APPLICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRINCIPLES MUST RECOGNIZE CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES, SAUDI ARABIA TELLS SOCIAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
GA/SHC/3453
APPLICATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRINCIPLES MUST RECOGNIZE CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES, SAUDI ARABIA TELLS SOCIAL COMMITTEE
19971119 Others Differ; Andorra Says Conflict Argument a 'Fallacy', No Reason for Economic Development To Exclude Individual LibertiesInternational principles of human rights could not be applied at the national level without taking into account the cultural and religious characteristics of each society, the representative of Saudi Arabia told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) this morning as it continued its consideration of human rights questions.
He went on to say that the differences and cultural diversity around the world must be respected. Anything against that was a challenge to the right of existence and to tolerance. Respect for human rights and basic freedoms could be realized only through understanding, studying and absorbing the cultures and particularities of diverse societies.
The representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea said there were no individual human rights without collective rights. The socialist system in his country was a genuine one in which all the State policies were being carried out with emphasis on promoting and protecting the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the masses and in which the State was fully responsible for and took care of people's lives.
The representative of India said the response of the developing world to colonialism had been an emphasis on self-determination, a struggle against racism and articulation of the right to development. Developing countries saw the right to development as the broadest conception of human rights, yet it was treated as a step-child of the Universal Declaration.
The debates on human rights did not always testify to the willingness of the international community to work jointly along common standards, the representative of Liechtenstein said. Becoming trapped in sterile repetitions of narrow national viewpoints could not lead to sustained improvement in human rights. No country was perfect, but it was impossible to stand by silently when the most basic human rights and fundamental freedoms were violated.
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The representative of Andorra said the argument that economic and social rights came before individual liberties was a fallacy. Why should one exclude the other? Even the developing world that had embraced democracy and human rights did not seem to be doing worse in terms of development than those that opted for authoritarian regimes.
Promotion and protection of human rights in Liberia had been unsatisfactory during the civil war, the representative of that country said. Now, a national human rights commission had been established, which would be independent and would consult with the Human Rights Centre in Geneva. National reconciliation was being fostered by the inclusion of members of the opposition in the Government.
Statements were also made by Cuba, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa and Togo. The Observer for Palestine also made a statement.
The Third Committee meets again at 3 p.m today to continue its consideration of human rights questions. It was also expected to take action on a number of draft resolutions on issues related to crime prevention and criminal justice, implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Programme of Activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, the right of people to self-determination and human rights questions.
Committee Work Programme
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this morning to continue its consideration of human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Committee had before it reports on the human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives on the following: Cambodia, Haiti, Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia, Myanmar, southern Lebanon and West Bekaa, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sudan, Cuba, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
(For background on alternative approaches, the Vienna Declaration and the High Commissioner's report and the reports of the special rapporteurs and representatives see: Press Releases GA/SHC/3443 and GA/SHC/3444 of 12 November; GA/SHC/3445 of 13 November; and GA/SHC/3447 of 14 November).
Statements
NAIF BEN BANDAR AL-SUDAIRY (Saudi Arabia) stressed the importance of international cooperation to strengthen and ensure respect for human rights and basic freedoms. That was fundamental to the achievement of universality of human rights, which could be realized only through understanding, and studying and absorbing the cultures and particularities of diverse societies. The cultures of different peoples contained principles that might enrich and strengthen human rights. International principles of human rights, which were basically the principles of certain cultures and civilizations, could not be applied on the national level without taking into account the cultural and religious characteristics of each society.
He said it was important that differences and cultural diversity around the world be respected; anything against that was a challenge to the right of existence and to tolerance. The technical assistance offered by the Centre for Human Rights should not be mixed with the supervision that it might impose. The United Nations system must not be allowed to be used as a means to make statements or distribute literature that represented an insult to any of the religions; freedom of speech must not be a license for deepening religious malice and for absence of religious tolerance.
