HUMAN RIGHTS DOMINATES THIRD COMMITTEE AGENDA, WITH DEBATE OVER INTEGRATION OF ECONOMIC, POLITICAL RIGHTS
Press Release
GA/SHC/3461*
HUMAN RIGHTS DOMINATES THIRD COMMITTEE AGENDA, WITH DEBATE OVER INTEGRATION OF ECONOMIC, POLITICAL RIGHTS
19971216 Of 78 Proposals, 30 Devoted to Human Rights Issues; Right to Development Reaffirmed as Fundamental Human RightHuman rights questions dominated the agenda of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) during the current session, as it had in the past, with nearly one third of the Committee's 50 meetings devoted to human rights questions. On the recommendation of the Committee, the General Assembly adopted 78 resolutions and decisions, 30 of which were on a broad range of human rights issues, with others adopted on the advancement of women, international drug control, crime prevention and criminal justice, the elimination of racism and racial discrimination and refugees.
Implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development received a great deal of attention in the Committee's debate and the Assembly, through adoption of a resolution on the matter by a vote of 129 in favour to 12 against, with 32 abstentions, reaffirmed the importance of the right to development as an integral part of fundamental human rights. The Assembly also recognized that the Declaration on the Right to Development was an integral link between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action through its elaboration of a holistic vision integrating economic, social and cultural rights with civil and political rights.
The debate on the Declaration was an indicator of the diverse positions of Member States in the discussions on human rights issues in general. Developing countries, by and large, called for respect for cultural and religious diversity around the world, respect for sovereignty and for an end to the politicization of human rights issues. Several developed countries, on the other hand, called for common standards of human rights and stressed that economic and social rights did not come before individual liberties. Those diverse approaches to human rights resulted in recorded votes being required on 15 of the 30 human rights resolutions.
Among the human rights resolutions adopted by the Assembly were those on human rights and terrorism, non-interference in the State's electoral processes, unilateral coercive measures, family reunification, strengthening
* This press release will subsequently be incorporated into the overall Assembly highlights to be issued at the conclusion of the current segment of the fifty-second session.
United Nations action in the field of human rights, the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights and implementation of human rights instruments. Resolutions were also adopted on the human rights situations in Cuba, Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Cambodia, Haiti, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Burundi. A report, but not a resolution, was presented on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The emphasis on human rights issues took on added significance this year as the Committee continuously stressed the importance of the forthcoming commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the first five-year review of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. The related activities will take place within the context of Human Rights Year (1998), which was launched on 10 December. In that connection, one of the highlights of the Committee's session was the first address to the Committee by the newly-appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who told the Committee it would be farsighted for the international community to offer the same level of protection to individuals in economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, as it afforded them in the political and civil sectors.
Another highlight of the Committee's session was the address by the newly-appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Study the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. In his address, Olara Otunnu said that on the eve of the millennium, it was an abomination that children were being abused in situations of armed conflict and were being brutalized and forced to brutalize others. The Committee was also addressed by the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Ofelia Calcetas-Santos, who focused on the combined role of the media and education as powerful tools that could either cure or inflict irreversible harm on children.
The concerns about the rights of children were stressed in two resolutions adopted by the Assembly, one that stressed the need for full and urgent implementation of the rights of the girl child and the other on the rights of the child. The eight-part resolution on the rights of the child urged the universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and emphasized such issues as children with disabilities, the damaging effects of armed conflicts on children, refugee and internally displaced children, child labour and street children. Related resolutions were adopted on traffic in women and girls, on traditional and customary practices affecting women and girls, and assistance to unaccompanied refugee minors.
On the issue of the advancement of women and follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), the Assembly adopted resolutions on women in rural areas, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
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the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), improving the status of women in the Secretariat and violence against women workers. Throughout the Committee's debates and in numerous resolutions, the issue of mainstreaming a gender perspective in every aspect of social, humanitarian, human rights and cultural issues was reinforced. The Committee was also addressed by the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, Angela King. There was a high level of participation in the Committee's debates on international drug control and crime prevention and criminal justice. The Assembly, through adoption of a seven-part resolution on international drug control, decided to hold a special session on illicit drugs from 8 to 10 June 1998, and called for Member States to participate at a high political level. The resolution, which received widespread support from Member States, covered such issues as increased international cooperation to combat drug abuse and illicit trafficking, principles for demand reduction and the decline in resources for international drug control. The newly-appointed Executive Director of the new Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Pino Arlacchi, also held a dialogue with the Committee. He called on Member States to reassert their strong commitment to drug control as a priority at the national and international levels in the political declaration to be adopted at the special session. The Assembly adopted three resolutions on the elimination of racism and racial discrimination and three on the rights of peoples to self- determination. Before the debates on those issues, the Committee heard from the Special Rapporteur on the Use of Mercenaries to Undermine the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination, Enrique Bernales-Ballesteros, who said Africa was hardest hit by mercenary activities and highlighted the increase in mercenary activity through companies selling protection services. The Special Rapporteur on Measures to Combat Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo, in his statement to the Committee emphasized the need to combat use of the Internet for spreading racist propaganda. As in past years, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, also addressed the Committee. She said it was urgent for States to reaffirm their commitment to upholding humanitarian principles and to manifest more clearly their resolve to address the political dimensions of humanitarian crises. The Assembly adopted five resolutions concerning refugees and with adoption of one of those texts decided to continue the Office of the UNHCR for a further period of five years, from 1 January 1999. That matter is taken up by the Committee every five years. On social development issues, the Assembly, on the Committee's recommendation, called on the Secretary-General to launch the International Year of Older Persons in 1998, with the theme "A society for all ages". In addition, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People and called for an International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The officers of the Third Committee are: Chairman, Alessandro Busacca (Italy); Vice-Chairmen, Choe Myong Nam (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and Karim Wissa (Egypt); and Monica Martinez (Ecuador).
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