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Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 08:35:57 -0400
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From: Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: UNCHR Politics vs. Human Rights
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Although the following Amnesty International statement declares "Despite
its claims to international leadership in the field of human rights and
its many institutions to protect individual civil liberties, the USA is
failing to deliver the fundamental promise of rights for all," the
examples given fail to acknowledge the human rights violations against
indigenous peoples. Perhaps some of you might wish to help correct this
oversite. Contact information is listed at the bottom.
This is from Amnesty International:
http://www.amnesty-usa.org/news/1999/I4100399.htm
News Service: 049/99
AI INDEX: IOR 41/03/99
1999 UN Commission on Human Rights Politics versus human rights
Geneva -- The UN Commission on Human Rights should have the courage
once and for all to make human rights and not politics the yardstick of
its work, Amnesty International said at a press conference today.
"By putting powerful political and economic interests above their
obligation to protect and promote human rights, Commission members have
seriously hampered the effectiveness and credibility of the Commission
throughout its history," said Pierre San�, Amnesty International's
Secretary General.
This has been the case for many years, even when it comes to
countries where violations are grave and persistent.
"Victims in places like Algeria, Cambodia, Turkey and the Great Lakes
Region of Africa have been let down by governments' failure to match
human rights rhetoric with adequate support for action," Mr San�
stressed. "The Commission has a duty to ensure such action is taken."
During this year's session, Amnesty International will highlight
these four examples together with the USA -- where a persistent and
widespread pattern of human rights violations appears to
disproportionally affect people of racial or ethnic minority backgrounds.
At the 1998 session, the Commission requested its Bureau to undertake
a review of its human rights mechanisms and report to this year's
session. Amnesty International welcomes the report's stated purpose of
enhancing the UN's capacity to promote and protect rights, and its
recognition that to do this, the Commission's mechanisms must be
established and operate "free of influence from extraneous political and
other considerations".
Whilst not agreeing with all of the report's recommendations, Amnesty
International fully supports the underlying thrust of strengthening the
mechanisms and establishing a follow up procedure to review compliance
and implementation of their recommendations. However, this procedure
should be transparent and effective.
"Governments should be reminded by the Commission of their
responsibility to cooperate fully, and countries refusing to do so should
not be allowed to get away with it," Mr San� said.
This review of the human rights mechanisms -- while in many aspects a
positive step -- may overshadow discussion of actual human rights
situations at this session of the Commission, and indeed, be used as an
excuse for non-action pending final decisions on the recommendations
contained in the report.
"The Commission must act in the spirit of the report, and not allow
itself to be paralysed by giving too much time to the details of its
recommendations," Mr San� stressed. "We should not lose focus of the fact
that lives are at stake in many countries."
In Algeria, the government has repeatedly broken its promises to
cooperate with the mechanisms of the Commission and has continued to
refuse access to the country to the UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The (UN) Human Rights
Committee has expressed concern at the human rights crisis in the country
and regretted the government's unwillingness to provide concrete
information about the human rights situation.
"The international community -- and particularly the Commission on
Human Rights -- has failed to take concrete action to address the
situation in Algeria," Mr San� said. "The Commission should appoint a
Special Rapporteur, and urge the Algerian government to cooperate with
its mechanisms, grant unrestricted access to the International Committee
of the Red Cross and international human rights organizations, and
implement the recommendations of the Human Rights Committee."
The authorities in Cambodia have ignored the recommendations made by
different UN bodies and mechanisms over the last six years. None of the
cases reported by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for
Human Rights in Cambodia has led to prosecutions. Human rights defenders
-- including those working for the Cambodia Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (COHCHR) -- have been subjected to death
threats, arbitrary arrest and physical attacks by uniformed police.
"The Commission should urge the Cambodian government to tackle
impunity -- both past and present," Mr San� stressed. "The Commission
must also give full political and financial support to the Special
Representative and the COHCHR, and insist on full government cooperation
to ensure they can go about their tasks without fear or obstruction."
The Great Lakes Region of Africa (Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo and Rwanda) is treated by the Commission as three separate
situations. However, the cycle of conflict and gross human rights abuses
-- and the resulting mass displacements -- have become so
internationalized that only a regional approach could have any impact.
"The Commission should request the High Commissioner for Human Rights
to convene another extraordinary coordination meeting -- as in 1996 -- to
involve the participation of experts of the Commission on the Great Lakes
region, and to draw up recommendations to prevent a further deterioration
of the human rights situation in the region," Mr San� urged.
"The mandates of the Special Rapporteurs on Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of Congo must by renewed and their importance
reaffirmed, while the mandate of the Special Representative on Rwanda
needs to be strengthened by including monitoring of and publicly
reporting on the human rights situation. UN human rights field presences
should be strengthened in Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, and
re-established in Rwanda."
Six years after the (UN) Committee against Torture took the
unprecedented step of issuing a public statement on the incidence of
torture in Turkey, its recommendations have still not been implemented.
In 1995, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommended that
Selahattin Simsek be retried in accordance with international standards
or released. This has not been done.
At this session of the Commission, the Special Rapporteur on torture
and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will
present their reports on their recent missions to Turkey. Amnesty
International calls on the Commission to urge the government to implement
all the recommendations of the mechanisms, and those of the Committee
against Torture, and end impunity for human rights violations.
<bold><color><param>0000,0000,ffff</param>Despite its claims to
international leadership in the field of human rights and its many
institutions to protect individual civil liberties, the USA is failing to
deliver the fundamental promise of rights for all.</color></bold>
Human rights violations in the USA are persistent, widespread, and
appear to disproportionately affect people of racial or ethnic minority
backgrounds. Application of the death penalty fails to meet minimum
international standards, ill-treatment in detention and police brutality
are common across the country, while asylum seekers are increasingly
detained without judicial review and are often held in jails with
criminals.
"The USA should declare an immediate moratorium on executions with a
view to totally abolishing the death penalty," Mr San� stressed. "The
Commission must also urge the US authorities to fully incorporate into US
laws and policies relevant international human rights standards, and then
make sure they are enforced."
Amnesty International will also call on the Commission to:
-Form an intersessional working group to finalize, within a time
frame set by the Commission, the text of a strong draft Convention on
Disappearances.
-Appoint a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to
oversee the implementation of the Declaration adopted by the General
Assembly last year, including monitoring the situation of human rights
defenders and intervening on their behalf.
-Urge the Working Group on child soldiers to adopt 18 years as
the minimum age for recruitment into armed forces and participation in
hostilities.
-Adopt a resolution calling for the finalization of the Optional
Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
-Adopt a resolution welcoming the international consensus which
prohibits the death penalty for persons under eighteen years of age at
the time of the crime, and reiterating its call for a moratorium on
executions with a view to complete abolition.
Source: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton
Street, WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom
Contact your your nearest Amnesty International office for more
information
�
Copyright 1999
--------------------------------
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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