RIGHTS: Chechnya Crisis Stands Out in UN Debate

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 14 2000 (IPS) - Charges of human rights abuses in Chechnya and the creation of a protective regimen for rights activists are the hottest issues awaiting discussion by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission.

On the UN Commission’s working agenda for this year’s period of sessions – running from Mar 20 to Apr 28 – are other important issues, including events in the African Great Lakes region and in East Timor.

As occurred in 1999 with Kosovo and the war against Yugoslavia, the Chechnya case will be at the centre of the meeting’s debate, due to investigations underway into presumed human rights violations by Russian troops against Chechen civilians.

The independent international organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW), based in New York, believes the European Union (EU) must lead efforts to condemn “the serious abuses by Russia in Chechnya.”

Inquiries have confirmed that the Russian military campaign in the region caused great loss of lives among the Chechen civilian population, said the HRW information director in Europe, Jean-Paul Marthoz.

But Adrien-Claude Zoller, director of the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), believes the Chechnya debate will end in the Commission with a declaration by its president, a measure seen as a victory for the country being charged with human rights crimes.

Zoller said the European Council, which includes Russia, finds itself in a more-compromised position in the Chechnya investigations than the Organisation of Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which also includes the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, as well as the United States and Canada.

Any decision on Chechnya, where the Muslim population is the majority, will be influenced by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), as occurred in the past when the Commission studied the cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, pointed out Zoller.

The OIC initiated a flurry of diplomatic activity related to the Chechnyan case over recent weeks, he explained.

Zoller also predicted that if a resolution is promoted among some of the OIC’s members, it could obtain a majority among the 53 governments represented in the UN commission.

In addition, protection for defenders of human rights is an issue of great interest to the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) specialised in the area.

Marthoz pointed out that HRW has called for the designation of a special rapporteur to take charge of the implementation of the declaration approved in 1998 that consecrates individual human rights, adding that NGOs must promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms that are universally recognised.

In the period since the conclusion of the UN Human Rights Commission sessions in April 1999 through the first week of this year, at least six human rights activists died as a result of their labours, pointed out the HRW spokesman.

The proposed rapporteur would study the compatibility of the norms and practices of the countries in question with the contents of the UN-approved declaration on human rights defenders, and would also intervene in cases of abuse or persecution inflicted against the activists.

Regarding Africa’s Great Lakes region, where violations persist after genocide and other atrocities were perpetrated throughout the last decade, the Commission must study the cases of Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and renew the terms of the three special rapporteurs there.

The situation in East Timor, which last year required a special session of the UN Commission, will be studied in light of recent events, which include the release of a report by a UN commission that investigated abuses attributed to Timorese militias backed by the Indonesian military.

The case of China will be another issue to reappear during the Human Rights Commission’s sessions, intensified this year by its imminent entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Beijing authorities have accelerated their negotiations in recent weeks with other WTO member countries in order to ensure their access to the international trade system.

Zoller lamented that many delegates to the Human Rights Commission receive instructions from their governments based on self-interest, in which economic concerns play a fundamental role.

As a result it is difficult to obtain a majority in the Commission to condemn China for human rights abuses because it is an enormous market, he said.

The Commission will once again take up the case of Colombia, where the recommendations made by the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have yet to be implemented, said Marthoz.

For its part, the human rights organisation Amnesty International announced that its campaigns this year will include Saudia Arabia among its major targets.