He said human rights in Saudi Arabia had moral and religious dimensions that were protected by law. When the Kingdom insisted on the application of justice and rights for its people, it did so to enforce a religious creed that was part of Islamic Law. He cited articles of the basic law of governance which integrated such principles. Saudi Arabia, he went on, was considered one of the most successful countries in attaining security and stability with
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prosperous development and a high standard of living, and where employment opportunities, higher education, health care and the protection of the environment were for everyone. Millions of workers from various parts of the world had participated in Saudi Arabia's economic development, and had been guaranteed their rights according to the law. He noted accusations by the representative of the European Union that Saudi Arabia did not guarantee religious freedom and said the best response was paragraph 48 of the report of the Special Rapporteur concerning religious freedom. In that paragraph, the Saudi Arabian authorities were thanked for their detailed and closely reasoned reply, and their firm intention to cooperate with the Rapporteur.
JONG MYONG HAK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) said that although the cold war was over the attitudes and policies of that time persisted in the field of human rights. Some countries were attempting to pursue their political purposes by isolating and stifling others, or imposing economic sanctions, using human rights issues as a weapon. The politicization of human rights, characterized by encroaching upon the sovereignty of others, should be ended. Human rights was the sovereign right of the State and sovereignty was the life of the State.
He said the international community should thoroughly observe the principles of respect for sovereignty enshrined in the United Nations Charter and in international laws, reject double standards, and ensure objectivity and impartiality in the interpretation and application of the international human rights instruments. The use of human rights issues as leverage in economic cooperation and trade relations should cease.
He said the Democratic People's Republic of Korea therefore supported the position of developing countries that international cooperation for realizing the right to development -- stipulated in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action as an indivisible element of human rights -- should be strengthened. There were no individual human rights without collective rights. The socialist system in his country was a genuine one in which all State policies were being carried out with emphasis on promoting and protecting the political, economic, social and cultural rights of the masses and in which the State was fully responsible for and took care of people's lives.
WILLIAM BULL (Liberia) said it was gratifying that the High Commissioner was calling on international financial institutions to show greater interest in promoting the rights of people in impoverished countries. Before and during the civil war in his country, the promotion and protection of human rights had been implemented in an unsatisfactory manner; a National Human Rights Commission had now been established by law.
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Although the Commission was established by the new Government, it would operate independently, he said. Among other mandates, it would consult with the Human Rights Centre in Geneva and organizations such as Amnesty International which had already visited Liberia for talks with the Government. To ensure the non-partisan impartiality, members of the Commission were prohibited from political involvement of any form. A permanent, five-member Elections Commission had been established to conduct and supervise periodic elections. The new Government had pledged shortly to seek ratification of international covenants on human rights.
After seven years of strife, he concluded, the new Government of Liberia was fostering national reconciliation by including members of the opposition in the Government. There would be no recrimination against anyone, irrespective of ethnic origin, religion and social status. It would be fitting for Liberia to be assisted in every way to rebuild its economic infrastructure, to strengthen its institutions, such as the judicial system, and to help reintegrate its people into a productive society.
MARIAN ALEXANDAR BABY (India) said the real question was how to make universal human rights more acceptable to all. Why was the pursuit of those values seen as an imposition by some countries? What about the relativistic challenge that acknowledged human rights as universal but claimed some people were less human than others and were therefore left unprotected?
He said the approach of the developing world to human rights had been shaped heavily by the experience of colonialism, racism and the destruction of traditional economies and ways of life. Colonialism was the deprivation of all rights, and the response of those countries was to seek decolonization, with an emphasis on self-determination, and with the related struggle against racism and the articulation of the right to development.
Developing countries, he went on, saw the right to development as the broadest conception of human rights, encapsulating all others, yet the right to development was treated as a "step-child" of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Internationally, the issue had become politicized, with some countries assuming the role of custodians of human rights. That raised questions of selectivity, double standards and partial approaches.
He said there was an over-reliance on monitoring in an approach that was country-specific, litigious and essentially "behaviourist". Such monitoring in an imperfect political landscape where the standing monitors was open to question did not advance the cause of human rights. The focus should be on the interdependence of democracy, development and human rights. There should be consensus against the menace of terrorism, which violated everyone's rights. One of the greatest challenges facing the new High Commissioner was the need to restore a new measure of consensus, which it was thought had been achieved at the Vienna Conference.
