SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY AND PROBLEMS POSED BY CONFLICTS WITHIN STATES AT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SESSION

19 March 1996

Press Release
HR/CN/704

SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY AND PROBLEMS POSED BY CONFLICTS WITHIN STATES AT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION SESSION

19960319 Gilberto Vergne Saboia, of Brazil, Elected Chairman of Fifty-Second Session

GENEVA, 18 March (UN Information Service) -- Conflicts within States -- a trend since the end of the cold war -- carried out by groups "more or less organized and more or less controlled" were increasingly targeting civilians and were extremely damaging to the rights of the human person, United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said this morning at the opening meeting of the fifty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights. The vast international structure of human rights measures, built up over the Commission's 50 years of existence, must be applied with vigour to meet that challenge, the Secretary-General said, adding that it also must be applied in a suitable political context: democracy. "I am convinced that the process of democratization within States and the international community is inseparable from the protection of human rights", he said. "The aim is to affirm that democracy can be adapted to all peoples and all cultures and that, like human rights, it has a universal dimension." The Secretary-General said he was "profoundly concerned" about the effect the Organization's current financial crisis could have on missions and programmes concerned with human rights. He added, however, that the United Nations would continue with its tasks. This was the first time a Secretary-General had served as an opening speaker for the Commission. Meetings will run this year through 26 April. This year's session is the Commission's fifty-second. Also this morning, the Commission elected Gilberto Vergne Saboia, of Brazil, as its Chairman, replacing outgoing Chairman Musa bin Hitam of Malaysia. In his opening statement, Mr. Saboia said that "disturbing forces" of fragmentation and conflict continued to prevent further progress in applying hard-won privileges and aspirations in the field of human rights. In this seemingly confusing world, the Commission must remain a forum where the commitment to foster life and dignity should prevail over differences of perception. To be faithful both to its 50 years of accomplishments and to its

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potential, the Commission must refuse to be an arena for political dispute and sterile confrontation. Elected Vice-Chairmen of the Commission were Emmanuel Mba Allo of Gabon (African region), Volodymyr Vassylenko of Ukraine (Eastern Europe), and Leonard Legault of Canada (Western Europe). Rajamony Venn of (India) was elected Rapporteur. Statement by Secretary-General Secretary-General BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI said it was now 50 years since the Commission on Human Rights had been created. Through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international community had solemnly declared its faith in the basic human rights and the dignity and value of the human person. Since then, the United Nations had continued to extend its action by establishing not only individual rights, but also civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. At the same time, it had consistently expanded the areas of protection: the repression of genocide, the abolition of slavery, the fight against torture and the elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or gender, religion or ideas. Similarly, it had extended its protection to new categories: refugees, stateless persons, women, children, the handicapped, the mentally ill, imprisoned persons, victims of enforced disappearance, migrant workers and their families and indigenous peoples. Further, the General Assembly had advanced its codification of human rights by drawing up what he called "solidarity rights", rights which presumed the inter-connected action of social factors on internal, as well as international, levels. Today, however, the world faced new dangers, and particularly new kinds of conflicts taking place, no longer between States, but within States, he said. Those new conflicts were usually carried out not by regular armies, but by any groups which were more or less organized and more or less controlled. War was at once endemic and sectoral. Cease-fires were precarious. Those new conflicts were also the most damaging to the rights of the human person, since it was often the populations themselves which were targeted, bombarded, tortured and subjected to violence. In defending human rights, violations must be denounced on a case-by-case basis, but also with true human rights diplomacy. That diplomacy appeared clearly in the mandate entrusted in recent years to United Nations peace-keeping forces. The Secretary-General said he wished also to underscore the need to place action in the service of human rights in a veritable political context: democracy. The process of democratization within States and the international community was inseparable from the protection of human rights. By encouraging international action in favour of democracy, no one was urging States to engage in some sort of mimicry or to borrow political forms that came from elsewhere. Quite the contrary; the aim was to affirm that democracy could be adapted to all peoples and all cultures and that, like human rights, it had a universal dimension. The United Nations was pursuing that democratic

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imperative by promoting political pluralism and encouraging popular consultation and by participating in the training of citizens. He said he was profoundly concerned by the grave financial crisis which the Organization was experiencing and which directly affected the institutions, missions and programmes of the United Nations in the field of human rights. But the United Nations would continue its task. Statement by New Chairman GILBERTO VERGNE SABOIA (Brazil) underlined that, although the Commission worked during most of its existence under a particularly unfavourable political climate, it had been able to complete the drafting of the instruments which, together with the Universal Declaration, formed the International Bill of Human Rights. It had also undertaken to strengthen the legal basis and develop principles and guidelines for the promotion and protection of human rights in many areas, such as discrimination and protection of minorities, as well as for different categories of vulnerable people. In addition, it had contributed by establishing ways to monitor standards and to deal with communications regarding gross violations of human rights. The end of the cold war and the ensuing changes in the international political situation encouraged public opinion and States to renew their confidence and commitment to fulfil the purposes and principles of the Charter and to better ensure the fruition of human rights standards contained in different instruments, declarations and resolutions, he said. That renewed commitment made possible the adoption by consensus, by the World Conference on Human Rights of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which reaffirmed the universality of human rights and strengthened the common will of nations all over the world to work together to ensure the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Paradoxically, he added, disturbing forces of fragmentation and conflict continued to prevent further progress in translating those rights and aspirations into reality, and millions of people in different regions of the world continue to be affected by massive denials of their most basic human rights. The post-cold-war era had, in effect, been marked by the occurrence of terribly tragic situations, of which genocide and ethnic cleansing were only the most sadly notorious examples. In the seemingly confusing world, the Commission must continue to preserve and enhance its relevance as the central decision-making and standard-setting body for human rights, a forum where the commitment to foster life and dignity should prevail over differences of perception. To be faithful both to its 50 years of accomplishments and to its potential, the Commission must refuse to be an arena for political dispute and sterile confrontation.

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