UN Human Rights Treaties

UNITED NATIONS
E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
27 August 1998
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SUB-COMMISSION ON PREVENTION OF DISCRIMINATION AND
PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
Fiftieth session
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 31st MEETING
Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
on Monday, 24 August 1998, at 3 p.m.
Chairman: Mr. GUISSÉ
CONTENTS
SITUATION REGARDING THE PROMOTION, FULL REALIZATION AND PROTECTION OF THE
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH (continued)
REVIEW OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN FIELDS WITH WHICH THE SUBCOMMISSION
HAS
BEEN OR MAY BE CONCERNED:
(a) THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADOPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS;
This record is subject to correction.
Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They
should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the
record. They should be sent within one week of the date of this document to
the Official Records Editing Section, room E.4108, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
Any corrections to the records of the public meetings of the
Sub-Commission at this session will be consolidated in a single corrigendum to
be issued shortly after the end of the session.
GE.98-14106 (E)
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 2
CONTENTS (continued)
(b) REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS CONCERNING RECOMMENDATIONS AND DECISIONS
RELATING, INTER ALIA, TO:
(i) PROMOTION, PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AT
NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS;
(ii) ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF INTOLERANCE AND OF
DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RELIGION OR BELIEF;
(iii) ENCOURAGEMENT OF UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
INSTRUMENTS;
(iv) HUMAN RIGHTS AND SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS;
(c) REVIEW OF ISSUES NOT PREVIOUSLY THE SUBJECT OF STUDIES BUT WHICH
THE SUBCOMMISSION
HAD DECIDED TO EXAMINE:
(i) IMPLICATIONS OF HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF
HUMAN RIGHTS;
(ii) TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS;
(iii) INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY AS AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION
FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ABOVE ALL THE RIGHT TO
LIFE;
(d) HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISABILITY;
(e) OTHER NEW DEVELOPMENTS;
(i) ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TRANSFER OF ARMS AND ILLICIT
TRAFFICKING IN ARMS ON THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS;
(ii) ARBITRARY DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 3
The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.
SITUATION REGARDING THE PROMOTION, FULL REALIZATION AND PROTECTION OF THE
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH (agenda item 11) (continued)
1. Mr. ALFONSO MARTÍNEZ said that the adoption of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child had drawn international attention to the situation of
children and young people. Although much valuable work was being done
elsewhere in the United Nations system, the Sub-Commission’s decision to
retain the item on its agenda was a wise one in view of the particular
vulnerability of children and young people and the distressing situation in
which many of them continued to find themselves.
2. The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery had dealt with the
issue of children and young people as a matter of priority and the relevant
recommendations contained in the report on its twentythird
session
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/14) should be studied as a basis for action. The Working
Group had also helped to clarify the way in which the SubCommission
should
approach the topic (paragraph 10 of recommendation 12).
3. The link between poverty and ignorance and the causes of contemporary
forms of slavery could not be overemphasized, and the SubCommission
should
continue to analyse the impact of globalization on the human rights of
children and young people. The problem of street children was still awaiting
appropriate treatment by the United Nations and, in the absence of any draft
resolution on the issue, the SubCommission
should urge the Working Group to
include it as a priority item on its agenda.
4. Ms. PEREZ DUARTE (Observer for Mexico) said that her country had been
among the first to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but one of
the obstacles it had encountered in implementing its provisions was the
phenomenon of the illtreatment
of children, which was chronic throughout the
world. Her Government had introduced programmes to tackle the problem, and
was anxious to root out its causes and deal with its effects. Finding itself
in broad agreement with the concerns expressed by the Special Rapporteur on
the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography following her
visit to Mexico in 1997 with regard to the lack of effectiveness of both
national and international action to eradicate such practices, her Government
had concluded that the campaign against such practices had to begin with
education which stressed the dignity of the child and on training at all
levels from the family to government institutions.