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SOMAIA BARGHOUTI, Observer for Palestine, said one of the objectives of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action was to monitor the situation of peoples living under foreign occupation. The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, remained critical with regard to the violation of human rights. Severe and systematic violations of the Palestinian people's human rights were being committed by Israel, the occupying power. Collective violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people were among the worst violations in recent history, the most serious being the imposition of foreign occupation, deprivation of the rights to self- determination, different forms of collective punishment, the confiscation of land, the seizure of natural resources, and the building of illegal colonial settlements.
In addition, she said, there were various types of individual human rights violations against the Palestinian people, including detention, imprisonment, summary executions, and obstruction of movement and means of livelihood. Those policies constituted of grave violations of international law and led to dangerous consequences that adversely affected the peace process and threatened its existence. The matter was being dealt with in the Commission on Human Rights, but Israel refused to cooperate with the Commission's Special Rapporteur, while Palestinian authorities were willing to do so. It was imperative that the Rapporteur comply with the mandate given to him by the Commission.
She said the Palestinian people had hoped the peace process would mean progress in the achievement of their human rights, but the reality was different. However, they were hopeful the situation would soon change, and they remained committed to the peace process. An end to the current impasse must lead to a drastic and genuine change in their human rights situation and their living conditions.
JUAN ANTONIO FERNANDEZ PALACIOS (Cuba) said next year's commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would present the opportunity to analyse its implementation, and also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. When the Universal Declaration was adopted almost two thirds of mankind lived under colonialism and neocolonialism and in South Africa there still existed the most detestable system in history. The Declaration should be seen as a visionary statement of the challenges for the next millennium.
He said the Vienna Conference had recognized the right to development as an integral component of all human rights. From the standpoint of the developing countries, that was one of the greatest achievements of the Conference. However, little had been done to implement it. The recognition of the universality, indivisibility and the interdependence of all human rights, as well as the importance of the diversity of mankind, was another great achievement of the Conference. The review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action should reactivate collective efforts to strengthen
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international cooperation in the field of human rights, including its depoliticization, as well as to adapt and strengthen the relevant United Nations machinery.
CLAUDIA FRITSCHE (Liechtenstein) said the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action affirmed that democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms were independent and mutually reinforcing. Human rights were playing an increasingly important role in matters related to international peace and security.
It was symbolic that the diplomatic conference for the establishment of an international criminal court would take place during "Human Rights Year". It was to be hoped that the court would be established. A strong, independent and effective court would be a landmark contribution to the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, if the necessary political will was generated.
She said debates on human rights did not always testify to the willingness of the international community to work jointly on the basis of common standards. Becoming trapped in sterile repetitions of narrow national viewpoints could not lead to sustained improvement in promoting and protecting human rights. No country was perfect and it was a truism to state that no country was free of human rights violations. At the same time, it was impossible to stand by silently when the most basic human rights and fundamental freedoms were violated.
AFTAB FARRUKH (Pakistan) said human rights violations continued to occur in many parts of the world. In South Asia, the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir had been facing a serious human rights crisis for the last eight years, since India crushed a peaceful movement for independence by a massive deployment of security forces. He said there was virtually one Indian soldier for every two able-bodied persons in Kashmir; the purpose of the intimidatory deployment was to perpetuate Indian occupation.
Every human rights covenant and instrument had been violated by India in Kashmir, he continued. More than 60,000 men, women and children had been killed, and thousands more were maimed and disabled for life by the Indian security forces. India claimed that the problem was externally instigated and that material support for militancy came from across the border. However, the Kashmiri movement had been exclusively indigenous. Material support could not be coming from across the border. That could be confirmed if India accepted Pakistan's proposal to station neutral international observers along the area or to increase the number of United Nations observers.
