HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO HOLD ANNUAL SESSION AT GENEVA 10 MARCH - 18 APRIL
Press Release
HR/CN/756
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TO HOLD ANNUAL SESSION AT GENEVA 10 MARCH - 18 APRIL
19970306 Background Release GENEVA, 4 March (Un Information Service) -- Fifty years after its inaugural session, the Commission on Human Rights is set once again to review the state of human rights in the world as it meets in Geneva from 10 March to 18 April.As the main United Nations human rights organ, the Commission has an extensive mandate that allows it to examine the whole spectrum of human rights -- from summary or arbitrary executions to the effects of toxic waste dumping on the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms. That pioneering tradition built over half a century continues this year with the consideration of such issues as human rights and HIV/AIDS, conscientious objection to military service, human rights and technological developments, the treatment of detainees and the right to development, among others.
The 53 States members of the Commission also consider specific country situations. This year, over 15 States and territories will be scrutinized, including Equatorial Guinea, southern Lebanon and West Bekaa, Cuba, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Iran and East Timor. In addition, Commission members will review developments concerning human rights in Colombia; Chechnya, Russian Federation; and Liberia.
One issue expected to draw much of the Commission's attention at this session is the situation in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The Commission will have before it reports from its special rapporteurs on human rights in Burundi, Rwanda and Zaire.
The Commission will also continue to examine several longstanding items in its agenda, such as the question of human rights violations in the occupied Arab territories and the situation in Cyprus.
In addition to studying the protection of vulnerable groups such as migrant workers and minorities, the Commission will look at the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights. It will also focus on issues such as enforced disappearances; arbitrary detention; freedom of opinion and expression; racial discrimination and xenophobia; mercenaries; religious intolerance; human rights and mass exoduses, and the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.
This fifty-third session will, furthermore, see the Commission continue its work in the area of standard-setting, one of its many considerable achievements over the last half century. The Commission will further elaborate a draft text on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Standard-setting will also be the focus as children's rights are discussed, with the Commission scheduled to review efforts to draft international legal instruments against the use of children in armed conflicts and to fight child prostitution and pornography. The forum will also consider the final report of a study on protection of children affected by armed conflicts carried out by the Expert appointed by the Secretary-General, Graça Machel; and evaluate the implementation of a programme of action against child labour.
Another area of priority for the Commission at this session is indigenous issues, including progress on the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples; activities for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, which commenced in December 1994; and the establishment of a permanent forum in the United Nations for indigenous people. The Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a subsidiary of the Commission, has also submitted a report containing draft decisions on indigenous issues for action. That report includes resolutions and decisions adopted by the Subcommission on, among other issues, the situations in the Middle East, Kosovo, Rwanda, Burundi, Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel.
Violence against women will be the subject of the report of the Special Rapporteur appointed by the Commission in 1994. At that time, the Commission called for an intensified effort at an international level to integrate the equal status of women and their human rights into the mainstream of United Nations activity and to address those issues regularly and systematically throughout relevant United Nations bodies.
Other issues to be examined include: follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993); the right of peoples to self-determination; advisory services to governments in human rights matters; human rights and terrorism; and hostage-taking.
Finally, this anniversary year of the Commission will provide an opportunity for members to consider progress in preparations for the celebration in 1998 of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
High Commissioner for Human Rights José Ayala-Lasso, who is leaving his post on 15 March following his resignation, will address the opening of the
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session. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed, ad interim, Ralph Zacklin, Director and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, as the Officer-in-Charge of the human rights programme during the selection process for the post of High Commissioner.
The Commission was established in 1946 by the Economic and Social Council, and it held its first session in 1947. In addition to preparing studies, making recommendations and drafting international human rights instruments, it also undertakes special tasks assigned to it by the General Assembly or the Council, including the investigation of alleged human rights violations. In addition, it provides for the coordination of human rights activities in the United Nations system. The Commission has been authorized, since 1990, to meet exceptionally between regular sessions to consider particularly grave human rights situations, provided that a majority of its 53 members so agree.