5. It recognized the importance of cooperation between government bodies
and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), and was setting up a national
committee to look into the problem, as had been recommended by the Special
Rapporteur. It was also implementing the Special Rapporteur's other
recommendations and supported her call to the international community to
intensify its efforts to rescue such children from the hell in which they were
living and help them attain the dignity they merited.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 4
REVIEW OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN FIELDS WITH WHICH THE SUBCOMMISSION
HAS
BEEN OR MAY BE CONCERNED:
(a) THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADOPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS;
(b) REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS CONCERNING RECOMMENDATIONS AND DECISIONS
RELATING, INTER ALIA, TO:
(i) PROMOTION, PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AT
NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS;
(ii) ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF INTOLERANCE AND OF
DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RELIGION OR BELIEF;
(iii) ENCOURAGEMENT OF UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
INSTRUMENTS;
(iv) HUMAN RIGHTS AND SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS;
(c) REVIEW OF ISSUES NOT PREVIOUSLY THE SUBJECT OF STUDIES BUT WHICH
THE SUBCOMMISSION
HAD DECIDED TO EXAMINE:
(i) IMPLICATIONS OF HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF
HUMAN RIGHTS;
(ii) TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS;
(iii) INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY AS AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION
FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ABOVE ALL THE RIGHT TO
LIFE;
(d) HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISABILITY;
(e) OTHER NEW DEVELOPMENTS;
(i) ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TRANSFER OF ARMS AND ILLICIT
TRAFFICKING IN ARMS ON THE ENJOYMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS;
(ii) ARBITRARY DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY
(agenda item 12) (continued) (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/2025,
29, 31, 32 and 37)
6. Mr. SORABJEE said that, while nobody questioned the need to combat
terrorism, the recent incident which had provoked outrage must not cause the
international community to lose sight of the fact that the means employed were
important, and that a legitimate end could not be achieved by illegitimate
means. It was important to ensure that, in fighting terrorism, States did not
themselves indulge in terrorism of such gravity and dimension that the
response amounted to a gross violation of human rights.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 5
7. Mr. GENOT said that he would be submitting his thoughts on humanitarian
activities and human rights in written form, including a draft decision
calling for the item to remain on the agenda.
8. Ms. BATCHELOR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR)) said that the issue of the elimination of statelessness, a
prime concern of UNHCR, was as yet insufficiently addressed at the
international level. Nationality was a prerequisite for access to education,
health care, the right to work and own property, to travel, to exercise civil
and political rights and to be represented at the international level. In the
absence of the relevant procedural safeguards, arbitrary deprivation of
nationality almost always led to statelessness and those deprived of
nationality were effectively outcasts from membership of the community of
nation States.
9. Regional and international law continued to be refined;
the 1997 European Convention on Nationality and the draft declaration on
nationality adopted in 1997 by the International Law Commission were examples
of the progress made. However, although many States had taken significant
steps to harmonize their national legislation with the international
instruments designed to ensure the avoidance of statelessness, implementation
needed improvement. UNHCR provided relevant technical and advisory services
in accordance with its mandate, and was involved in numerous ongoing
programmes at the national level.
10. Avoidance of statelessness began with a review of where nationality was
or could legitimately be held. Once nationality was granted, it should not be
arbitrarily withdrawn, or withdrawn at all if statelessness would result. If
that basic principle were applied by all States, the problem of statelessness
would disappear. While it was easy to subscribe to article 15 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and declare that everyone had the right
to a nationality, it was much more difficult to apply that right. As yet,
only the surface of the problem had been scratched.
11. Mr. PARK said that agenda item 12 (d), on human rights and disability,
was supposed to be discussed on a biennial basis but there had been no
substantial debate on the item at the forty-eighth session, and no resolution
had been submitted.
12. To enable it to consider the situation of disabled persons throughout
the world, the Sub-Commission should invite the Special Rapporteur on
disability of the Commission for Social Development to address its
fiftysecond
session. Since the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and
the Working Group on Minorities had both made solid contributions on a
multitude of relevant issues, the Sub-Commission might, in due course,
consider establishing a working group on disabled people, since the
500 million disabled persons in the world deserved an institutionalized forum
of their own. The SubCommission
might also consider drafting a convention on
the rights of disabled persons in the near future.
13. Mr. MEHEDI said that terrorist attacks not only had a negative impact on
the enjoyment of all human rights; they violated the most fundamental human
right, namely the right to life. No single world Power was capable of
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 6
eradicating modern terrorism on its own, since terrorism was a faceless enemy
which could be combated only through international cooperation grounded in
solidarity. Not a single country was sheltered from terrorism which had
acquired an irreversibly global character with the capability of dislocating
whole societies. The instruments for international cooperation existed,
ranging from simple bilateral agreements to actions at world level through
such mechanisms as the International Criminal Police Organization
(ICPO/INTERPOL). It was at regional level, however, that international
cooperation was most refined, in the Council of Europe, the European Union or
the Arab League, even though all the countries of the respective regions might
not be party to all the instruments.
14. Although the usefulness of international and regional cooperation could
not be overemphasized, the instruments concerned contained geographical and
legal restrictions, such as clauses prohibiting the extradition of “political
offenders”, and international cooperation was also hampered by the desire of
some States to protect themselves against possible reprisals and their fear of
“importing terrorism”. While all possible means must be used to counter
terrorism, no one country should take it upon itself to ignite the fire or
play the fireman.
