HUMAN RIGHTS: Iraq to Overshadow Debates in UN Commission

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 14 2003 (IPS) - The prevailing uncertainty over Iraq will cast a heavy shadow over the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which convenes next Monday and will run through Apr. 25 in this Swiss city.

The possibility of the Commission passing resolutions critical of Russia or China, for example, will depend largely on the position that the two countries – veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council – take in that body with respect to resolutions authorising the use of force against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the United States might bargain for the support of Russia and China in the Security Council by offering more lenient treatment of the two countries in the Commission on Human Rights.

Rights watchdogs like HRW and Amnesty International (AI) are demanding that the Commission pass a resolution condemning the grave situation of human rights in the autonomous republic of Chechnya and the entire Russian Federation.

A similar initiative, introduced by the European Union (EU), was narrowly rejected last year by a vote of 16 to 15, with 22 abstentions. This year the EU will sponsor another resolution along the same lines, said representatives of the human rights groups.

The case of China may be brought up in the Commission again this year, on the initiative of the United States, which recovered its seat on the Commission after losing it in 2002.

”The U.S. may drop a China resolution all together, or introduce one only at the last minute in a token effort that China and other Commission members can easily ignore.”

In the past, China’s delegates have blocked resolutions condemning that country’s human rights record by using a procedural instrument known as a ”no action motion”, which keeps resolutions from being debated.

Recent statements issued by the London-based AI made no reference to China’s human rights record.

HRW, on the other hand, is demanding that China be condemned for violations of the right to freedom of expression, assembly, association, thought, conscience, religion and belief.

The rights watchdogs have also expressed concern about the situation of human rights in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and Nepal. In addition, HRW has cited the cases of Iran, North Korea and Turkmenistan.

Other important issues that figure on the Commission’s working agenda include reforms of the way the Commission works, the death penalty, and discussions of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which would allow individuals to submit complaints about violations of such rights.

The situation of refugees and asylum-seekers, torture, impunity, forced disappearances, women’s rights, and child soldiers are other questions to be discussed by the delegates of the Commission’s 53 member states and the human rights defenders and experts who will attend the deliberations.

But in the view of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian, the climate generated by the Security Council debate on Iraq may ”eclipse” this year’s sessions.

Rights groups insist that the Commission must discuss the relationship between human rights and anti-terrorism laws, which have been stiffened since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

”Ironically, it seems that everyone in the UN is speaking of the importance of respecting human rights in the context of fighting terrorism, other than the Commission,” said Roth.

AI spokeswoman Judit Arenas said that ”Evidence collected by Amnesty International over 40 years of monitoring of laws and practices confirm that measures in response to real or perceived terrorist threats often have a negative long-term impact on the peaceful and non-violent exercise of human rights.”

AI suggests that the Commission ”Establish a new mechanism with a mandate to monitor and analyse the impact of security legislation and measures on human rights, and to make recommendations to states on safeguarding human rights in this context.”

Roth, on the other hand, proposed that the Commission endorse the appointment by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan of a special representative on counterterrorism and human rights, with the power to ”go country by country to monitor and question whether in fact these important principles are being applied.”

On the eve of the Commission’s sessions, the highest-profile case involving human rights and counterterrorism is the situation of the detainees held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

A specially-built prison camp in Guantanamo is housing 600 suspected members of forces loyal to Afghanistan’s defeated Taliban fundamentalist Islamic movement and the Al-Qaeda network, which Washington holds responsible for the Sep. 11 attacks.

According to a ruling handed down Mar. 11 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Guantanamo Bay detainees cannot invoke the jurisdiction of U.S. courts because the territory is not part of the country.

Special UN Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, from Malaysia, said ”The implications of this decision are far-reaching and could set a dangerous precedent.”

The verdict ”appears to imply that a government of a sovereign state could lease a piece of land from a neighbouring state, set up a detention camp, fully operate and control it, arrest suspects of terrorism from other jurisdictions, send them to this camp, deny them their legal rights – including principles of due process generally granted to its own citizens – on grounds that the camp is physically outside its jurisdiction,” said Cumaraswamy.

”By such conduct,” the U.S. government ”will be seen as systematically evading application of domestic and international law so as to deny these suspects their legal rights. Detention without trial offends the first principle of the rule of law,” he said.

Pointing out that U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft reportedly termed the court ruling ”an important victory in the war on terrorism,” Cumaraswamy stressed that ”The war on terrorism cannot possibly be won by denial of legal rights, including fundamental principles of due process of those merely suspected of terrorism.”

Vieira de Mello said Thursday that there can be no jurisdictional ”black hole” in Guantanamo, and that the arguments of the U.S. court were ”unacceptable.”

The High Commissioner discussed the situation of the detainees in Guantanamo with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington last week.

In the meeting, Vieira de Mello expressed disapproval of the treatment given the detainees at the Guantanamo base, and said they should either be tried or released.

Bush responded that the use of torture had been prohibited during the interrogation of the detainees.

The Office of the High Commissioner will continue discussing the case with U.S. authorities, said Vieira de Mello.