Saturday, November 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
RIGHTS: Groups Laud U.N. Move to Defend Rights In Fight on Terror
Thalif Deen
- Two leading human rights groups have paid a rare tribute to U.N. member states for collectively speaking up in defence of human rights in the context of the global war against terrorism.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said they strongly support a U.N. resolution adopted unanimously Thursday urging all 191 member states to protect fundamental freedoms while continuing their battle against terrorism.
The resolution, which was adopted by a key U.N. committee, is expected to be ratified by the General Assembly next month. The ratification is considered a formality.
The consensus vote came as a pleasant surprise to human rights activists, who had unsuccessfully lobbied for a similar resolution, sponsored by Mexico, at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva early this year.
”The resolution is not earth-shattering,” Yvonne Terlingen, the Amnesty International (AI) representative at the United Nations, told IPS. But it is still the first time that a General Assembly committee had adopted a resolution protecting human rights in the context of terrorism, she added.
The resolution affirms that states must ensure ”that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with their obligations under international law, in particularly international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law”.
”If terrorism is to be successfully defeated, states must put the protection of human rights first,” Terlingen added.
The resolution contains ”important elements”, she said, including a request that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello make recommendations about the obligations of states to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms while they act to counter terrorism.
Last week, Amnesty wrote to U.S. President George W. Bush expressing its ”deep concern” at reports that six men blown up in a car in Yemen in early November were killed by a missile launched by a Predator drone aircraft controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
”If this was the deliberate killing of suspects in lieu of arrest, in circumstances in which they did not pose an immediate threat, the killings would be extra-judicial executions in violation of international human rights law,” Amnesty said.
The United States has argued that the killings were ”targeted assassinations” in the war against terrorism.
Joanna Weschler, U.N. representative of Human Rights Watch (HRW), welcomed the adoption of the resolution. ”Human rights cannot be another casualty of terrorism,” she told IPS.
Weschler pointed out that Mexico was forced to withdraw the original resolution in Geneva because several countries, including the United States, India, Pakistan, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, had tried to dilute it by adding ”unacceptable” amendments.
Although the present resolution is slightly different, she said, it still sticks to the basic demand to protect human rights against terrorism.
The resolution still falls short of a proposal made by former High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who called for the appointment of an independent expert or a new international body to monitor violations.
Just before she stepped down in September, Robinson said the United States could be a leader in combating terrorism while upholding human rights.
”Instead, it has sought to put all the emphasis on combating terrorism and has not been fully upholding human rights standards. And that’s having a ripple effect on other less democratic countries,” she added.
"My office is flooded with calls from human rights defenders around the world, drawing attention to new restrictions and oppressive measures," Robinson said early this year.
The former president of Ireland regretted that no international body existed that could assess if measures taken by member states ”to combat terrorism” violated human rights standards that those states had accepted.
Since last year’s Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, several nations, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Egypt, Russia and Uzbekistan, have introduced far reaching anti-terrorism measures, some of which are said to violate basic human rights.
These include detention of non-citizens, tightening of immigration laws, electronic surveillance without court order, deportation of people who overstay their visas, and monitoring of mail and communications between prisoners and their lawyers.
According to Robinson, the new restrictive measures also cover privacy rights, fair trial, the right to seek asylum, political participation, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has continuously warned member states against jeopardising human rights as they fight against terrorism, said that terrorism is able to turn the whole spectrum of opinion in society in a repressive direction.
”Terrorism is one of the threats against which states must protect their citizens. States have not only the right but also the duty to do so. But states must also take the greatest care to ensure that counter-terrorism measures do not mutate into measures use to cloak, or justify violations of human rights,” he added.
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RIGHTS: Groups Laud U.N. Move to Defend Rights In Fight on Terror
Thalif Deen
- Two leading human rights groups have paid a rare tribute to U.N. member states for collectively speaking up in defence of human rights in the context of the global war against terrorism.
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