15. Mr. EIDE said that the problem of terrorism arose when conflict dynamics
became irrational. Much had been written about the causes of conflict but
little about their dynamics the
interaction between the challengers and the
incumbent or between the opposition and the government side. When processes
of severe internal unrest or disturbance occurred, they revealed a process of
polarization with severe cleavage in the body politic. The rule of law broke
down and the machinery of law and order became a battleground. The security
forces often shed the constraints they normally respected and, from being the
servants of civil society, became main actors in the conflict. During states
of siege or emergency, lawmaking
power was transferred to the executive and
that in turn came under the dominance of the security branch, which also
sometimes arrogated to itself control over the judiciary.
16. Even when faced with terrorism, the basic principles of the
administration of justice must continue to be applied: if they were not,
actions were likely to make the situation worse, with even more serious forms
of terrorism. The legal order was increasingly regarded as an instrument of
repression, and that gave credibility to militant opposition assertions that
no justice could be expected from the Government. The downward spiral into
generalized violence could then lead to patterns of behaviour where no
distinction was made between combatants and civilians. Ruthless fanaticism
made the combatants entirely insensitive to the fate of innocent people who
had nothing whatever to do with the conflict.
17. Preventing terrorism required action on many levels. Human rights
education in peacetime instilled in every child respect for and tolerance of
every other human being, and also clarified the minimum standards that needed
to be applied when a conflict erupted. More work needed to be done on ways in
which groups could learn to accommodate each other and share the same
territory without fighting. People had to be made to understand that even
noble principles, such as that of self-determination, could be misused for
purposes of mobilizing hatred and intolerance.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 7
18. Ways had to be found to ensure that persons engaging in terrorism could
be brought to trial and punished without resorting to counterterrorist
activities that increased the likelihood of further terrorism. Terrorists
should be isolated and the moderate forces in their movements encouraged;
NGOs which believed in the underlying cause of a particular movement should
dissociate themselves from that movement or its leaders when it engaged in
systematic acts of terror. However worthy the aims might appear, they could
not justify the means of terror.
19. Ms. HAMPSON said and argument was being conducted within the
United Nations which might be described as “the battle of reservations to
human rights treaties”. In one corner stood the International Law Commission,
which had concluded that no special principles applied to human rights
treaties, while in the opposite corner were the treaty bodies, some of which
had turned to the Sub-Commission for help, suggesting that the question could
be the subject of a useful independent study. That request, which would be
put before the Sub-Commission in the form of a proposal for a decision, would
not, she hoped, fall on deaf ears.
20. It was possible to go a long way without resorting to arguments about
the special nature of human rights treaties. It was an inherent feature of
any court or quasijudicial
body that it had jurisdiction to determine whether
or not it had jurisdiction, and that included decisions as to the scope of its
jurisdiction. Since reservations affected the scope of the jurisdiction of
the human rights treaty bodies, they clearly had the jurisdiction to determine
the validity and scope of reservations which would affect their jurisdiction.
The InterAmerican
Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human
Rights had both been doing so for a long time. There was also an important
question as to the relationship between the normative part of a treaty and its
monitoring provisions. Clearly, there were a number of important questions
that needed to be considered.
21. Turning to the question of mercenary activity in an armed conflict, she
said that what made the activity objectionable was the fact that foreigners
with no personal stake in the future of the territory in which they were
fighting were undertaking the activity. The offence of the mercenary was one
against the rules on the resort to force (ius ad bellum) rather than an
offence against the rules of war (ius in bello). If a mercenary violated the
laws of war in the way in which he fought he should be prosecuted on that
account. Mercenaries should not, however, be denied combatant status if they
fought according to the rules.
22. If a State sought the assistance of foreign forces under a bilateral
agreement and the persons concerned remained members of their own armed forces
on official duty, they were not mercenaries. If a State sought the assistance
of individual former members of the armed forces of another State, they were
not mercenaries so long as they merely trained the armed forces. If, however,
they took part in hostilities, they were mercenaries unless they were
incorporated into the armed forces of a party to the conflict. She therefore
proposed as an idea for further consideration that it should be an
international offence, subject to universal jurisdiction, for a person to
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 8
participate actively in a conflict in a territory of which he was not a
national or a longterm
resident unless he did so as a member of the armed
forces of a State party to the conflict.
23. Turning to the question of responding to terrorist activity, she said
that, in common with every other member of the SubCommission,
she
unequivocally condemned all terrorist attacks by whomsoever they were made.
