PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER TELLS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION PEACE PROCESS IS IN JEOPARDY
Press Release
HR/CN/776
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER TELLS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION PEACE PROCESS IS IN JEOPARDY
19970331 Commission Continues Discussions On Migrant Workers, Minorities and Religious Discrimination(Reproduced as received; delayed in transmission.)
GENEVA, 24 March (UN Information Service) -- The Palestinian Authority's Minister for Higher Education, Hanan Ashrawi, told the Commission on Human Rights this morning that Israel was exploiting the peace process to confiscate more Palestinian land and to build and expand settlements.
According to Ms. Ahrawi, the extremism of the Israeli Government was feeding extremist elements among Palestinians. While Israel sought to extract Jerusalem from the heart of Palestine, it was simultaneously attempting to dismember the land with settlements and by-pass roads, she said, adding that Israel was unilaterally preempting the outcome of permanent status issues and flagrantly reneging on the Interim Phase agreements by continuing to hold hostage more than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The statement by the Palestinian Minister came after a long delay in the morning session during which the Commission's Bureau discussed whether she would be allowed to speak from the podium, which she eventually did.
This morning the Commission also heard from Swami Agnivesh, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, who reported that the Fund was in a difficult financial situation due to a lack of contributions. There were more than six million people in the most extreme forms of bonded labour and servitude today, he said as he urged countries to provide at least the $100,000 needed to enable the Fund to meet in 1998 and respond to a minimum number of applications for assistance.
The Commission then continued to hear statements on agenda items addressing the human rights of migrant workers, rights of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and religious discrimination.
Taking the floor this morning were the representatives of Ukraine, China, Finland and Morocco. The following non-governmental organizations also made statements: World Federation of United Nations Associations, International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Liberation and International Institute for Peace and International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism.
The session was adjourned until 3 p.m. today when the Commission will continue listening to statements on the items discussed this morning.
Statement by Minister for Higher Education of Palestinian Authority
HANAN ASHRAWI, Minister of Higher Education of the Palestinian Authority, said the deprived and abused looked to the Commission for succour and justice, while those who perpetrated violations and abuses viewed it with suspicion and hostility. The world was faced with the challenges represented by the drastic deterioration in human rights as it struggled to cope with "ethnic-tribal-cultural" intra-State conflicts and as it struggled with emerging petty dictatorships of self-interest and power politics. Obsolete power forms also persisted in enslaving whole nations through the most pervasive form of violation -- military occupation and the denial of a people's right to self-determination. Israel's occupation of Palestine was such a case.
Ms. ASHRAWI said the principles of representation, accountability and the rule of law were taken very seriously by the Palestinians. As a people long victimized by persistent and comprehensive violations of its rights and fundamental freedom, Palestinians were particularly sensitive, "lest we do to unto others or unto each other what has been done unto us". Accountability began at home, and intimidation, reticence, self-censorship and passive internalization and acquiescence were the worst symptoms of "soul-death". That was why Palestinians chose to be self-critical and monitor violations and violators. One of the steps the Palestinian Authority had taken to play its role was the introduction of a new course requirement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in all institutions of higher education.
The Palestinian-Israeli peace process was in serious jeopardy, she said. Israel was exploiting the peace process to confiscate more Palestinian land and to build and expand settlements. The extremism of the Israeli Government was feeding extremist elements among Palestinians. While Israel sought to extract Jerusalem from the heart of Palestine, it was simultaneously attempting to dismember the land with settlements and by-pass roads. It unilaterally preempted the outcome of permanent status issues, and flagrantly reneged on the Interim Phase agreements by continuing to hold hostage more than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners; by not implementing the agreed safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank, and by tightening its stranglehold on the
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Palestinian crossing, turning the Palestinian territories into a collective prison.
Israel had also sanctioned the use of violence against Palestinians under interrogation, she went on. Palestinian detainees were the victims of "a horrific aberration in the discriminatory value of human life and rights". Yet Palestinians were being held responsible for the security of every Israeli; the peace process had become an instrument for blackmailing the Palestinian Authority to safeguard the security of the Israelis at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people. Peace had never been built on victimization. Only a just peace could release both peoples and harness energies and potential for mass construction rather than mass destruction.
Statement by Chairman of Board of Trustees of Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
SWAMI AGNIVESH, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, said there were more than six million people in the most extreme forms of bonded labour and servitude today. Contemporary forms of slavery included the slave trade and debt servitude; the sale and traffic in human beings; forced prostitution of children and women; forced recruitment of child soldiers, and the exploitation of child labour.