ERELLA HADAR (Israel) said treaties, conventions, working groups and special rapporteurs made up the human rights instruments and represented the machinery, but she questioned whether they were able to protect human rights if they did not have the power to enforce compliance. A related question
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concerned the challenge by some that human rights issues were matters within the domestic jurisdiction of States.
The issue of universality versus so-called "cultural relativism" had been addressed by the Vienna Declaration, she said. That document had recognized that people's norms and values were influenced by different historical, cultural and religious backgrounds. But it had also been made clear that regardless of political, economic and cultural systems, States were obliged to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Secretary-General had argued against the view that human rights were a luxury concern imposed by the West, she said. He had called on African leaders to embrace human rights and to implement safeguards for them as a matter of their own concern, not as one imposed on them by others. It was of paramount importance for the High Commissioner to make sure the Human Rights forums were not used for political purposes but for the humanitarian concerns that had prompted their creation.
MATHE DISEKO (South Africa) said the people of his country had in 1996 adopted a new and democratic constitution to heal the divisions of the past and to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. It laid the foundation for a society in which government was based on the will of the people, and every citizen was equally protected by law. South Africans had to come to terms with their past on a morally acceptable basis and advanced the cause of reconciliation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been set up by parliament to unearth human rights abuses that defied description. It had been a painful but necessary exercise which had, generally, given a sense of psychological and spiritual catharsis, as people told their stories.
He said the new constitution also accelerated the process of formally endorsing most international human rights instruments. He said national institutions had been set up to strengthen and consolidate the basic notions of freedom. He cited the human rights commission, the commission for gender equality, the electoral commission and the constitutional court. A bill of rights had been included in the constitution to ensure that the people of South Africa were never again subjected to repression and the denial of their human rights.
He went on to say the right to development was an important component of human rights which had been given meaning in the Government's socio-economic rehabilitation and development strategy. Through such measures the Government, with other development partners, strove to make concrete the long- awaited desire of the South African people to exercise their basic right to development through access to water, sanitation, shelter, health care and sustainable human resource development.
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JULI MINOVES-TRIQUELL (Andorra) said people in his country had been able to cling to individual liberties and the tenets of tolerance for more than a 1,000 years. Since 1419, Andorra had had a parliament. There had never been one-man or one-party rule. The liberties of others were well respected in his country. Andorra had been a shelter of freedom for individuals fleeing intolerance, torture and squalid death in the Spanish Civil War, and for others escaping the barbarities of the Second World War. It was a model to show that human rights and democracy were possible in poor countries and in remote communities, and out of the mainstream of urban sophistication or New York debating societies.
By respecting the rights of others at the individual level, he said, it was much less likely that a country would become aggressive at the level of the nation state. The choice of human rights, a choice of human philosophy that was the only option for a sane world in the centuries to come, had been "up for grabs" since 1948, at which time there had been a definite step in the right direction, towards the adoption of the Universal Declaration.
He said it was sometimes chilling to hear the reports on human rights that came from certain regions of the world. Andorra's position was clear -- the argument that economic and social rights came before individual liberties was a fallacy. There was no reason one should exclude the other. Even the developing world that had embraced democracy and human rights did not seem to be doing worse in terms of development than those that opted for authoritarian regimes.
ROLAND KPOTSRA (Togo) said that 50 years after the Second World War, there were United Nations instruments to assure human rights, and yet the human rights situation in the world was illuminated by the magnitude of the violations that occurred -- from torture and arbitrary detentions to children being brought into battle. It was more than ever necessary to promote human rights through education, with information broadly disseminated, especially to rural populations, the majority of whom had limited access to it.
Human rights, he said, was one of the pillars of Togo's constitution, which was adopted in 1992 and clearly reaffirmed the rule of law. Togo had signed a large number of human rights instruments and was carrying out its obligation to submit reports, as it had recently done on the rights of children. Togo had appointed a National Commission of Human Rights, which was subject to the constitution and which linked Togo with the Human Rights Centre in Geneva. The process of democratization was carried out in Togo at all levels, both by the highest leadership and the citizenry; since mid-November, for example, a training course was on-going for law enforcement officials and policemen.
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