PANELLISTS AT ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE URGE CONSISTENT APPLICATION OF EXISTING HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

16 September 1998

Press Release
NGO/310
PI/1084

PANELLISTS AT ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE URGE CONSISTENT APPLICATION OF EXISTING HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

19980916 To Ensure Local and International Adherence, International Community Must Take Human Rights Rhetoric Seriously

The international community must ensure that existing human rights instruments and the standards they established were applied consistently and without double standards, the annual meeting of the Department of Public Information (DPI)/NGO Conference was told this morning.

The three-day Conference is focusing on the implementation of the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This morning, panellists discussed the international community's role in preventing conflicts and human rights abuses in post-conflict situations.

Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said today's challenge was not the elaboration of more human rights standards, as there were already many impressive instruments and laws to reinforce those standards. The real challenge was to ensure the application of those norms, internationally and locally. But no one on the ground was paying attention to those norms. The international community must take its own human rights rhetoric more seriously. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said it was necessary to reflect on the general reluctance of the international community to come to grips with the reality that many countries were sliding into an unprecedented abyss of violence and destruction. Dealing only with the consequences of conflicts was a recipe for disaster. Providing humanitarian assistance without addressing the security needs of endangered populations called into question the international community's commitment to human rights.

Peter Weiss, the Vice-President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the international community was responsible for lighting dark corners, standing in the way of atrocities and bringing perpetrators to trial.

Panellists were Lucia Newman, CNN Bureau, Havana; Muhamed Sacirbey (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Joelle Tanguy, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders, USA; Ilene Cohn, visiting fellow of the Human Rights Program at Harvard University Law School; Carlos Enrique Garcia Gonzalez (El Salvador); and Robert Schwartz, representative of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction.

The moderators were Peter Weiss, Vice-President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Gerhard O. W. Mueller, Professor, School of Criminal

Justice at Rutgers University.

The Conference will meet again this afternoon at 3 p.m.

INTERNATIONAL PREVENTION OF CONFLICTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Opening discussion in today's topic, PETER WEISS, Vice-President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, reminded the audience about the fight for human rights in the United States and around the world. While the international community was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it was good to remember that the statutes of human rights were no longer unwritten. The Declaration was composed of two parts -- one that addressed human and political issues and another that addressed economic and social rights. Both should be taken into account.

Implementation of human rights required participation by NGOs, he said. NGOs were the moving force of moral legitimacy, while domestic courts and institutions brought legal legitimacy to the issue. The international community was responsible for casting light on dark corners, standing in the way of atrocities and bringing perpetrators to trial.

Speaking about the role of mass media in the prevention of human rights abuses, LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN Bureau Chief, Havana, said the media, and television in particular -- because of its graphic nature and immediacy, did have an impact, but it was not clear how substantial it was. For example, in covering the Sandinista National Liberation Front fighting to oust dictator Anastasio Somosa in the late 1970s, the media had provoked outrage and had contributed to the outcome of the struggle.

She said she had covered that war and the human rights violations that had taken place. In those days, Western journalists writing reports covering atrocities had often been targeted by the conservative lobby in Washington. One could argue that without the media, things would have been very different, or would have taken longer, but ultimately political will on the part of governments had played just as crucial a role. The media had helped to expose some covert operations, including the Iran Contra affair and the disappearance of people during the military dictatorship in Argentina.

In the case of Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994, the media's presence in the field had helped prevent a full-scale military offensive and a possible massacre, for it had made it impossible to violate human rights unnoticed, she said. Also, the media coverage of the Intifadah had had a huge influence on world opinion. The images of young Palestinians hurling rocks and being shot by Israeli soldiers had changed perceptions of the Palestinian cause. Bosnia had been yet another example of the impact of media coverage on the events.

She said the responsibility of the media was enormous, and it was not a perfect science; there were no rules, only ethics. Should the media be more committed to denouncing injustices? she wondered. Could it be manipulated? Should it advocate causes or be totally objective? Her news organization vigorously defended the principle that journalists must be totally impartial and stick to the facts, while covering both sides of the story.

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OLARA OTUNNU, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said factors contributing to conflicts today included: marginalization and inequitable distribution of resources; high degrees of ethnic, cultural and religious diversity within a country; denial of democratic practices; and the absence of institutions and processes to prevent human rights abuses and mediate competition for power, resources and prestige. Any country could experience such a cycle of violence and human rights abuses, unless the causes of the conflicts were addressed.

The international community must take its own human rights rhetoric more seriously, he said. Double standards and hypocrisy undermined efforts to prevent human rights violations. The international community must be consistent and apply similar standards in similar situations. It must strive to reinforce solidarity within national borders.