There had been a number of such attacks during the current session of the
SubCommission,
including attacks on the United States embassies in Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam, a bomb explosion in Omagh, Northern Ireland, and an
explosion at El Khemis, a town southwest
of Algiers. There was no doubt that
those responsible needed to be identified, sought out and brought to justice.
To deal effectively with terrorists, every attempt had to be made to detain
the perpetrators of such acts and put them on trial.
24. It was not just for reasons of legal principle that trials were
required: they also served a practical purpose in demonstrating that the
State was not resorting to terrorist tactics and techniques. Where the State
resorted to actual or attempted extrajudicial killings, it simply created
martyrs. Where a State responded to a previous unlawful attack, said to be
part of a continuing threat, by resort to armed force, then it was incumbent
upon that State to produce evidence of the connection between the targets of
its own attacks and the suspected perpetrators of the earlier attack.
25. To demonstrate respect for the rule of law, it was also necessary to
show that the resort to armed force had occurred as a last resort. Where the
target was in another sovereign State, the State victim of the terrorist
attack should first request that the suspected terrorists be detained and
either brought to justice in that other State or surrendered for trial before
the courts of the victim State.
26. The Statute of the International Criminal Court defined crimes against
humanity as including “inhumane acts ... intentionally causing great
suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health ... when
committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any
civilian population”. That would appear to cover attacks likely to instil
terror in the civilian population, and any State which wished to ensure that
effective action was taken against terrorist attacks and which also sought to
uphold the rule of law should be expected to ratify the Statute of the
International Criminal Court.
27. An intervention which involved the resort to armed force put at risk the
human rights of innocent potential victims both directly, in that there was a
risk of casualties, and indirectly. It was reported that aid workers had left
Afghanistan following
the United States attack on what it stated was a
terrorist base because
all foreigners had become potential targets. That
indirect, but foreseeable, consequence of the attack in Afghanistan would have
an impact on the lives of Afghan civilians, and particularly on women.
28. Anyone who claimed to play the role of international policeman needed to
remember that a policeman was subject to and upheld the rule of law. Until
there was evidence of the noncooperation
of Afghanistan and the Sudan in
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 9
bringing to justice those suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks
against the United States of America, it was not possible to conclude that the
recent attacks constituted international policing.
29. Mr. PEREZ BERRIO (American Association of Jurists) said that General
Comment 8 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stated that
economic sanctions almost always produced tragic consequences for the rights
recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, frequently leading to breakdowns in the supply of food and medicine,
deterioration in the quality of food and the availability of drinking water,
serious obstacles to the functioning of basic health and education systems,
and an undermining of the right to work.
30. The indefinite extension by the Security Council of the embargo imposed
on Iraq violated fundamental human rights, as did unilaterally imposed
economic sanctions such as the United States embargoes against Cuba, the
Islamic Republic of Iran and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
31. The socalled
programme for the democratization of Cuba contained in the
HelmsBurton
Act was simply a plan to turn that country into a vassal of the
United States of America. As for Cuba's nationalization of the property of
United States citizens and former Cuban citizens who had subsequently acquired
United States citizenship, that was an internationally recognized prerogative
of the political sovereignty of States which was enshrined in the Charter of
Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted by the General Assembly in 1974.
32. Ms. MARWAH (International Institute for NonAligned
Studies) said that
the absence of a balanced relationship between individual and community rights
could lead to denial of the rights of a society as a whole and to instability
and anarchy. The necessary conditions for the sustenance of human rights were
the absence of poverty, conditions of peace and security and the safeguarding
of national sovereignty. In the pantheon of human rights, pride of place
should be given to the right to development, yet it had still to be translated
into action by the international community.
33. Human rights were threatened by militarily, economically and politically
powerful States which, on any trivial pretext, imposed sanctions against other
countries. Such sanctions were nothing but neocolonialism,
determined by
commercial and foreign policy interests. Gross and massive violations of
human rights, whether perpetrated by States, nongovernment
entities or
terrorist groups were a threat to mankind as a whole.
34. Mr. MONOD (War Resisters International) said that 90 per cent of the
reported cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and rapes
had been committed by official armed forces and paramilitary forces. National
armed forces were abusing their power in that way in Chad, Colombia,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Yemen and many other countries.
35. The violence used by armed opposition groups was to be condemned
categorically, but the oppressor State was responsible for their appearance
and had led them to their extreme position by its own uncompromising stance.
