RIGHTS: Human Rights Agenda at Next Iberia-Americas Summit

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Nov 5 1997 (IPS) - More than 100 Latin American humanitarian organizations are pushing for the next Iberia-Americas summit, to be held in Portugal, to dedicate the meeting to discussions on human rights and judicial reform.

The proposals will be heard at this years two-day summit which begins Saturday on the Venezuelan island of Margarita which will discuss “ethical values of democracy” – the theme chosen by Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera. Last year, in Chile, the theme was democratic governments.

Humanitarian activists as well as non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) also have asked that future summits be accompanied by a parallel forum representing civil society, as happens at world conferences organized by the United Nations.

Raul Cubas, of the Venezuelan organization Provea, told reporters that the theme of human rights “was only superficially treated” in the Declaration of Margarita, even though it was one of the six sub-themes that divide the discussion on ethic values.

The document that was initially elaborated by Venezuela had been “cleaned up” of blunt remarks about human rights problems in the two meetings coordinators held prior to the summit.

According to Cubas and other NGOs, various governments consider that the existence of concrete pronouncements “will set forth and impose new obligations.”

“It has to do with an excuse to relativize and put on hold the issue of human rights, because the declaration does not imply any new obligation, but with the revalidation of a commitment to defend human rights,” they said.

In addition to promoting and defending human rights, the Declaration of Margarita included the themes of social justice, the administration of justice, public administration, political parties, transparency and electoral processes and the right to truthful information.

Marcos Gomez of Amnesty International said it was important that the Margarita summit can end the belief whereby the defense of human rights is seen as something related to subversion, and to construct a new stage “where they are seen and treated with the value of a society.”

Cubas said that in the judgment of NGO’s, the Latin American region is currently in a paradoxical moment in terms of human rights. There have been big advances, characterized by the end of military dictatorships and the non-existence of systematic violations, except in the cases of Peru and Colombia.

But the notable improvement in political and civil rights continues to be accompanied by the persistence of impunity and the lack of access to justice, apart from the existence of a judicial power that requires an urgent structural reform.

In addition, there is a notorious regression in economic, social and cultural rights, due to that which is defined as globalization and the policies of neoliberal adjustments set down by governments of the region.

“If, because of the debt crisis the 1980s were called the lost decade, the 1990’s are the decade of regression,” in terms of economic and social rights of Latin American citizens, said the directorate of Provea.

Given this reality, the three main parts of the plans of the humanitarian NGO’s at the summit are that the states must put an end to their strategy of “running away from” their responsibility of guaranteeing economic, social and cultural rights to their people.

They also say that there must be precise measures to improve justice and in particular to stop the growth of impunity of the authorities in respect to the abuses that they commit, due to a lack of judicial power and of an administration of transparent justice.

They will also take steps to “make justifiable” the violations of all kind of human rights, whether individual or collective.

Amnesty International, in addition to subscribing to the document of the humanitarian NGOs, made a list of six demands to the VII Summit, in which they call for the elimination of the death penalty in the 21 Latin American countries, the liberation of prisoners of conscience and the end of impunity.

In addition, they are asking that legislatures punish torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions and that they include reparations to the victims, together with the recognition of the legitimacy of the defenders of human rights and the support of their work. (FIN-IPS-eg-dg-hd-ip-dk-97)