Today's challenge was not the elaboration of more human rights standards, as there were already many impressive instruments and laws to reinforce those standards, he said. The problem was that no one on the ground was paying attention to those norms. The real challenges were to ensure the application of those norms, internationally and locally.

Due to today's global interdependence, no group, State or insurgency could ignore the international community, he continued. Until now, international interdependence had not been used in a concerted way to ensure the application of human rights standards. The international community must insist on access to sites of concern to help prevent abuses. A presence on the ground was an important tool for the international community.

MUHAMED SACIRBEY (Bosnia and Herzegovina) said since the Second World War, rules and laws of war, had been codified. The International Court of Justice had been established, and recently the International Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia had been established. The Rome conference establishing the International Criminal Court had recently finished its work.

However, he continued, the Yugoslav Tribunal was a substitute for real action. The promise of future justice substituted for action when atrocities were committed. The Tribunal had been pressured into making political choices, leading to indictments based on political considerations, while ignoring the issue of institutional responsibility.

The idea of collective responsibility should be rejected, he said. No Serb was guilty of crimes just because he was a Serb. Holding individuals responsible should be the purpose of the Tribunal.

The United Nations had neither failed, nor succeeded in Bosnia, he continued. The Organization had been made a scapegoat, a role it was willing to accept. He said some incidents had tarnished the image of the United Nations, such as a situation in 1992, when United Nations personnel had documented atrocities in the prisoner camps, while that information was not

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made available to the Security Council. To regain credibility, the United Nations itself needed to be held accountable in the context of human rights.

JOELLE TANGUY, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders, USA, identified three key issues which, she said, must be addressed if the international community was to successfully tackle the wave of "uncivil" civil wars and their appalling human rights records.

The first issue was the lack of an effective conceptual framework, she said. The lack of an all-encompassing policy to address crises was appalling and there was a great divide between various actors. What was the point of using the concept of "peace by law" to argue for the protection of Rwandan refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? she asked. The massacres were orchestrated with the complicity of the country's leadership and the formula endorsed by Member States supporting this leadership was "peace by commerce". How could the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) coordinate their responses to complex emergencies, given their different conceptual frameworks and their specialized approaches to crises?

She said the second issue was the unfortunate relativity of humanitarian law. The noble declarations and intentions enshrined in the texts of humanitarian law flourished in United Nations conferences and international forums, but the practices and logic of Member States remained unchanged. The third issue was the ambiguous dynamic of the mediating actors. To what depth could the various actors work in total independence and strictly according to humanitarian principles? she asked. Institutions established by the United Nations Charter and associated agencies were suspected of capitulating to the pressures of donor states, rather than advocating for the causes enshrined in their mandates.

Doctors Without Borders had built a large, independent donor base, she said. "But, we often ask, can't we lose what we have gained in political independence, by our total dependency on whether the media brings a given crisis to public attention?" When the United States' media ignores Rwanda, the Sudan or Kosovo because of O. J. Simpson or Monica Lewinsky, what recourse is left to invite private philanthropy, stir indignation and stimulate action? she asked.

Discussion

To a question about the ethnic situation in Yugoslavia during the reign of Tito, Mr. Sacirbey said the facts indicated that the multi-cultural composition of Yugoslavia was centuries old. The country had been a haven for persecuted peoples, and had been tolerant of different religions and cultures. Tito had often been given credit for the multi-ethnic nature of the country, but what he had actually done was reject religious and ethnic differences. In the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the power leaderships had used ethnic and religious differences to establish power.

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To a comment that CNN had provided no coverage of events in Sierra Leone, and that there had been very little help in that situation from the United Nations, Ms. Newman said that CNN's mandate was to cover news as broadly and objectively as possible. There were many areas of conflicts, and it was hard to fully cover them all. Perhaps more correspondents should be sent out to provide coverage. She could not answer the question on the role of the United Nations.

Responding to remarks from the floor that there were different categories of human rights and double standards in place, Mr. Weiss said that there were many human rights violations, and racism was one of them. The failure to implement human rights texts was also a violation.

To a question about objectivity and balance in news coverage in view of the influence on the part of some powerful organizations, Ms. Newman said that the media tried every day to avoid bias and pressure. Often, media went against what the public wanted to hear. For example, people did not want to see hungry children dying. While journalists went to great lengths to give full coverage, it was not always perfect. Much depended on ethics.

Mr. Sacirbey added that the situation in Sierra Leone had received practically no coverage, while Bosnia and Herzegovina had, in a way, received too much coverage. The point was that sometimes the media could create grey areas. The situation in his country could not be categorized in terms of "black and white".

Post-Conflict Respect for Human Rights

GERARD O. W. MUELLER, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, moderated the discussion.

