the Security Council to be finally implemented this year, especially with a view to the significant Millennium General Assembly. The reform must include both an increase in the number of permanent and non-permanent members and a strengthening of decision-making mechanisms. I put forward my proposals on this subject at last year's UN General Assembly.
Fifthly, there are unfortunately many indications that globalization has further deepened the divide between the rich and poorer countries. The consequence to be drawn from this is not however to pull up the drawbridge but to actively shape globalization. We have to inject globalization with universally valid values and codes of behaviour and thus ensure that the individual and not the market is the focus of the process. Kofi Annan's Davos initiative for a "Global Compact" of standards based on human, social and environmental rights, which would include the spheres of politics and business, is a courageous and proper step in this direction, which I firmly support.
On the one hand, the global flow of goods, information and knowledge must be recognized and used as an opportunity to further human rights. On the other hand, the global players, above all the international financial institutions and development agencies, but also the media and not least the ever more closely networked civil society, must be harnessed to the day-to-day efforts to promote human rights. Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has recognized this sign of the times most clearly. Her efforts to mainstream human rights throughout the entire UN system have my express support. This should include the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights. I would like to ask you in this context for your constructive cooperation on the resolution on economic, social and cultural rights which is being sponsored by Germany this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, the protection of human rights is a fundamental question of ethics and self-esteem. It is at the same time a basic requirement for peace, democracy and development in the world of tomorrow. Human rights policy thus involves both principles and interests. For this doubly valid reason, Germany and Europe will continue to give the protection of human rights top priority.
56th Session
Geneva, 22 March 2000
[Translation of advance text]
Yesterday my colleague, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, set out in detail the human rights policies of the European Union, and thus also those of the Federal Republic of Germany. I will therefore confine my comments to points that we consider to be of great significance.
The protection of human rights is a fundamental issue of human ethics. The core rights - the universal basic rights and fundamental freedoms - are inalienable. They therefore may not be weighed up against other foreign policy aims, for example those in the commercial sphere.
In addition to its fundamental ethical dimension, the protection of human rights is of concrete, practical relevance. Only the protection of human rights and the rule of law can guarantee genuine, lasting stability and peace. "The human rights violations of today are the wars of tomorrow", as Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, succinctly put it. Human rights policies must therefore be the basis of any preventive policy for peace. Moreover, human rights and the rule of law are also crucial requirements for successful, sustainable development. This insight is rightly meeting with ever greater acceptance.
Human rights violations are today no longer tolerated as the unavoidable cost of stabilizing a bipolar world. The doctrine of non-interference in internal affairs has become history in the human rights field, even if a few individual countries stubbornly refuse to wake up to this reality. When states disintegrate and the civil population is massacred in unending civil wars, no country has the right, as Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated in his trailblazing speech at last year's session of the Commission on Human Rights, to hide behind the principle of state sovereignty in order to violate human rights. The conflict between classic state sovereignty and the protection of human rights continues. But states' rights no longer take absolute precedence over human rights as a matter of principle - this was indeed the key result of last year's UN General Assembly debate.
Especially during the past year, in spite of all setbacks, the willingness not merely to recognize the importance of human rights in the abstract but to actually enforce them, if necessary in the face of resistance, has visibly increased.
1. Justice is prevailing internationally. The indictments against Pinochet and Milosevic were milestones on the path to the international rule of law. The same can be said of the progress made regarding the Arusha Tribunal. Dictators and violators of human rights can no longer rely on never being brought to account.
2. The Kosovo conflict was a most important turning point. The international community was here no longer willing to accept the use of civil war, terror and expulsion as political tools. We have however always emphasized that the steps taken in this case, which were legitimate given the special circumstances, must not set a precedent for undermining the UN Security Council's monopoly on authorizing the legal use of force. It is rather a matter of necessity that the existing UN system be refined to enable it to take timely action against the worst kind of human rights violations, albeit only after all peaceful means of conflict resolution have been exhausted and subject to strict legal limits and controls.
Ladies and gentlemen, the past year has unfortunately also shown clearly that the enforcement of human rights has its limits. The war in Chechnya has seen massive human rights violations on both sides, but the community of states has no effective means of influencing the parties to this conflict. Reports by the Council of Europe and respected human rights organizations about murder, torture, plundering and rape, about cruel outbreaks of violence in the so-called filtration camps give us grave cause for concern. Concern for both the individuals affected and also for the stability in the region and the process of democratization in Russia. We recognize Russia's right to defend its territorial integrity. But we cannot accept the massive, continued and indiscriminate use of military force. The well-documented brutality against the civilian population is incompatible with international and European norms of humanity.
We demand that Russia finally
- suspend military action and begin seriously and recognizably to seek a political solution,
- grant foreign aid agencies unhindered access and permit entry by independent international observers. We are assuming that the High Commissioner for Human Rights will be able to visit the area very soon.
- In Chechnya human rights must be respected and a start must be made to uncompromisingly investigating human rights violations.
We hope and expect the future President of Russia to set the right wheels in motion.
The regrettable conclusion must be drawn that respect for human rights around the world leaves everything to be desired. It is true that there are the occasional positive developments, but in many countries violations of elementary human rights remain the order of the day. In some countries they have even multiplied dramatically. The human rights situation in North Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Myanmar is appalling. The tragic fate of child soldiers and of the millions fleeing civil war, as well as the suppression of basic rights for women in many parts of the world, remain incomprehensible to us all.
