RIGHTS: Nothing to Celebrate on Human Rights Day

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 8 2001 (IPS) - Human Rights Day will be commemorated this Monday against a “worrying and bleak” backdrop that was aggravated by the Sep 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, said Mary Robinson, the United Nations’ top human rights official.

The most disturbing human rights issues today arise from the armed conflicts that “continue to rage around the world,” abuses against human rights defenders, “too many of whom are intimidated and murdered,” and “religious intolerance and racial discrimination that persist on every continent,” the UN high commissioner for human rights stressed.

But in her message released ahead of Human Rights Day, Robinson also underlined the effects of the Sep 11 events, terrorist acts “on such a scale that they could only be seen as crimes against humanity.”

The suicide attacks on targets in New York and Washington raised “new challenges” on the human rights front, said the high commissioner.

Shortly after the attacks, Robinson warned of the possibility that measures adopted to clamp down on terrorism “could erode human rights and long-standing liberties, and even aspects of the rule of law.”

Two months later, she said she was concerned about an executive order issued in the United States which “contains provisions that could pose direct or indirect threats to the protection of certain fundamental rights relating to prohibitions against arbitrary arrests and detention, and the rights to liberty and security of persons.”

Non-governmental human rights organisations expressed similar concerns. Amnesty International, for example, said the Sep 11 tragedy had been used as a pretext to further undermine human rights, especially the rights of refugees, and to intensify the crack-down on opponents.

Human rights are facing growing threats in the name of security, said Amnesty in a declaration issued to mark the occasion of Human Rights Day.

Robinson also expressed concern that the executive orders introduced in the United States to fight terrorism lack “express provisions regarding other fundamental rights, in particular those relating to legal representation and assistance, and a fair trial.

“I am told that it is too soon to judge what will actually happen in practise, and that the United States will hold to its strong tradition of rule of law, but I think it is worrying” that such safeguards do not exist in the military orders issued by President George W. Bush, she stated.

Before Sep 11, the debate in the field of human rights focused on the indivisibility of human rights, and on granting the same importance to economic, social and cultural rights as to more traditional civil and political rights.

A group of Latin American experts meeting this week in Geneva said concern was rising in the world regarding the importance of economic, social and cultural rights.

Robinson herself said she was more hopeful than at the beginning of the year regarding the possibility of holding a “serious debate about ethical globalisation,” because “more people understand now how important it is to address the divides in our world.”

The second key human rights question this year was the World Conference Against Racism, held Aug 31-Sep 8 in Durban, South Africa. Robinson termed the conference an “honest, if at times painful, global dialogue about some of the most searing issues facing humanity.”

However, three months later, the conference’s results are still being debated by the bloc of African countries, led by South Africa, and the European Union, represented by Belgium.

The African nations argue that three clauses approved in Durban, referring to reparations for damages inflicted by slavery and colonialism, should form part of the action programme, which contains provisions that governments are to adopt.

But the European bloc says the clauses in question belong in the final declaration, and thus are non-binding. The negotiations between the two sides continue at UN headquarters in New York.

But in the wake of the Sep 11 attacks, the human rights debate has focused mainly on the effects of the actions and measures taken to fight terrorism.

Robinson said she was worried about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, which “in the short term has been worsened by the military strategy, the displacement of so many civilians, and the effect of the bombing in cutting off electricity and other vital services.”

The high commissioner also said a thorough investigation should be carried out into what happened in the Mazar-i-Sharif prison complex in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups reported that a number of prisoners of war held in the prison were killed by US bombs or were shot and killed by their guards, members of the Northern Alliance.

She also said leaders of the forces fighting in Afghanistan who have violated human rights should not form part of the new government of that country.

The Office of the High Commissioner promotes an interpretation of the events of Sep 11 that not only focuses on the symptoms, including the fight against terrorism, but also examines the “underlying causes and some of the very deep divides in our world,” said Robinson.