RIGHTS: Activists Urge American Leaders to Close Gap Between Talk and Action

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Apr 7 2001 (IPS) - Despite pledges made by governments across the Americas to uphold and strengthen democracy in the hemisphere, the current reality suggests otherwise.

And the global human rights lobby Amnesty International (AI) has stepped up the tempo regards this disparity with an unequivocal message. It wants leaders of governments in the Americas to address the gap between the promises on paper and human rights abuse on the ground when they meet in Quebec, Canada, later this month for the Third Summit of the Americas.

Besides such priorities as economics and trade-related issues, the question of how democracy can be strengthened in the region will also be discussed at the Apr. 20-22 summit.

The way the London-based human rights group sees it, democracy in this region will not be attained if governments do not demonstrate sincerity and respect for human rights. And it has a strong case here given that talk of strengthening democracy in the region has been heard before; the subject featured as a main theme when government heads met in 1994 for the first hemispheric summit in Miami and later on for the second summit in Santiago, the Chilean capital.

“Without human rights, the very idea of democracy simply becomes an implausible formula that exists in name alone since the aim of any democratic organisation is precisely to ensure that people are able to exercise their fundamental rights,” AI stated in a report released Friday.

For Javier Zuniga, AI’s programme director for the Americas, the leaders expected to participate in the summit need to remember that “there can be no true democracy if people are denied their fundamental human rights”.

Fundamental human rights are under siege in the region. Appalling prison conditions, regular police abuse, death threats, political killings, ill-treatment of asylum-seekers, harassment of human rights defenders and the continuing application of the death penalty are among the abuses AI identifies in its recent report ‘Americas: Putting Human Rights on the Agenda’.

Equally troubling, adds Zuniga, is the prevalence of torture. “Although torture should by now be consigned to the history books, it continues to be an everyday reality for thousands of men, women and children detained in prisons, jails and police stations.”

What is more, AI’s critical report spares no country in the region. Rights abuses, it argues, have occurred from Canada to Chile and from countries in the Caribbean to Central America.

In Argentina, reveals AI, there was evidence of violence by the provincial police that resulted in “scores of people” being killed “in circumstances suggesting excessive or disproportionate use of force”.

And in Brazil, it adds, there was systemic use of torture and ill- treatment in police stations, prisons and juvenile detention centres. “Land reform activists and indigenous people involved in land disputes were harassed, assaulted and killed both by military police and by gunmen hired by local landowners.”

While in Mexico, the detention of criminal suspects without a judicial order and the intimidation and violence directed against the indigenous communities in Chiapas were identified. “The authorities continued to be accused by Mexican and international NGOs of having failed to break the cycle of impunity which had characterised Mexico’s human rights record over the past decades,” the report said.

Regards the smaller countries in the region, AI has taken to task Belize, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti and Paraguay for the prevalence of torture, police brutality and unlawful killings.

In Ecuador, for instance, the methods of torture and ill-treatment included “kicking in the face, stamping on the feet, burning, and electric shocks on genitals, tongue and chest, as well as beating”.

Of Columbia, it states, the escalating armed conflict had led to civilians becoming the principal victims of human rights abuse. “The majority of these killings were carried out by illegal paramilitary groups operating with the tacit or active support of the Colombian armed forces.”

And Cuba has been charged for suppressing the rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly. “Journalists, political opponents and human rights defenders were subjected to severe harassment.”

On the other hand, Canada and the United States have been faulted for police abuse against indigenous and minority communities, unfair treatment of asylum-seekers and torture in prisons and detention facilities.

“The governments represented at this summit have an obligation to respect the rights of their peoples and to adhere to international human rights standards,” argues Zuniga.

But the thrust of AI’s argument has to be seen in another light too, that of the current global indicators linking democracy, human rights and economic growth.

According to Freedom House, a Washington D.C.-based non- governmental organisation (NGO), the economies of countries enjoying high levels of political rights and civil liberties grow faster and higher than those of states without these rights.

Looking at states with a per capita gross domestic product under 5,000 dollars, a recent Freedom House study entitled ‘Freedom in the World 2000- 2001’ found that “free countries grew at an average of 3.23 percent between 1990 and 1998, well over double the annual growth rate of poor Not Free states, which grew 1.52 percent each year.”