Examples included the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Armed Islamic Groups in
Algeria, the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, the Mexican Zapatistas,
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 10
the Liberation Army in Southern Sudan and the Mujahadin in Kashmir.
Governments used State terrorism against such armed groups, and the civilian
population was the chief victim.
36. A democratic Government that listened to the needs of its population and
was on good terms with its neighbours did not need an army. Governments
should envisage the possibility of a world without armies and a civilization
without the murderous arms trade. The fiftieth anniversary of the
United Nations Declaration on Human Rights was an opportunity for the
SubCommission
to take a decision to delegitimize all forms of violence, under
pain of prosecution before the International Criminal Court.
37. Ms. FONTANA (International Prison Watch) said that two out of every
three people in the world suffering from HIV/AIDS were African, and the prison
population represented a particularly vulnerable group of them. In Uganda,
15 per cent of the prison population was HIV positive, as against 10 per cent
for the rest of the population. In Côte d'Ivoire, the figures were
37 per cent and 13 per cent.
38. An international conference on HIV/AIDS in African prisons, organized by
her organization in February 1998 had concluded that prison overcrowding was
aggravating the AIDS pandemic in the prisons, that prison healthcare
services
lacked the necessary financial and human resources for effective prevention
and treatment, that some countries had no proper written rules governing the
confidentiality of medical information on prisoners, that most countries had
no statutory provisions facilitating the dissemination of information on
HIV/AIDS, and that all African countries except South Africa restricted access
to prophylactics such as condoms.
39. States had the responsibilities in the areas of public health and human
rights to formulate a national anti-AIDS policy that did not exclude prisoners
and to adopt measures to protect prisoners from sexual abuse, rape and
violence, to ensure confidentiality, to outlaw involuntary screening, to
provide for early release of infected prisoners on humanitarian grounds and to
promote access to information. Ethics and human rights training programmes
should be provided for prison staff and the international community should
make more technical and financial resources available to fight the pandemic.
40. Ms. NEURY (Centre Europe-Tiers Monde) said that the powerful used
“terror” to cow the defenceless into resignation, while the weak and oppressed
used the same weapon to frighten the powerful and galvanize the people into
resistance. One category of violence was condemned as law-breaking, while the
other category, the violence of the strong against the weak, of rulers against
their subjects and of employers against workers, was officially condoned.
41. The root causes of terrorism were the growing disparity between North
and South, and the extreme poverty suffered by millions whose cries went
unheard. When the power of speech was curtailed, violence took its place.
The powerful responded in kind by imposing sanctions and launching military
strikes. The United States of America was the champion of arrogance, claiming
to have a “special responsibility” to fight terrorism in the name of peace and
freedom. But the strength of resistance to the United States' hegemony was
being demonstrated every day.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 11
42. The Special Rapporteur on terrorism and human rights should study the
extent to which the struggle between wielders and subjects of power influenced
the various forms of violence used to terrorize individuals, groups of
individuals or States, and should pay particular attention to the causes of
terrorism, the responsibilities of the various actors, the ensuing penalties
and reparations to victims of terror.
43. Ms. PARES (Pax Romana), speaking also on behalf of the World
Organization against Torture, said that the Ottawa Convention on the
Prohibition and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction had
been signed by 129 States and ratified to date by 32. It would enter into
force six months after the fortieth ratification.
44. Although article 19 of the Convention ruled out the possibility of
reservations, certain ratification legislation, that of the United Kingdom for
instance, was worded in such a way as to weaken the aims of the Convention and
misinterpret its provisions. It was a principle of international law that,
even where reservations were permissible, they should not be inconsistent with
the purpose of the treaty in question.
45. The organizations she represented called on the Sub-Commission to urge
States and other bodies that were still producing, trafficking in or using
anti-personnel landmines to cease those activities forthwith, to appeal to all
States to ratify the Ottawa Convention, destroy stockpiles and step up support
for mine clearance and assistance to victims and education programmes, and to
establish a mechanism to follow up the implementation of the Ottawa
Convention.
46. Mr. PANDITA (African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters)
said that, despite repeated international condemnations of terrorist acts, the
situation continued to deteriorate. Terrorist tactics had been streamlined
and channels of communication improved. As the Special Rapporteur on human
rights and terrorism stated in paragraphs 10 and 11 of her working paper
(E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/28), there was no universally accepted definition of
terrorism. The academic debate on a consensual definition dragged on, while
innocent people continued to lose their lives, a fear psychosis was generated
and the socio-economic fabric of societies was rent asunder.
