HUMAN RIGHTS: Violator Governments Back in the Dock

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 10 1998 (IPS) - The United Nations Human Rights Commission annual session promises spectacular treatment of nations like China, Cuba or Nigeria, rather than general treatment of the big human rights issues.

The famous item 10 on the Commission agenda, dedicted to the study of the most intolerable situations of human rights violations, will monopolise political debate in the three weeks of sessions from Monday, said one Western diplomat.

But this year, the most burning issues of item 10 will be the so-called “new cases,” like the situation in Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said the source.

The China question has “lost its pull” because “no one wants to present the censure motion.” The European Union (EU) decided not to support any resolution on human rights in China.

Amnesty International said this attitude was “more a result of policy splits between EU member States and lucrative markets than any real improvement in the human rights situation.”

The United States, which in declarations tends to be critical of the Chinese human rights policy, “will not take the responsibility for presenting the motion either,” something which, “Washington never did in the past,” said the source.

But the outlook for China has improved in the human rights bodies, said head of a Latin American human rights group.

Beijing has started to be more receptive to the issue and has ratified some international instruments like the pact on economic, social and cultural rights and the convention against torture, said Arturo Carrillo Suarez, from the Colombian Lawyers’ Commission.

In the working group which drew up the UN declaration on the defenders of human rights, the Chinese attitude allowed consensus to be reached on the sensitive issue of non governmental organisations, said Carrillo.

In any case, if an attempt to censure China does take place, the nation has the right to present a stay of action, as it did in the three previous years, paralysing all transactions in the Commission.

In the case of Cuba, the diplomatic source stated this year the Caribbean country had lost support for confronting debate of a censure.

Meanwhile, Carrillo said Havana’s position has been strengthened by work in alliance with a group of countries, including India, Pakistan and China, to reform the Commission procedures system.

The announced reforms include changes to the modes of designating and the mandates of rapporteurs, the experts and working groups and also the consensus adoption of the resolutions on countries.

The alliance hopes these reforms will help dismantle the system of special procedures because it alleges they are applied selectively against their countries.

“Cuba is a very important force” within this group, said Carrillo.

The case of Algeria has only been denounced by NGOs up until now, as no governments have taken a resolution. AI said it “will pressure governments so they do not again overlook six years of human rights atrocities again” in Algeria.

The Commission also has an open wound with the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the the mission called by Chilean lawyer Roberto Garreton found it impossible to investigate the African nation due to the veto imposed by President Laurent Kabila.

A confusing situation was created on this front in the UN in 1997, when Secretary General Kofi Annan decided to send another mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “overstepping his capacity,” said the diplomatic source.

Representatives of the Commission member states will have the chance to discuss the confusion over this country and other issues in private meetings with Annan, who will speak at the inauguration of the period of sessions.

South Africa will hold the presidency of the Commission this year in a move symbolic of “the moral strength of the Nelson Mandela administration,” said NGO leaders.

The same sources stressed the fact this coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this year.

The Commission could convert into a preparatory committee for the international conference on racism and discrimination on the orders of the UN General Assembly.

The Commission will probably dedicate its last five days of sessions to the question of the conference on racism, which “threatens to become a heated debate,” warned the diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.

The Middle East is one issue which was previously debated by the Commission for many years, and which could return to the top of the agenda following pressure from Arab states unhappy with the development of events in the region, agreed the sources.

The States allied with the Palestinians called for item 10 to include the conduct of Israel with the populations of the occupied territories.

The United States generally maintains a low profile in the Human Rights Commission but surely, predicted Carrillo, it will stretch out as always to block consensus against Israel.