In the People's Republic of China the major modernizing impetus has no doubt not only improved the economic situation but also legal certainty and personal freedom for many Chinese. It is thus all the more regrettable that the human rights situation in China has not developed at all positively during the past year. The persecution and harassment of dissidents - political dissidents, members of Falun Gong and Christian groups, members of ethnic minorities, primarily Tibetans and Uighur - have again been on the increase last year. The suppression of freedom of expression, assembly and religion, as well as other serious infringements of the rule of law, such as show trials, torture and imprisonment without due process are still in evidence today. It is particularly shocking that more people continue to be executed by China than by all other states of the world together. In 1998 alone 1769 people were put to death, according to figures from Amnesty International.
We call on China
- to put an end to the persecution of political dissidents and to release those imprisoned due to their political and religious beliefs,
- to abolish the death penalty and other practices that are contrary to the rule of law, and to ratify and implement the two UN human rights covenants as soon as possible,
- to grant religious freedoms, in particular to bring an end to the suppression of the Tibetan culture and religion,
- we expect direct dialogue to be commenced with the Dalai Lama,
- we expect the issues between Beijing and Taipei to be dealt with peacefully and constructively.
Ladies and gentlemen, five points will be of particular importance this year.
Firstly, the most important precondition for a successful human rights policy is the universality of human rights. On each continent and in every culture, the idea of human rights is derived from varying historical, social, religious and philosophical backgrounds. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights alone names in its preamble eight different reasons for the respect of human rights. The fact that it was possible, despite this diversity, to establish universally valid human rights fixed by treaty was a major historical achievement.
Anyone who thinks they can find a way to override or ignore the indivisible, inalienable and equal nature of human rights is putting in question the most important foundation on which they are built. This we cannot tolerate. All attempts to limit or relativize this fundamental principle of humanity must be vigorously repudiated.
Secondly, the rule of law must be further extended. I call on all states to safeguard the integrity of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, to sign and to ratify it rapidly so that the tribunal may begin its work as soon as possible. Germany and the European Union will in addition continue to push hard for a substantive resolution on the abolition of the death penalty all over the world. Simply dismissing this idea by referring to state sovereignty is not acceptable to us under any circumstances.
The swift adoption of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography remains a top priority for Germany. A topic to which we should in the future pay greater attention is the protection of the freedom of the press. We must think of practical solutions and ways of improving legal protection for journalists.
Thirdly, the protection of human rights is closely and inherently linked to democracy and the rule of law. Human rights can only be realized long-term in an environment in which all people have equal dignity and equality before the law prevails and in which the human spirit is given full freedom to develop itself. Such an environment can only exist within a democratic society based on the rule of law. This is definitely not just a "western" view. It is not for nothing that the human rights covenants place a state's right to external self-determination on a level with its people's right to internal self-determination, i.e. their sovereignty and their right of participation. In accordance with this principle you almost unanimously adopted, last year in Geneva, a resolution to promote democracy. Germany and the European Union will continue to support democracy and the rule of law and the dissemination of a democratic political culture world-wide. It is commendable that these topics will be the focus of two important conferences this year, in Warsaw and in Cotonou.
Thousands of human rights activists around the world must fight for the right to be able to go about their business free of Government harassment. They often do their work in the face of severe resistance and at great personal risk and sacrifice. They must urgently be given help. I hope very much that this year's Commission on Human Rights will succeed in implementing a mechanism that helps ease the difficult working conditions of human rights activists. This will be a central issue for the German delegation.
Fourthly, the implementation of human rights presupposes that multilateral organs, above all the UN Security Council, are able to act. It was however blocked during the Rwanda and Kosovo conflicts and was not able to fulfil its obligations under the UN Charter, with catastrophic consequences for the peoples concerned. These conflicts provide a serious incentive for the long overdue reform of the Security Council to be finally implemented this year, especially with a view to the significant Millennium General Assembly. The reform must include both an increase in the number of permanent and non-permanent members and a strengthening of decision-making mechanisms. I put forward my proposals on this subject at last year's UN General Assembly.
Fifthly, there are unfortunately many indications that globalization has further deepened the divide between the rich and poorer countries. The consequence to be drawn from this is not however to pull up the drawbridge but to actively shape globalization. We have to inject globalization with universally valid values and codes of behaviour and thus ensure that the individual and not the market is the focus of the process. Kofi Annan's Davos initiative for a "Global Compact" of standards based on human, social and environmental rights, which would include the spheres of politics and business, is a courageous and proper step in this direction, which I firmly support.
On the one hand, the global flow of goods, information and knowledge must be recognized and used as an opportunity to further human rights. On the other hand, the global players, above all the international financial institutions and development agencies, but also the media and not least the ever more closely networked civil society, must be harnessed to the day-to-day efforts to promote human rights. Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has recognized this sign of the times most clearly. Her efforts to mainstream human rights throughout the entire UN system have my express support. This should include the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights. I would like to ask you in this context for your constructive cooperation on the resolution on economic, social and cultural rights which is being sponsored by Germany this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, the protection of human rights is a fundamental question of ethics and self-esteem. It is at the same time a basic requirement for peace, democracy and development in the world of tomorrow. Human rights policy thus involves both principles and interests. For this doubly valid reason, Germany and Europe will continue to give the protection of human rights top priority.