47. However, paragraph 1 of Sub-Commission resolution 1996/20 seemed to
provide a reasonable basis on which to build a universally accepted
definition, the more so as it was generally agreed that a struggle leading to
the disintegration of a State or challenging its territorial integrity and
sovereignty by force of arms could not be recognized as a struggle for
self-determination. International terrorism and the privatization of
terrorism were extremely dangerous phenomena, where Governments tolerated the
formation of terrorist groups on their soil and facilitated their movements
across international borders.
48. Mr. WILKES (Consultative Council of Jewish Organizations), having
recalled with pride the central role played by his organization's first
President, René Cassin, in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, said that its fiftieth anniversary offered a signal opportunity to
reflect on the fears and hopes that had been present at its birth. He quoted
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 12
from a speech delivered by Mr. Cassin in 1970, which had lost none of its
relevance. Man's new and fuller power over the forces of nature brought with
it the responsibility to use that strength more wisely than in the past and to
allot to all members of the human race the fundamental rights to which they
were entitled. Economic, social and cultural rights must be enforced as
strictly as those pertaining to legal and political rights and freedoms.
Religion recognized its responsibility for preventing injustice, violence and
all other ills that weakened the social fabric and undermined human rights and
the State no longer wielded sovereign power over those it governed.
49. His organization noted with gladness the ongoing improvements in the
United Nations human rights mechanisms, reforms for which many NGOs had
consistently worked. René Cassin's vision was one of the interdependence of
all human rights. Only a universal system could fully respond to the social
and economic conditions prevailing in the modern world.
50. Mr. LOPEZ (International Educational Development, Inc.) said that the
sanctions regime imposed on Iraq clearly violated the Charter of the
United Nations, the Geneva Conventions and human rights norms. The adverse
consequences of the economic sanctions on the people of Burundi had been noted
by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation
of human rights in that country. In the light of Sub-Commission
resolution 1997/35, his organization had prepared a memorandum on sanctions in
the light of human rights and humanitarian law and urged the Sub-Commission to
keep the issue on its agenda.
51. In its resolution 1996/16, the Sub-Commission requested the
United Nations Secretary-General to provide it with information on depleted
uranium weaponry and any other weaponry whose use was questionable in the
light of humanitarian and human rights standards. His organization had
prepared a memorandum on the subject in which it identified criteria for
assessing such weapons according to which depleted uranium weapons and others
listed in resolution 1996/16 would be illegal. He was looking forward to the
working paper on weaponry which Mrs. Forero Ucros was to submit to the
Sub-Commission at its next session pursuant to resolution 1997/36.
52. Ms. SPALDING (World Federation for Mental Health) said that, to mark the
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international
group of volunteers had organized a Fête d'excellence in Geneva involving
concerts, exhibitions, films, round table discussions and other events.
53. Special attention had been given to the rights of the disabled. In that
connection, she stressed the need to regularize the issuance of assistance
badges for aides helping accredited persons with disabilities at
United Nations gatherings. She also expressed concern at the difficulties
encountered in obtaining health insurance for persons attending the
SubCommission's
sessions.
54. Mr. EIBNER (Christian Solidarity International), having welcomed the
advance in democratic values and principles achieved in the countries of the
former Soviet Union and in Latin America, said that systematic and brutal
religious discrimination and terrorism were gaining ground in countries where
the totalitarian ideology of jihad was a powerful factor in public life. It
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 13
was the ideology of Usama bin Ladin, of those who had recently planted bombs
in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, of the Jama'at al-Islamiya assassins of Coptic
Christians and Muslim officials in Egypt, of anti-Jewish Hamas suicide
bombers, of the Armed Islamic Group that massacred Muslim villagers in Algeria
and of certain Islamist States such as the Sudan, whose National Islamic Front
regime waged a jihad against its own people.
55. His organization called on the Sub-Commission to accept the proposal for
a decision on the critical humanitarian situation in the Sudan and to condemn
in the strongest terms the terrorist and genocidal ideology of jihad.
56. Mr. BIR THAPA (European Union of Public Relations) said that,
between 1989 and 1998, nearly 20,000 people had been killed by terrorists in
Indian Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmiri pandits had been driven from their
homes and were forced to live as refugees in their own land. The perpetrators
belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group based near Lahore in Pakistan, which had
called for a jihad in Kashmir. The Pakistani authorities, who permitted
terrorists to operate openly from their country, were the real criminals and
should be brought to justice.
57. In Nepal, formerly a model of social harmony, political extremists under
the banner of Maoism had been resorting to violence and terror to achieve
their goals.
