By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Mar 4 1998 (IPS)

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in defence of human rights obtained recognition of their right and responsibility to promote and protect fundamental freedoms by the draft of an inter-governmental declaration approved Wednesday.

The text was interpreted as recognition by the international community of the importance of the work carried out by human rights activists and groups worldwide.

The declaration agreed on by the representatives of 36 states includes “compromise wording” with respect to the touchiest issue, the international financing of human rights organisations.

According to the draft, NGOs working in the field of human rights will be able to receive funding from abroad to cover operating expenses, as long as the financing is used in accordance with domestic laws, which must in turn be consistent with international obligations.

The representatives of the NGOs expressed their satisfaction with the document. “No, we were not expecting this outcome. But we are pleasantly surprised,” Mark Thomson, assistant director of the International Service for Human Rights, told IPS in Geneva.

The draft “has the possibility of becoming a declaration which could be useful to rights defenders in the field,” he added.

After 14 annual sessions, a UN working group reached consensus on the text, which must now be ratified by several UN bodies, including the General Assembly.

The draft declares “the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Agreement was delayed mainly by differences over the question of donations from abroad and the jurisdiction of national and international legislation.

Cuba’s representatives only stated their objections to external financing at the last moment. Mexico also questioned support from abroad, referring to supposed “meddling” by members of international groups in that country’s conflict-ridden southern state of Chiapas.

The formula agreed on recognises “the right, individually and in association with others, to solicit, receive and utilise resources for the express purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, through peaceful means.”

But the text specifies that the utilisation of such resources must be carried out in accordance with the article that recognises the jurisdiction of domestic law, as long as that legislation is consistent with the UN Charter and other international obligations.

“The wording of the declaration is a compromise wording,” but the text is positive because it recognises the rights of NGOs to receive funding, said Thomson.

“The reference to the article on the balance between domestic law and international obligations is a fair reference, and something that NGOs can work with,” he added.

Thomson told the delegates that the declaration “offers full protection for human rights defenders, some of whom sit today in the prisons of some states present in this room.

“The draft, and the possible declaration, could mark a break- through in the approach of the states to human rights and those individuals who promote and protect them,” he maintained.

The Malaysian delegates expressed total support for the declaration, but pointed out that “the state, governed by a democratic government, and its agents, can also collectively or individually be a defender of human rights of its citizenry, against the vagaries of unfeterred globalisation, for example.”

Thomson expressed his hope that the draft would serve as an aid to human rights defenders, instead of accentuating the obstacles and repression they face.

The assistant director of the International Service for Human Rights also spoke in the name of Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the Colombian Commission of Jurists, the Bahai International Community, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Carter Centre, as well as the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, the Global Organisation Against Torture, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Lutheran World Federation, Afronet and ACAT-Mexico.

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