SUMMARY OF NEWS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, MARY ROBINSON

Palais Wilson, Geneva
21 January 1999

Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a news conference this morning that at the eve of the new millennium, the Office of the High Commissioner was very conscious of the challenges ahead. 1998 had marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as she had emphasized throughout the year, for sad reasons, there was no cause for celebration. In many instances, there had been worsening of crises and conflict situations and there had been terrible suffering and displacement of civilian populations. This situation also had put huge burdens on humanitarian agencies which were operating under increasingly difficult circumstances. So there were both humanitarian crises and gross violations of human rights. Part of looking at 1999 and the eve of the millennium was to recognize that this year marked special anniversaries of the Geneva and The Hague humanitarian conventions; there was a need to look again at the interface between international humanitarian law and human rights law. There was a need to address how internal conflicts were looked at from the point of view of having more effective strategies to protect people from the terrible effect of these violations. This was an area of real concern for this year.

Mrs. Robinson said the work programme of her Office included preparing for the annual session of the Commission on Human Rights, starting on 22 March, which would have reform on its agenda. She supported reinforcing and making more effective the mechanisms of the Commission. The Office was also preparing for the World Conference on Racism. This year would also mark the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Office was already linking with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and with Special Rapporteurs, on how to address this to ensure that there was a real leadership in relation to implementation at country level, making a reality of human rights for children worldwide.

Her Office was also looking at ways to mobilize new energies for the protection and promotion of human rights, she said. She noted the debate on the responsibilities of transnational corporations in relation to human rights. She would take the opportunity during the World Economic Forum at Davos at the end of the month to see how a process could be set up to determine what the best practices were on this issue. The Office was also putting a lot of emphasis on encouraging and promoting strategies at country level for the protection and promotion of human rights, since the national capacity building in human rights was vital to ensuring progress in that area. The Office was conscious of the problems on the ground and the issues of violation, but it was determined to play its part in the UN family in addressing those problems.

In response to a question on her position on the situation in Kosovo, Mrs. Robinson said she was following very closely the grim situation in the province. She had responded in particular to the killings in Racak. The exact circumstances of the killings were still being verified and it was appropriate to wait for the full verification. She very much supported the initiative of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Louise Arbour, to conduct an impartial investigation because it was important to have verification of such serious situations of killings. The field presence of the Office enabled it to follow the situation very closely.

Asked how she felt about the position of President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, Mrs. Robinson said she had written to him to draw attention to the importance of facilitating the work of the Prosecutor in carrying out an independent investigation. The displacement of both ethnic Albanian citizens and of Serbs in villages in Kosovo was very disturbing. In her letter to President to Milosevic, she had condemned the killings, called for an investigation and supported the role of the Prosecutor.

In response to a question about the status of the dialogue between her Office and the Government of Indonesia, Mrs. Robinson said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the Indonesian Government. A technical cooperation project had been finalized and the Office was in the process of deciding on candidates to appoint a human rights officer to be based in Jakarta. One of the considerations was that there would be access to the entire territory of Indonesia and East Timor.

Asked if the talks with the Indonesian authorities were blocked, Mrs. Robinson said they were not blocked and that progress had actually been made. She anticipated that there would be movement quickly.

A correspondent asked about the importance the High Commissioner attached to her statements and follow-up measures. Mrs. Robinson said she accepted the importance of statements she made on crises as the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She was aware of the moral voice that was being exercised. She and her colleagues were very focused on ensuring the professionalism and quality of the research which would lead to the issuing of statements. She was quite restrained for understandable and proper reasons in considering when it was appropriate to issue a statement, and frequently did not do so because it was not appropriate to give voice on issues without consideration. At the same time, sometimes, it was necessary to respond to the urgency of a situation where there was a need for follow-up. She was very conscious of the need to follow-up on statements.

Asked if she had received information on executions of innocent civilians in southern Sudan and if she had been in touch with the authorities, Mrs. Robinson said there were a number of mechanisms and ways in which the international community could examine and look at allegations of killings. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Leonardo Franco, was preparing a visit to the country. The visit would be of great importance because of the whole situation there. The Office was also working closely with UN colleagues working in a humanitarian capacity on the ground in Sudan.

A correspondent said Mrs. Robinson had been hopeful when she returned from her trip to China last September, but that since then, the situation there had deteriorated. What was her view of the situation now? Mrs. Robinson said it was worrying to see a number of incidents linked to the harshness of sentencing and the quickness of trial procedures which led to those sentences. These were issues she had raised with the Chinese representatives in the normal course of the dialogue with China. This dialogue was also proceeding in the follow-up to the visit. She spoke of serious concerns in Tibet which made it more important to proceed with the follow-up mission to assess needs. There were two parallel approaches, and proceeding with the follow-up mission in no way excluded being prepared both diplomatically and in other ways to address issues and violations. These concerns made it more important to proceed with the follow-up mission. That mission was expected to go the China in late February or early March.

Asked about the integration of human rights in the United Nations system as per the initiative by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mrs. Robinson said a lot of progress had been made in that regard which reflected the recognition that the UN as a whole had a potentially strong role to play.

In response to a question on whether she supported attempts to prosecute former dictators, Mrs. Robinson said the case of Chile's Augusto Pinochet was the subject of proceedings before the House of Lords, so she did not want to comment on that case. But the case had been extremely important in creating a new awareness of denying impunity for gross human rights violations. This pointed the way to the importance of ratification of the statute of the International Criminal Court.

A correspondent asked for Mrs. Robinson's position on the upcoming visit by Pope John Paul II to Mexico. The High Commissioner said the Pope determined quite properly where he would visit and his visits were very significant and welcomed. In the context of serious issues in Mexico, she believed the visit would be a very constructive contribution.

In response to another question on the effect her statement on Mexico in June of last year had had, Mrs. Robinson said the many representations made to her Office of violations of human rights in Mexico were a matter of very real concern. She had issued statements and had made diplomatic and other representations. The reality was that human rights violations had to be addressed by the whole range of human rights mechanisms; she had urged visits by Special Rapporteurs and had reinforced the human rights mechanisms in relation to addressing the situation both in the Chiapas region and elsewhere in Mexico where there had been concern about impunity and discrimination.

Asked whether she thought there had been any improvement in the situation of human rights in Colombia, Mrs. Robinson said she had come back from her visit to Colombia convinced of the importance of strengthening the Office's field operation; that was being done. The overall situation was one where all UN agencies in Colombia were adopting a concerted position. The peace initiative was going through a very difficult phase. She was aware of having opportunities in the near future to address these issues with the President and other representatives of the Government of Colombia.

In response to a question of human rights violations in Arab countries, Mrs. Robinson said she had vowed to be the moral voice of victims of violations, and that remained important. She believed the Office had developed and improved the structures for enhancing and building on the role of human rights mechanisms and it had also carried out a lot of in-house reform of its procedures to improve quality and professionalism. The perception of not addressing issues in the Arab world was not true -- the Office followed and was conscious of developments in Arab countries. The Office was assisting in the establishment of a human rights centre in Morocco, for example.

Concerning the situation in Iraq, there were real concerns that one had to be aware of, especially regarding the effects of sanctions on vulnerable populations. Her Office was in contact with the UN's humanitarian agencies regarding this situation. There was also a very clear political dimension, while the Office focused very much on the human rights issues.