POTENTIAL FOR PROGRESS IN UNITED NATIONS EFFORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS GREATER THAN RESULTS SO FAR
Press Release
HR/4313
POTENTIAL FOR PROGRESS IN UNITED NATIONS EFFORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS GREATER THAN RESULTS SO FAR
19961209 In Message for Forty-eighth Anniversary of Universal Declaration, High Commissioner Calls for Renewed Commitment, Support, InvestmentThis is the text of a statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, José Ayala-Lasso, for the commemoration tomorrow, 10 December, of the forty-eighth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
On this particular occasion, it is important to take a look at the progress that has been made since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. Detailed international norms and standards, some of them almost universally ratified -- like the Convention on the Rights of the Child -- have added legally binding obligations to the moral force of that first international proclamation of individual and collective birth-rights.
Two world summits on human rights -- the first in Teheran in 1968 and the other in Vienna in 1993 -- have reiterated the universality of human rights, the fact that human rights belong to all individuals and that the international community and governments themselves have a fundamental responsibility to promote, protect and advance those rights.
After years of primacy of civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights are now recognized on an equal footing, and as indivisible and inter-linked with civil and political rights. As a result, the importance of the right to development and the close interrelationship between democracy, development and respect for human rights has been clearly established.
Since 1948, the international community has given great importance to action to secure the full and equal enjoyment by women of all human rights, and ensuring effective protection of the rights of children, including those in especially difficult circumstances, and particular attention has been focused on the issues of child labour, the sale of children and the girl child. The human rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities have also been increasingly recognized.
- 2 - HR/4313 9 December 1996
The dignity and unique contribution of indigenous populations has been affirmed in the context of efforts by governments and other institutions to secure the largest possible protection and promotion of the rights of those people. Policies and programmes to eliminate racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance have been increased everywhere, not least with appropriate legislation to combat all forms of racism and to establish national institutions to combat such phenomena. The prevention of human rights violations through education and technical cooperation programmes aimed at strengthening democratic institutions, the rule of law and national human rights infrastructures has been increasingly utilized, with some significant measures of success.
One of the most important results of the last 48 years has been the recognition that regional organizations, national institutions and particularly non-governmental organizations have a unique role to play in the promotion and protection of human rights. Their strong commitment to the advancement of human rights represents a light of hope for concrete progress in the twenty-first century, which no doubt will be the century of human rights.
Once the main tasks of setting international human rights standards were accomplished, the international community gave priority to mechanisms of implementation, and a new type of dialogue began to emerge between United Nations human rights experts and governments. These experts are entrusted with the monitoring of the adherence of States to international human rights instruments and with investigating specific country situations or thematic human rights issues, without geographical boundaries. These mechanisms have allowed the international community to jointly address major human rights situations around the world. In this way, we are seeing fulfilled one of the most important guidelines emerging from the Vienna Conference, which affirmed that human rights are a legitimate concern of the international community.
The establishment of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the end of 1993 represents another step by the international community to catalyze efforts for the realization of all human rights, and thus bringing human rights closer to those who still today are victims of violations.
As first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, I have begun a dialogue at the highest level of government for the promotion and protection of all human rights. The main objective of this dialogue is to achieve concrete results, to talk openly about human rights needs, to identify obstacles to the full realization of all human rights, including the right to development, and to make available United Nations expert advice, technical assistance, and cooperation in the building-up of necessary infrastructures.
This dialogue begins to bear fruit and broaden our capacity of action. When I took office in April 1994, we had hardly any staff in the field; today the High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights
- 3 - HR/4313 9 December 1996
has more staff in the field than at Headquarters. Our staff is professional and fully committed to the promotion and protection of human rights. Their work in Rwanda, Burundi, and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the important technical cooperation programmes undertaken in Malawi, Gaza, Mongolia and Cambodia, exemplifies in a concrete manner human rights at work, an expression of the will of the international community to make human rights a reality for people everywhere.
Only two weeks ago I was able to sign with the Minister for External Relations of Colombia an important agreement concerning the opening of a United Nations human rights office in Bogotá. Today I am pleased to inform you that another United Nations human rights office is opening in Abkhazia/Georgia, in close cooperation with, and with the support of, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Also today, our human rights office in Zaire is being officially inaugurated.
Through this expanded presence in the field, which is always provided with the consent and cooperation of the government concerned, we are taking human rights directly to the people, and to those places where concrete action is required. As a result of this innovative dimension of human rights work, we are able to translate the efforts of intergovernmental bodies, treaty-based bodies, expert groups, and the United Nations Secretariat into concrete expressions of the will of the international community, insofar as the promotion and protection of human rights are concerned.
Adequate interagency cooperation and coordination are essential in order to ensure a fully integrated approach to human rights promotion and protection throughout the United Nations system. I am committed to working closely with other institutions to obtain that result. This is particularly true in the field -- where we work in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Volunteers, to mention a few -- as well as in the context of the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), where recently an agreement was reached to coordinate, during 1997, system-wide preparations for the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and for the mid-term review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
In particular, I believe that a great deal of work can be done to advance human rights promotion and protection in cooperation with financial institutions and development agencies, in order to give the promotion and protection of all human rights practical results. In accordance with my mandate, I have tried to strengthen all the mechanisms established by the Commission on Human Rights, to preserve and enhance their specific identity as essential pillars of the implementation mechanisms established by the international community for monitoring compliance with human rights standards.
I have attempted to mobilize the commitment of governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and public opinion to work more closely together for the realization of basic rights and freedoms. Indeed,
- 4 - HR/4313 9 December 1996
one of my primary objectives has been to render international human rights norms more operative and the action of the United Nations Secretariat more responsive and adapted to this objective.
I have also put into motion a thorough restructuring of the Centre for Human Rights in order to help it to adapt to the evolving needs of the human rights programme emerging from the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and the creation of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The positive results are beginning to be felt not only by the staff but also by United Nations human rights experts, and representatives of governments and non-governmental organizations.
This Human Rights Day is a timely opportunity for looking back with pride on many accomplishments in the field of human rights and to prepare for the challenges ahead. Unfortunately, we are still far from the day when torture and hunger will be eventually eradicated and when there will be no more victims of human rights violations. Today, we have to reflect on whether we have done everything in our power to avert the tragedy of Rwanda and to stop the violence in Burundi and other places. The potential of the international community is definitely greater than the results achieved. Therefore, bearing in mind the dramatic fate of thousands of children, women and men who suffer from violence and lack of food and shelter, we should reinforce our endeavours to ensure that human rights occupy an even more prominent place on the international agenda, and that the mechanisms established to this end are truly empowered with the means to do so.
To succeed in the implementation of the objectives of the United Nations human rights programme will require that human rights be more known, more accessible, thus closer to people in need. In this connection, any investment in preventive human rights action pays off: one dollar invested in human rights today means thousands of dollars saved in emergency humanitarian assistance tomorrow, not to mention the incalculable human suffering and personal tragedies avoided.
I have tried to the best of my ability to give appropriate and effective answers to the multiple challenges we are facing at the end of this millennium. The spirit that made possible the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action has always guided me. In order to succeed in our common task, I will continue to request the ongoing support which Member States, international organizations, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and all people of goodwill have given me so far. Together we can usher in a new century of human rights. On this Human Rights Day, let us recommit ourselves to do all in our power to uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms and standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is "a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations".
* *** *