HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Commission Draws Fire from Amnesty International

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 6 1997 (IPS) - The U.N. Human Rights Commission, ready to kick off its annual session on Monday, drew heavy fire from rights watchdog Amnesty International on Thursday.

Amnesty accused the Commission of a “lack of will” to confront countries considered “untouchable” for political reasons. The group also took issue with the Commission for its consensus method of adopting resolutions, which requires the approval of even the country being examined.

The Commission does not pressure member states to bow to its resolutions, charges Amnesty, while it fails to enforce the recommendations formulated by its own experts during on site visits.

The group also criticises what it calls a “pernicious regional solidarity” that leads countries to cover for each other, which it says is impossible to break.

On the Commission’s agenda for the Mar. 10 to Apr. 18 session are the human rights situations of Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chechenia, Colombia, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, Zaire and the Palestine territories.

Amnesty said it would push for pronouncements from the 53 member countries on the human rights outlook in five countries: Algeria, Colombia, Indonesia and East Timor, Nigeria and Turkey.

Algerian authorities have not been reprimanded because of the high level of violence they face from armed opposition groups, maintained Nicholas Howen, the head of Amnesty’s legal advising programme and relations with international organisations. But, he insisted, the Commission should make it clear that torturing and summarily executing citizens, no matter who they are or what crimes they may have committed, serves only to fan the flames of the bloody conflict.

Amnesty reports that according to conservative figures, the conflict in Algeria has cost some 50,000 lives over the past five years, while other sources put the figure at 80,000.

With respect to Turkey, Amnesty said the country’s powerful allies in Europe and North America have protected it from international scrutiny because of its position as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and its value as a buffer state against the supposed Islamic threat.

The Commission cannot consider itself a UN human rights advocate while it systematically ignores the flood of appeals for changes in Turkey put forth by the United Nations’ own experts, Howen argued.

Meanwhile, authorities in Indonesia and East Timor are protected by other countries in Asia, said Amnesty, while members of the Non-Aligned Movement and Western countries turn a blind eye. The group accused the Western world of applying double standards, demanding a level of respect for human rights from China, for example, that it does not demand from Indonesia.

Howen pointed to commercial ties between European nations and Indonesia, which he said make it much easier to ignore the country’s dismal rights record. Germany supplies Indonesia with warships and submarines, the United Kingdom provides fighter planes, and a British university recently announced a training programme for Indonesian military officers, he added.

The fiercest repression of the Timorese resistance movement in years was seen in 1996, said Amnesty, as were continued summary executions both in Indonesia and East Timor, a former Portuguese colony annexed by Jakarta that is struggling for independence.

The human rights situation in Colombia has also worsened since the Commission’s last session, the group reported. Summary executions, disappearances and torture committed by members of the security forces and their paramilitary allies have drastically increased in some regions.

In Nigeria, authorities continue to arbitrarily arrest prisoners of conscience, Amnesty denounced. Political prisoners face trials by special tribunals without basic guarantees of their rights.