Human Rights Violations
The Commission on Human Rights has been seized of the human rights situation in the territories occupied by Israel as a result of the hostilities of June 1967 since its twenty-fourth session (1968). At its forty-ninth session, the Commission decided to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel and to report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission at its future sessions until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories. Following the resignation of René Felber of Switzerland in 1995, Hannu Halinen of Finland was appointed Special Rapporteur.
Among the documents before the Commission under this item will be the third report of the Special Rapporteur (document E/CN.4/1997/16) and a note by the Secretary-General listing United Nations reports issued between sessions of the Commission that deal with the living conditions of the population of the Palestinian and other occupied Arab territories under the Israeli occupation (document E/CN.4/1997/14). Also before the Commission will be a report by the Secretary-General on human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan (document E/CN.4/1997/13).
While looking at the question of rights violations in any part of the world, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories, the Commission will also have before it reports of the Secretary-General on, among other questions, the situations in southern Lebanon and West Bekaa and East Timor (documents E/CN.4/1997/49 and E/CN.4/1997/51, respectively).
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During its 1996 session, the Commission extended the mandate of its Special Rapporteur on Equatorial Guinea, and requested him to submit a report (document E/CN.4./1997/54). It also extended the mandate of its Special Rapporteur on the Sudan (report in document E/CN.4/1997/58) and recommended that priority be given to the placement of human rights field officers to monitor the situation in the country. The Commission also extended the mandates of its special rapporteurs on the human rights situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Zaire and Cuba (see documents E/CN.4/1997/59, E/CN.4/1997/57, E/CN.4/1997/64, E/CN.4/1997/6 and Add.1, and E/CN.4/1997/53, respectively). It also extended the mandate of the Special Representative on the human rights situation in Iran, including that of the Baha'is (document E/CN.4/1997/63).
Concerning the situation of human rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the Chairman of the Commission appointed Elisabeth Rehn of Finland as Special Rapporteur following the resignation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Poland in July 1995. The Commission will have before it periodic reports submitted in July and October 1996 (documents E/CN.4/1997/5 and 9), a special report on minorities (document E/CN.4/1997/8) and a report to the General Assembly (document A/51/663-S/1996/927). The Commission will also have before it the report of the expert member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances for the special process dealing with missing persons, Manfred Nowak (document E/CN.4/1997/55).
The Commission decided to appoint a special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi. The report of the Special Rapporteur, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro of Brazil, will be before the Commission (documents E/CN/.4/1997/12 and Add.1).
At its third special session held in May 1994, the Commission decided to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation in Rwanda and receive relevant, credible information on that situation, including on root causes and responsibilities for the recent atrocities. Before the Commission will be the report of the Special Rapporteur, René Dégni-Seguí of Côte d'Ivoire (documents E/CN.4/1997/61 and Add.1), as well as the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda (document E/CN.4/1997/52).
Regarding Nigeria, the Commission, at its last session, called upon the Government to accept the visit of the Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and on the independence of judges and lawyers to pay a joint investigative visit to the country. Although Nigeria initially acceded to that request, the Special Rapporteurs cancelled their mission to Nigeria following the Government's refusal to permit them to meet a number of people in detention. Their report will be contained in document E/CN.4/1997/62.
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The situations in Colombia, Chechnya (Russian Federation) and Liberia were the subject of consensus Chairman's statements at the last session of the Commission. The statement on Colombia requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish an office in the country. The Colombian Government agreed, and the office is set to open in mid-March. On Chechnya, the Commission requested the Secretary-General to report on the situation there during the fifty-third session (see document E/CN.4/1997/10). Through the statement in Liberia the Commission decided to remain seized of the situation in the country.
In addition, situations which appear to reveal a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights will be examined under Economic and Social Council resolution 1503 adopted in 1970. Since then, particular situations relating to some 65 countries have been placed before the Commission under the procedure. That work will be carried out in closed meetings on the basis of a confidential report from the Commission's Working Group on Situations, as well as other confidential documents.