58. Mr. WARIKOO (Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation) said that the
legislation of some countries was of purely cosmetic value, being regularly
flouted by government actions. Pakistan, for example, through both legal and
social processes, promoted intolerance against religious minorities, including
even the Shia minority. The blasphemy laws had given the extremists a free
hand and had become a convenient tool to silence dissenting voices. He urged
the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to draw back from the
promotion, and even the export, of religious extremism.
59. Mr. VO VAN AI (International Federation of Human Rights Leagues) said
that religious freedom in Viet Nam was guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution,
but legislation criminalized the peaceful exercise of religious belief and
subordinated religious activity to the interests of the State. Such
legislation was issued by the Government and the Communist Party in the form
of directives. Only religious activities seen as “useful to the nation” were
protected; “abuses which in the guise of religious activity threatened public
order, harmed national independence and sabotaged the policy of national
unity”, as well as “illegal religious activity”, would be severely punished.
The latter category included the publication, dissemination or importation of
religious books and “unlawful” preaching and fundraising
for the building or
restoration of places of worship.
60. The directives had been systematically invoked to justify a massive
campaign of repression in various provinces, directed particularly at
Buddhists and Protestants. A church had been razed and Protestants had been
harassed. In one province they had been heavily fined or sentenced to forced
labour. In Ha Giang Province, 300 members of the Hmong minority had been
beaten up and imprisoned for wishing to convert to Protestantism.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 14
61. Hundreds of pagodas belonging to the United Buddhist Church of Viet Nam
had been confiscated in November 1997 and forcibly amalgamated with the State
Buddhist Church. Clergy belonging to the former had been expelled or detained
and their followers harassed. There was particular concern over the fate of
the Patriarch of the United Buddhist Church of Viet Nam, Thich Huyen Quang,
who had been held in detention for 15 years without trial.
62. He urged the Sub-Commission to exert pressure on Viet Nam to respect its
commitments and to give the Special Rapporteur on the question of religious
intolerance full freedom of access during his next visit to the country.
63. Noting that the integrity of many human rights instruments was
endangered by reservations incompatible with their aims, he called on the
SubCommission
to follow up the issue, carry out a study on the effect of
reservations on the effective protection of human rights and propose some
practical solutions.
64. Mrs. WARZAZI recalled that, in its resolution 1997/35, the
SubCommission
had decided to consider the adverse consequences of economic
sanctions on human rights at its fiftieth session. The topic should be
retained on the agenda for the fiftyfirst
session. It was an encouraging
sign that increasing numbers of wellknown
people were protesting at the
economic coercion that had had a disastrous effect on the health system in
Iraq, leading to the death of over 1.5 million people, including
700,000 children. The sanctions had been condemned by prominent United States
citizens, by the 82 NGOs, by Iraqi opposition leaders and by representatives
of the Arab and Latin American worlds. The British Department of
International Development had allocated £7 million for humanitarian aid for
Iraq.
65. Bodies set up to oversee the situation in Iraq, such as the
United Nations Special Commission established pursuant to paragraph 90 (i) of
Security Council resolution 687 (1991), did not seem to be fulfilling their
mandate properly; some oil had been sold to buy food, but some States were
employing a variety of tactics to impede the supply of pharmaceutical goods.
The SecretaryGeneral's
personal representative had stated, on the basis of
figures supplied by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), that 26 per cent of the schoolage
population did not
attend school and that the educational infrastructure had been devastated.
66. Ms. BARTHER (Prison Fellowship International), speaking on behalf of
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), urged the SubCommission
to take all
possible steps to ensure that the issue of religious freedom was more
thoroughly addressed and prioritized by the United Nations.
67. The Constitution of Viet Nam recognized religious freedom, yet the 8
to 9 million Christians in the country faced daily harassment. Religious
organizations were required to adhere to strict regulations governing every
facet of religious life. Roman Catholics made up 10 per cent of the
population and the Government required all clergy to belong to the
governmentcontrolled
Catholic Patriotic Association.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 15
68. The Protestant churches faced particular difficulties: over the
past 23 years not a single Protestant church organization had received legal
recognition. The consequent “illegal” meetings were routinely raided by the
security services.
69. Clergy of both denominations were frequently harassed and faced with
imprisonment. There were numerous documented incidents of beatings,
maltreatment and torture of imprisoned Christians. The United Nations should
exert pressure on the Government to ensure that its law and policy conformed
with international standards on religious freedom, that all those imprisoned
on the grounds of their religious belief were released and that reported
incidents of illtreatment
and torture were investigated.