Mr. AGNIVESH recalled that although the General Assembly had established the Trust Fund in 1991, the level of contributions had been negligible. The mandate of the Fund, which was to assist victims of contemporary forms of slavery, could take different forms, including supporting the excellent work of many non-governmental organizations. The fundamental purpose of the Board was to bring more life and substance to the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery by supporting the participation of representatives of NGOs active and effective in fighting this great evil.
Despite the adoption of international conventions, slavery continued to flourish, manifesting itself in new and insidious forms, he went on. In parts of Asia, there was a spread of bonded labour; in Africa, South and Central America, there were traces of feudal chattel slavery; and in the Americas, Asia and Europe, there were new concerns about the servitude of some immigrant and domestic workers. Supporting the Fund would not eradicate slavery. But it would provide essential encouragement to those working for its elimination. Minimum contributions would be better than nothing; the Fund needed the very basic amount of $100,000 to be able to meet in 1998 and respond to a minimum number of applications for assistance.
The report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (document E/CN.4/1997/76) states
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that the difficult financial situation of the Fund, which is due to a lack of contributions, has meant that the Board of Trustees has only been able to meet once since it was appointed by the Secretary-General in 1993. The Fund has received contributions from Chile ($2,500), Kuwait ($12,000), Morocco ($2,316), the Netherlands ($27,000) and Switzerland ($15,152) (8 December 1994), as well as from an NGO, Action for Children Campaign ($100), and a private person, Dr. Francalanci Buscioni ($500) (28 September 1994). According to information available at the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights, it is estimated that the amount available for grants in 1997, $27,524, might not be sufficient to allow the Board to make recommendations for travel grants to allow a few representatives of NGOs working in the field of contemporary forms of slavery to participate in the Working Group's session in May 1997, and/or to recommend a few other grants for NGO programmes to be developed in 1997.
Statements in Debate
L. H. HORACE PERERA, of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, said it was useful to review the conduct of certain religious and political leaders who did not hesitate to use the freedoms available in other countries to acquire, for their co-religionists living in those countries, all the freedoms associated with religion and belief. They had a right to do so and that right had to be protected. However, those same leaders denied these very rights to people of other religions living legally in their territories. It was difficult to say under what principle of their own religion, or under what human rights covenant, such "blatant violations of the freedom of conscience and religion" could be justified. Some democracies in the West, including those in North America, were equally guilty of violations. They had set themselves up as ardent missionaries of human rights and fundamental freedoms, but their current overriding concern was increasing investment and trade. That suffocated their human rights campaigns, particularly those for the freedom of religion and belief.
DANIEL LACK, of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, said budget cuts still being applied had prevented the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance from publishing important information on communications between him and countries subject to allegations of intolerance; this shortage of resources amounted to censorship. It was clear that the summary listing of countries and allegations was inadequate for the purpose of arriving at sustainable conclusions other than in the most egregious cases, such as reported deaths of priests and ministers in Iran. There had been urgent appeals to China, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates by the Special Rapporteur. The seriousness of the degree of religious intolerance could not be obscured in situations such as those in Algeria and Yemen, where entire societies were threatened; nor in the case of Taliban-occupied Afghanistan. Inter-religious dialogue and unrelenting
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advocacy of religious tolerance through education was fundamental. The Commission also should consider drafting an international convention making the Declaration related to religious tolerance into a binding human-rights convention.
NAVTEJ SINGH AHLUWALIA, of Liberation, said the human rights discourse had failed to recognize the claims of minorities. These groups were thus compelled to seek recognition as national, ethnic, religious and racial minorities, contrary to their own history and perception. Sikhs made up the majority in the state of Punjab in Northern India; they did not fit neatly into current definitions of race, community, religion or minority. Regrettably, in this connection, the report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, appeared to be based on the opinions of the Indian State and political organizations rather than on facts. The politicization of the Sikh religion had been facilitated by structural and constitutional mechanisms -- Indian secularism was merely a political slogan. Sikhs disputed the sovereignty of India over the Golden Temple in Amritsar; India's control over Sikh religious institutions and its failure to recognize recognise Sikhism as a distinct religion; and lastly, the regular practice of denying visas for Sikh political and human rights activists to make pilgrimages to holy sites in India.