Also on the agenda is the question of the human rights of all persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment. Among the issues to be examined are the following: torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the status of the Convention against Torture; enforced or involuntary disappearances; children and juveniles in detention; human rights and states of emergency; the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of human rights abuses; the independence of the judiciary; the right to a fair trial; the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and arbitrary detention. Documentation includes the reports of the Special Rapporteur on Torture (documents E/CN.4/1997/7 and Adds.1-3); the report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and on Arbitrary Detention (document E/CN.4/1997/34), and a note from the Secretary-General on efforts to disseminate the Declaration on the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearances (document E/CN.4/1997/103).
The Commission will also review work on the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture to allow inspection visits to places of detention (document E/CN.4/1997/33).
Also for consideration at this session will be the report of the Secretary-General (document E/CN.4/1997/25) on the situation of United Nations staff members, experts and their families in detention, including those cases which had been successfully settled since the presentation of the last report, as well as on his efforts to ensure that the human rights, privileges and immunities of United Nations staff members, experts and their families were fully respected.
Other documents under this agenda item before the Commission include the updated report of the Special Rapporteur of the Subcommission on Prevention of
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Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on human rights and states of emergency (documents E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/19 and Corr.1 and Add.1); and the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression (documents E/CN.4/1997/31 and Add.1).
Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The question of the realization in all countries of the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been a standing item with high priority on the Commission's agenda since 1975. Under it the Commission studies the special problems faced by developing countries in their efforts to achieve those human rights. Those include, for example, problems related to the right to enjoy an adequate standard of living, foreign debt, economic adjustment policies and their effects on the full enjoyment of human rights.
Among the issues to be considered by the Commission under that item are the links between human rights and unilateral coercive measures, the environment and extreme poverty. A report on that last issue is contained in document E/CN.4/1997/18.
As to the effects of the existing unjust international economic order on the economies of the developing countries, and the obstacle that that represents for the implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Commission last year requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to its forthcoming session recommending ways and means to carry out a political dialogue between creditor and debtor countries in the United Nations system, based on the principles of shared responsibility. That report (document E/CN.4/1997/17) will be before the Commission at this session.
Furthermore, the Commission will examine the report of its Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic waste and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights (document E/CN.4/1997/19). In her last report, the Special Rapporteur, Fatma Zohra Ksentini of Algeria, included a list of the countries and transnational corporations engaged in the illicit dumping of such products and wastes in African and other developing countries.
The Commission will also act on a number of resolutions submitted to it by the Subcommission and dealing with respect for economic, social and cultural rights.
Concerning realization of the right to development, the Commission last year decided to establish an intergovernmental group of experts to elaborate a strategy for the implementation and promotion of that right. The progress report of the group is contained in document E/CN.4/1997/22.
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Right to Self-Determination
As it considers the right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation, the Commission will have before it a report of the Secretary- General on the situation in occupied Palestinian territories (document E/CN.4/1997/23). Last year, the Commission decided to follow the development of the situation in Western Sahara and to consider the question at this session as a matter of high priority. Under that item, the Commission will also receive the report of the Special Rapporteur on the use of mercenaries (document E/CN.4/1997/24).
Elimination of Discrimination
Again this year, the Commission will deal with the issues of racial and religious discrimination. In 1993, it appointed, for a three-year period, a special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and related intolerance, and requested him to report to the Commission on an annual basis. Last year, it requested the Special Rapporteur, Maurice Glèlè-Ahanhanzo of Benin, to continue to examine any forms of discrimination against Blacks, Arabs and Muslims, xenophobia, negrophobia, anti-Semitism, and related intolerance, as well as governmental efforts to overcome them. His report (documents E/CN.4/1997/71 and Adds.1-2) will be among the documents before the Commission, along with the report of the Secretary-General on the activities for the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (documents E/CN.4/1997/68 and Add.1).
