PRESS BRIEFING BY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

PRESS BRIEFING BY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

In almost every country reviewed there had been improvement, as a result of the efforts made by the Human Rights Committee, Pratfullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati of India, Chairman of the Committee, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

The briefing marked the conclusion of the Committee's seventy-first session, which began at Headquarters on 19 March.  Joining Mr. Bhagwati to report on its outcome were Committee members Nisuke Ando of Japan and Christine Chanet of France.  They were introduced by Tim Wall of the United Nations Department of Public Information.

During the recent session, the Committee considered reports submitted by the Governments of Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan, Croatia and Syria on their implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

Mr. Bhagwati said that the effectiveness of the Committee had been increased by amendments to the Committee's rules of procedure, which required States parties to report on urgent concerns within a year, instead of waiting the routine four or five years.

Clarifying the Committee's role for the correspondents, Mr. Ando explained its difference from the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, which was a political body, with members representing their governments.  The 18 members of the Committee, on the other hand, were independent experts elected for limited terms by the member parties to the Covenant.  As such, they were able to monitor violations objectively and perform serious follow-up.  The Committee had no enforcement power, but its independent monitoring resulted in international public pressure when countries were shown to violate a treaty that they had ratified.

Turning to the country reports, Mr. Bhagwati said that in Uzbekistan the concerns of the Committee included allegations of torture and expulsion of vulnerable individuals.  Other concerns were the lack of an independent judiciary, exceptional use of military courts, constriction of freedom of information, violence against women, and the regulation of political parties and religious organizations.

Reporting on concerns in Syria, Ms. Chanet said that there had been some positive developments, including the release of many political detainees.  Some remaining concerns, however, were urgent enough to require early reporting.  Those include the permanent state of emergency that the Committee had asked Syria to lift, the wide application of the death penalty, a judicial system that lacked an appeals process, and the situation of minorities, especially the Kurds.  The Committee was also concerned about the status of women, especially married women, as well as conditions in prisons.

In the Dominican Republic, Mr. Ando said, the Committee's concerns focused on violations against illegal workers, who crossed the border from Haiti to work

12-hour days in the sugar cane fields.  It was advantageous to the Dominican Republic to allow those workers to come, but they were kept illegally, sometimes for two or three generations, and in that condition had no rights.  The Committee asked the Government to regularize their legal status.

The report from Croatia was the first since its independence in 1991 and the ensuing ethnic violence, according to Mr. Bhagwati.  The Government elected in 2000 was developing a democratic balance of power and trying to conform with articles of the human rights Covenant.  But, there have been problems doing that, and the Committee still had a number of concerns.  Perpetrators of violence during the unrest had not been brought to justice, for example, though training was being provided to police and judiciary to better deal with such situations.  In addition, anti-discrimination laws were lacking in the private sector, affecting Serbs and Romanis, and the return of Serb refugees was not being facilitated.  The Committee recommended action in all those areas.

In Venezuela, Mr. Bhagwati continued, many issues of serious concern still remained, including extrajudicial executions and deaths in custody.  But, he added, in that case, as with the other countries considered, "I must say that all the delegations were very frank in their discussion with us, and we could see that they were quite sincere in desiring to carry out our recommendations."

A correspondent asked if individuals could bring complaints to the Committee.  Mr. Bhagwati said that individuals who alleged that their rights had been violated and who had exhausted all legal remedies within their own country were eligible to bring grievances before the Committee.  That is, if the country in question was one of the 98 that had ratified an optional protocol that allowed such suits to be heard.

Another correspondent asked how much improvement there was in the human rights situation in Venezuela since the last report, as the Committee's report mentioned grave concern over disappearances.  Mr. Bhagwati said that some concerns from the last report had been addressed, but some remained.  New questions had arisen, as well.  There were Colombian refugees at the border who were on the verge of being forced back into danger.  As for the disappearances, those allegations had come from detailed reports from non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International.  The Committee questioned the delegations on the basis of those reports.

Finally, Mr. Bhagwati announced that in July the report of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would finally be submitted and considered by the Committee.  That country had previously threatened to withdraw from the Covenant, an action prohibited to States parties.  In eliciting Korean cooperation, the Covenant had passed a crucial test.

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