TATIANA SHAUMIAN, of the International Institute for Peace, said diversity was the law of nature. Today, this very diversity was the cause of sharp conflicts in different parts of the world. Antagonism between groups of people, based on visible differences, was increasingly degenerating into armed conflicts, causing untold deaths and the violation of the human rights of millions of people. In most cases, majority communities had sought to integrate and change the identity of minorities by constitutional, legal and cultural means. This phenomenon was being witnessed in most multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic societies. Democratic tenets provided the surest protection for people of different races, religions, languages and ethnicity as they sought to co-exist as equal citizens. This made it imperative that the international community work towards the strengthening of democratic norms through a process of example and education.
VALDYSLAV ZOZULYA (Ukraine) said the systematic and consistent efforts of the Ukrainian Government in safeguarding the rights of minorities had meant that Ukraine had become one of the few newly-independent States to avoid inter-ethnic conflicts and confrontations. There was no room in his country for policies of forced assimilation or of the superiority of one ethnic group over another. The renewal of rights of the peoples deported from the territory of Ukraine under the Stalin regime -- notably Crimean Tatars, Germans, Greeks and others -- had been the object of specific measures by the Ukrainian Government, and some 260,000 former deportees and their descendants had returned to Ukraine. He welcomed the establishment of an inter-sessional
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working group on minorities; the information provided to that panel should not solely consist of complaints, but also of positive experiences. The constructive and mutually respectful cooperation of States, based on the principles of international law, would promote a peaceful, step-by-step process of settling the problems of persons belonging to minorities and contribute to preventing mass migrations.
Ms. SONAM (China) said all governments were duty-bound to ensure equal rights for minorities by taking legislative and administrative measures in the political, economic, cultural, religious, educational and social fields. International cooperation could also contribute to promoting and protecting the rights of minorities. China was a unified, multi-ethnic State whose prosperity and stability went hand in hand with the development of its ethnic groups. The Chinese Government had made every effort to ensure complete ethnic equality in every aspect of real life. A system of autonomy in the ethnic minority regions had been introduced, and the common prosperity of all ethnic groups had been promoted. China would continue its endeavours to ensure the full enjoyment of all rights by these groups. It was also prepared to further pursue international cooperation in this field and to contribute to the cause of protecting the rights of minorities.
ANTTI RYTÖVUORI (Finland), speaking on behalf of the Nordic countries, said it was sometimes claimed that the presence of national or ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities was a source of tension and conflicts. In reality, effective exercise of those rights contributed to the stability of a society. Rights of persons belonging to minorities should therefore be seen in terms of diminishing tension between groups and promoting pluralism and tolerance in multi-cultural societies. Effective protection and promotion of these rights required decisive positive from States, allowing minorities to develop their characteristics. At the same time, it was essential that minorities themselves abided by democratic rules and allowed for the full enjoyment of all human rights by each individual belonging to the group. The United Nations also had a "crucial role" to play with respect to the protection of minorities. International standards on those rights should not be frozen at the minimum level at which they were today. The Nordic countries encouraged the Working Group on Minorities to further study and compare national experiences involving minorities and to prepare studies on the content and scope of the principles contained in the Declaration, including the formulation of specific and concrete recommendations for their application.
MOHAMED MAJDI (Morocco) said the issue of migrant workers was above all a question of human rights rather than of migration per se. With the onset of the economic crisis and the development of structural unemployment, migrants had become, from one day to the next, "scapegoats" for all the ills their host countries were experiencing. Discriminatory measures had been adopted to
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counter the influx of migrants, while the difficulties they faced on a daily basis had led to a resurgence of xenophobia and racism among ever larger segments of society. The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families adopted in 1990 had still to enter into force as the political will of States was lacking. The Commission should give particular attention to this question. NGOs also had to play a more dynamic role, and Member States should activate ratification procedures.
ATSUKO TANAKA, of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), said that while it had succeeded in some efforts to help minority groups, the Working Group on Minorities had not yet found concrete solutions to problems involving minorities, and IMADR called for extension of its mandate. In future it should pay more attention to the situation of women belonging to minorities, as they suffered from double discrimination; it also was important for the Working Group to review Constitutions and legislation protecting minorities -- and especially implementation of these protections; in many countries the legal provisions did not as yet fully protect the existence and identity of minorities. In Europe, the Sinti and Romas continued to suffer under deteriorating conditions of intolerance and discrimination. In Germany, for example, authorities in Bavaria kept a special computer registration of Sinti and Roma, and in response to protests, an official had said the practice was a means of preserving criminal justice.
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