Also before the Commission will be the report of the Special Rapporteur appointed to examine incidents and governmental actions in all parts of the world that were incompatible with the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Abdelfattah Amor of Tunisia (documents E/CN.4/1997/91 and Add.1).
Human Rights Promotion and Protection
In evaluating its programme and methods of work, the Commission also looks at alternative approaches and ways and means within the United Nations system for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. National institutions for human rights protection come up for study, as does the coordinating role of the Centre for Human Rights within the United Nations bodies and machinery in that field. Those bodies include the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Committee, which monitor, respectively, implementation of the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights. How they, as well as the other bodies established pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments, carry out their mandates will also be examined.
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At its 1994 session, the Commission decided to appoint for a period of three years a special rapporteur on violence against women, including its causes and consequences, and requested the expert to report to the Commission annually. It also requested the Secretary-General to ensure that those reports were brought to the attention of the Commission on the Status of Women and called for intensified effort at an international level to integrate the equal status of women and the human rights of women into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activity and to address those issues regularly and systematically throughout relevant United Nations bodies and systems. The report of the Special Rapporteur, Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka, will be before the Commission (documents E/CN.4/1997/47 and Adds.1-4).
The General Assembly, in 1994, requested the Secretary-General to study the ways and mechanisms in which the United Nations system could support the efforts of governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies, and to submit a comprehensive report thereon to the Assembly at its fiftieth session. The Commission, in 1995, requested him to circulate to it any materials prepared in response to that resolution. It recommended that the Subcommission discuss at its next session ways and means of overcoming obstacles to the consolidation of democratic societies, taking into account the relation between democracy, development and human rights; and decided to examine this issue at the forthcoming session. The report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly will be before the Commission (document A/50/332 and Corr.1).
Another document will be the report of the Secretary-General on the integration of a gender perspective into United Nations human rights activities and programmes (document E/CN.4/1997/40).
Other questions to be addressed under this item include human rights and terrorism, international and domestic measures taken to protect human rights and to prevent discrimination in the context of HIV/AIDS, education and human rights, and regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights.
Also before the Commission will be a report by Francis Deng of the Sudan, the Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, which is aimed at a better understanding of the general problems faced by internally displaced persons and their possible long-term solutions (documents E/CN.4/1997/43 and Add.1). Concerning human rights and mass exoduses, the Commission requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare and submit to this session an updated report on that question (document E/CN.4/1997/42).
In 1995, the Commission requested the Centre for Human Rights, with the assistance of national institutions and their Coordinating Committee, to provide technical assistance for States wishing to establish or strengthen
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their national institutions and to organize training programmes for national institutions which requested them. It also invited governments to contribute additional funds to the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights for those purposes. A report of the Secretary-General on that subject is contained in document E/CN.4/1997/41.
Regarding the coordinating role of the Centre for Human Rights within the United Nations bodies and machinery dealing with the promotion and protection of human rights, the Commission supported the efforts of the Secretary-General to enhance the role and further improve the functioning of the Centre, under the overall supervision of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and decided to consider the question of strengthening the Office of the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights at this session. Regarding the question of the composition of the staff of the Centre, members will consider a report of the Secretary-General contained in document E/CN.4/1997/45.
The Commission will consider the report of the Secretary-General on progress made in the implementation of the programme of advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights (document E/CN.4/1997/86). It describes the action of the Centre for Human Rights in connection with programmes aimed at strengthening national infrastructures for the promotion and protection of human rights, revising legislation and Constitutions to conform to human rights standards, and providing training to government and law enforcement officials. In that regard, the Commission will consider reports relating to the assistance to Somalia, Haiti, Togo and Cambodia (documents E/CN.4/1997/88, E/CN.4/1997/89, E/CN.4/1997/85, respectively). The report of the Secretary-General on Cambodia is contained in document E/CN.4/1997/84.