CARLOS ENRIQUE GARCIA GONZALEZ (El Salvador) said international efforts in post-conflict situations should focus on maintaining human rights norms and standards. The Salvadorian conflict had resulted from social and economic inequalities, and the dominance of the armed forces over civil and political

institutions. Approximately 75,000 people had lost their lives and more than a million had been displaced.

National efforts were underway to protect the peace process and ensure the observance of human rights in El Salvador, he said nonetheless, a great deal of work was still needed to eradicate extreme poverty and other factors which had caused the conflict, he said. Measures were also needed to ensure that the democratic process prevailed. The international community must help the people of El Salvador overcome remaining obstacles to the implementation of international human rights norms and standards.

To ensure peace, national efforts must be supported by the international community, including the multilateral institutions, he said. While the people

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and the Government of El Salvador had primary responsibility for protecting and promoting peace and respect for human rights, the United Nations and NGOs had a vital role to play in helping the country meet the challenges ahead.

ROBERT SCHWARTZ, Founder and Trustee of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, said while much attention was given to weapons of mass destruction, it was the ordinary conventional weapons which caused the overwhelming majority of deaths and casualties in conflicts around the world. Even with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war, the United States had maintained a "hard line" regarding military force, inflating its defense budget far beyond the country's security needs. Military might, particularly nuclear, had not, however, prevented or resolved conflicts, he said. Nor had military force prevented the spread of terrorism. Every day $2 billion were spent on arms worldwide, while 40,000 infants died from lack of medical care which would cost only pennies.

The barriers to peace lay not in the inadequacies of knowledge on peace- building, but in the failure to commit to a course of non-violence, he said. Military economies were a barrier to human rights. There must be a change in the leadership, guiding philosophy and course of all the larger nations. The United Nations, despite its problems and the need for reform, was the best institution to bring peace, democracy and prosperity to a unified world during the next century. Peacekeeping should be the task of blue helmets, not national armies.

ILENE COHN, visiting fellow of the Human Rights Program at Harvard University Law School, said child rights advocates, child welfare agencies and international NGOs knew they had insufficient information about how to protect children in post-conflict settings. The absence of data was due to a lack of funding for follow-up on the impact of interventions for children in conflict situations. To overcome that shortfall, children's needs should be reflected in all peace agreements.

Post-conflict settings occasionally offered an opportunity to expose and even address past wrongs, she said. Post-conflict truth commissions should document violations of children's rights during war. Those responsible for such violations should be brought to justice. The recruitment of children under 15 years old, which was considered a crime by the International Criminal Court, must stop.

SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said it was necessary to think about the root causes and reasons why so many societies were emploding. It was also necessary to reflect on the general reluctance of the international community to come to grips with the reality that many countries were sliding into an unprecedented abyss of violence and devastation. Roots of conflict could be found in the political and economic structures of societies. Among them were gross inequalities in access to resources; discrimination against particular groups; and corrupt or oppressive governments. All too often crises were allowed to fester into

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armed conflict and in too many situations humanitarian agencies were "the only act in town".

Experience had shown that unless the United Nations and its partners operated in line with basic principles, there was a danger of exacerbating the inequities which had fueled the conflict, he said. A strategic, principled approach was required to reverse the dynamics of destruction and devastation. A number of recent initiatives -- including the elaboration of ground rules in Sudan and the development of a strategic framework approach in Afghanistan -- had aimed at identifying a common understanding of a crisis. This approach allowed all United Nations actors to operate in a principled and complementary fashion.

Peace negotiations presented a special opportunity to obtain agreement on new and more equitable systems of power-sharing and to strengthen the judicial system and other institutions essential for good governance, he said. Putting an end to impunity was one of the most fundamental requirements for effective peace-building.

Discussion

In response to a question, Mr. DE MELLO said humanitarian agencies tried to move from assistance to rehabilitation and reconstruction as soon as possible.

To a question on what was being done to help the people in Kosovo get through the next winter, he said there had to be progress in political negotiations towards a winter truce.

To a question on how to better inform investors on conditions in countries, Mr. SCHWARTZ said Social Responsible Investing had led "de- investment" action during the apartheid regime in South Africa. The organization had now shifted its focus towards investments which helped countries during reconstruction. Since the Viet Nam war, some investors had been opposed to companies which were involved in the manufacture of munitions.

Mr. MUELLER, to a question on preventing young people from using drugs or getting involved in other delinquent behaviour, said efforts to prevent delinquency should focus on children up till 5 years of age.

To a question on preventing human rights violations in El Salvador, Mr. GONZALEZ said the Truth Commission had worked to "point the finger" at violators. Other efforts were aimed at reform of the judiciary.

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