70. Mr. RUPESINGHE (World Federation of Trade Unions) said that many
terrorist groups were used by States in pursuance of their political and
strategic interests, free from any international oversight. The very same
States then had the gall to urge that the States that they were subverting
should be censured. Terrorism had become an established industry in many
parts of the world, children being indoctrinated and taught the arts of war.
71. The Taliban were graduates of such schools. The LashkareTaiba
and the
HarkatulAnsar,
drawing their inspiration from the same sources, were to do
to Jammu and Kashmir what the Taliban had done to Afghanistan. The recent
bombings of United States embassies in Africa were part of the same
phenomenon. The SubCommission
should urge the donors of economic assistance
to state that no further aid would be forthcoming for Pakistan until the
groups were disbanded, the camps closed and the terrorists arrested.
72. Mr. PINNAGODA (International Buddhist Foundation) said that the issue of
human rights and terrorism was barely addressed within the international
community and terrorists continued to violate human rights with impunity.
Haphazard retaliation by militarily powerful States, when their own people or
economic interests were targeted by terrorists, was not a global demonstration
of the will to combat terrorism. Indeed, it was an incitement to terror in
other parts of the world.
73. Terrorists, whether Governments or individuals, were engaged in subhuman
activities, whether it were the suspension of constitutions and democratically
elected parliaments, bombings or the crimes by such groups as the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), among whose recent outrages had been the
sacrilegious attack on the most sacred Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka. Their
goal was to create an ethnically segregated Tamil state in Sri Lanka, where
64 per cent of Tamils lived in harmony with other ethnic communities. Over
100,000 Muslims had been driven out of the northeast
of Sri Lanka. Political
leaders of their own community, as well as others, were assassinated. No
democratic opposition was tolerated.
74. An expatriate Tiger activist had, in response to comments by Mr. Eide of
the SubCommission,
posted on the Internet a justification of terrorism as the
means of creating an ethnically pure state, initially in Sri Lanka (where less
than 2 per cent of the 70 million Tamils on whose behalf he claimed to speak
were living) and then in south India and SouthEast
Asia generally.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/SR.31
page 16
75. There should be an actionoriented
programme to eradicate the most
dangerous categories of terrorist. Such categories might include those who
assassinated national leaders or human rights activists, committed sacrilege
or engaged in drug trafficking, gunrunning,
ethnic cleansing, child abuse or
suicide attacks. States should frustrate terrorists by depriving them of the
means to perpetrate terror.
76. Ms. RUPPRECHT (International Institute of Peace) said that terrorism
assumed a much more dangerous dimension when it became an instrument of State
policy. Many incidents of terrorist violence could be traced back to just one
country, namely Pakistan. The perpetrator of the World Trade Centre bomb
blasts had been caught in Pakistan, as had been the killer of officials of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other Pakistanbased
terrorists had been
identified in the Philippines, France and Egypt.
77. Pakistan had used insurgency and terrorism as an instrument of policy in
Jammu and Kashmir. The HarkatulAnsar,
based in Pakistan, was active in many
countries, including Tajikistan, Bosnia, Myanmar and India. Three times over
the past year the LashkareTaiba
had called for the killing of Hindus and
Jews, together with a jihad against India and democracy. On each occasion
massacres of Kashmiri Hindus had taken place shortly thereafter. The
objective of such massacres was crystal clear: to cleanse Jammu and Kashmir
of minority communities so that terrorists indoctrinated and trained in
Pakistan could fulfil that country's ambition of installing an alien extremist
polity in the Indian state.
78. Pakistan, having escaped international censure over its terrorist
activities, felt emboldened to continue wreaking death and destruction on
innocent people. The human rights of the world community would be far more
secure if that State was kept in check. A start should be made by calling on
Pakistan to dismantle its terrorist bases.
79. Mr. BENNETT (AfroAsian
Peoples' Solidarity Organization) said that the
leader of the Pakistanbased
LashkareTaiba
had called democracy a useless
practice. The LashkareTaiba
called for a jihad against Hindus, Jews,
democracy and all things Western. A new body of laws was essential to deal
with the modern terrorist, who respected only the perpetration of death.
Nations which provided an operational base for such groups should be curbed
and parallel action against States that knowingly allowed their territory to
be used by terrorists was essential.
80. There should be no double standards. The United Kingdom Government had
allowed terrorist groups from other countries to open offices on the grounds
that the United Kingdom was a free society. Moreover, there appeared to be an
inherent racism in the treatment of terrorist issues. A single terrorist
incident at the World Trade Centre in New York had sparked off an
international manhunt, whereas calls for a jihad by the LashkareTaiba,
which
were regularly followed by mass murders of Hindus, were barely reported.
The meeting rose at 6.05 p.m.