RIGHTS: Tokyo Meet Scrutinises Asia’s Uneven Record

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jan 29 1998 (IPS) - Upholding commitments made 50 years ago in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a conference of Asia-Pacific nations here called for more practical methods of enforcing protection and uplifting the downtrodden in the region.

“Fifty years have passed since the landmark human rights document was written. But there is much ground to cover in our countries,” stated Asma Jahangir, director of the Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Pakistan.

While most countries in the region are signatories of the UN convention, the region has an uneven human rights track record.

Capital punishment, still imposed in many Asian countries including host Japan, official and non-official forms of discrimination against women, child labour, and abuse of migrant labour were some of the issues discussed at the two-day conference that ended Wednesday.

“We have gone forwards in treaties and drafts but to change the mind set of people is more difficult,” explained Jahangir, a leading lawyer and tireless campaigner in her home country for democracy.

In an effort to alter the situation, participants discussed the need for improving human rights education, training and setting-up a regional body to monitor abuses across borders and to deal with issues that cannot be solved domestically.

International cooperation could strengthen national efforts to control violations, some participants said. According to Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, involved in child rights in Thailand, such a monitoring body would also be able to cut across cultures.

Human rights experts from 15 countries including New Zealand, China, Mongolia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh were among participants at the conference attended also by Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who flew in from Cambodia where she had got the government to agree to an international investigation into political killings.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) were declared as the two most important planks in universalising human rights.

There was agreement on the lack of gender and child sensitivity in national policies, and participants cited the systematic opposition to moves to remedy the situation.

Japanese Professor Nisuke Ando who is an authority on laws to enforce the UN convention, observed that many countries though signatories, use reservations regarding specific articles to avoid enacting local laws. According to him, 40 percent of those who have endorsed CEDAW are hiding behind reservations.

Without naming individual countries, experts pointed out that the political ritualisation of religion and national cultural traits in the Asia-Pacific region has worked towards denying equal rights to women and children.

Property rights that do not respect a woman’s right to ownership in some countries was an oft cited example. In addition disparity in citizenship laws like in Bangladesh where foreign spouses of Bangladeshi women cannot become Bangladeshis, but it is the opposite in the case of men.

It was pointed out that a woman’s right to choose her partner in marriage was only now being discussed in Pakistan after 50 years of independence.

Participants called for greater partnership between the authorities and non-governmental organisations, and stressed on the importance of linking human rights to democratic governments and good governance, which does not only relate to running an efficient factory in the context of the domination of the market.

There also was no support from experts to the idea of a separate human rights charter for Asia, as sometimes suggested by some Asian leaders. The UN Human Rights Convention clearly covers all aspects of human rights — political and civil as well as social, economic and cultural, it was agreed.

The conference challenged the notion of development that deprives people of livelihoods and homes being able to provide long-term political stability.

For the past 50 years, thousands of people have sacrificed their human rights in the name of development, said lawyer Fred Naro Tamo of Papua New Guinea, pointing out that the time has come for ruling governments to respond to public opinion.

Robinson, high commissioner for human rights, in a separate

interview with the Japanese media said she wanted to see Japan take the lead in bridging gaps in “our perceptions of what we mean by human rights”.

“First Japan has been a major contributor both in assistance to developing countries and also to the United Nations. Second Japan can be a bridge to help the narrow gap in our perceptions of what we mean by human rights,” she said, adding “that is very important to me because I am determined to bridge the gap as high commissioner.”

She also urged the Japanese government to ratify human rights treaties this year, and address some pressing issues like capital punishment, treatment of foreigners and conditions in prisons.