As to Guatemala, the Commission in 1996 requested the Secretary-General to extend the mandate of the independent expert so that she might continue to examine the situation of human rights there, taking into account the work of the United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), provide assistance to the Government in the field of human rights, and submit to the Commission at this session a report evaluating the measures taken by the Government in accordance with the recommendations made to it (document E/CN.4/1997/90).
Protection of Specific Groups
In 1996 the Commission decided to add a new item to its agenda, entitled "Indigenous issues". The previous year, the Commission had established an open-ended inter-sessional working group with the sole purpose of elaborating a draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The report of that group, which met from 21 October to 1 November 1996, will be examined by the Commission (document E/CN.4/1997/102). Other documents in that area include the report of the High Commissioner on progress made in carrying out the
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programme of activities for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, which began on 10 December 1994; a report of the Secretary-General on the possible establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous people within the United Nations (document E/CN.4/1997/100); and the annual report of the Subcommission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations (document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/21).
Measures to improve the situation and ensure the human rights and dignity of all migrant workers will again be considered during the forthcoming session. The Commission will have before it the Secretary-General's report on the status of the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (document E/CN.4/1997/65). Concerning the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, the Commission will review the reports of the Subcommission's inter-sessional working group. That panel reviews the promotion and practical realization of the Declaration; examines possible solutions to problems involving minorities, including the promotion of mutual understanding between and among minorities and Governments; and recommends further measures, as appropriate, for the promotion and protection of the rights of minorities. The reports of the group's first and second sessions will be before the Commission as documents E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/2 and E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/28, respectively.
Standard-Setting
The Commission is continuing its standard-setting activities with work on a draft declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. Last year, the Commission urged the open-ended working group on that question to make every effort to complete its task and submit the draft declaration to the Commission at this session. The latest report of the working group will appear as document E/CN.4/1997/92.
In addition, the Commission will consider the question of a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment designed to establish a preventive system of visits by a committee of experts to places of detention within the jurisdiction of States parties to the protocol. Before the Commission will be the report of the open-ended inter-sessional working group set up to elaborate the draft Optional Protocol (document E/CN.4/1997/33).
Children's Rights
The question of the rights of the child has received increased attention in recent years, especially since the entry into force in 1990 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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At its forty-eighth session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to appoint an expert to undertake a study on the protection of children affected by armed conflicts, including their participation in such conflicts and the relevance and adequacy of existing standards. The expert was also asked to make recommendations on ways and means of prevention, effective protection and remedial action. The Expert of the Secretary-General, Graça Machel of Mozambique, submitted her final report to the General Assembly late last year (documents A/51/306 and Add.1).
The Commission will also have before it the latest report of its open-ended inter-sessional working group on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on children in armed conflicts (document E/CN.4/1997/96). Meanwhile, the Commission's open-ended working group responsible for elaborating a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography will present the report of its third session (document E/CN.4/1997/97).
Under this agenda item, the Commission will also consider the status of the Convention; the report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, including child prostitution and child pornography, Ofelia Calcetas-Santos of the Philippines (documents E/CN.4/1997/95 and Adds.1-2); and a note by the Secretary-General on the implementation of its 1993 Programme of Action for the Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour.
Other Issues At this session, the Commission will also continue to study the implications of technological developments for the enjoyment of human rights. Members will have before them a report of the Secretary-General on human rights and bioethics (document E/CN.4/1997/66), as well as a report on the application of guidelines for the regulation of computerized personal data files (document E/CN.4/1997/67).
Another relatively new question on the Commission's agenda is that of conscientious objection to military service. At this session, members will study a report of the Secretary-General that takes into account information from governments and non-governmental organizations regarding that issue (document E/CN.4/1997/99).
In addition, the Commission will consider the follow-up to the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, when it takes up the annual report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (document E/CN.4/1997/98). That document contains a section on the measures taken and the progress achieved in the comprehensive implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. Those instruments are meant to inspire and determine all the future action of the international community and of the United Nations system on behalf of human rights.
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Commission Membership
The membership of the Commission for 1997 is as follows: Algeria, Angola, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Zaire and Zimbabwe.
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