CONCERNS RAISED IN THIRD COMMITTEE ON RELATION OF RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION TO TERRITORIAL, POLITICAL INTEGRITY OF STATES

Fifty-eighth General Assembly

Third Committee

27^th Meeting (PM)

CONCERNS RAISED IN THIRD COMMITTEE ON RELATION OF RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

TO TERRITORIAL, POLITICAL INTEGRITY OF STATES

Draft Resolutions Introduced on Children in Armed Conflict, Indigenous People

Delegates today addressed the right of peoples to self-determination as it related to the territorial or political integrity of States, as the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) continued its consideration of issues related to the right of peoples to self-determination and the elimination of racism and racial discrimination.

Also today, draft resolutions were introduced on issues related to children’s rights and indigenous people -- a draft was introduced on the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict by the representative of Gabon, while the representative of Finland introduced a draft on the programme of activities of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

The right of self-determination applied to people under foreign occupation must not be distorted as authorizing or encouraging any action to dismember a sovereign State or violate its territorial and political integrity, said the representative of China.  Noting that his was a multi-ethnic country with a long history, he said it was the common aspiration of all Chinese people to maintain the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

In recent years, however, some people acting under the pretext of national self-determination had engaged in activities aimed at undermining the sovereignty and unity of China.  He said this was a wilful trampling on the recognized norms of international law and was a brazen provocation against the sovereignty of China and the will of the Chinese people. 

The representative of Israel reiterated Israel’s recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination throughout the world and the Middle East.  She said Israel respected the right of its neighbours, including the Palestinian people, to self-determination, but stressed that the right of self-determination did not legitimize all actions, including violent ones, undertaken in its name.

The realization of the right to self-determination, when preceded by its denial, had led to violent conflicts in many parts of the world, said the representative of Armenia.  He said it was not his intention to diminish the importance of the principle of territorial integrity, but he stressed that all peoples, large communities or small, were entitled to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

The representative of Pakistan said it was tragic that in his region the denigration of the struggle for self-determination as terrorism and the association of terrorism with Islam, were being actively promoted to justify the ongoing repression of the Kashmiri people. 

Other delegates highlighted the persistence of racism and racial discrimination as a threat to peace and security.  The equal treatment of people regardless of their racial or ethnic origins was a cardinal characteristic of a civilized society, said the representative of Nepal.  His country attached great importance to the work of the United Nations in combating xenophobia, religious intolerance, hatred and violence against persons on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, or religion.

The representative of the Russian Federation, noting that ethnic factors played a key role in Russia’s multinational society, said his Government had placed great emphasis on efforts to promote the harmonization of inter-ethnic relations.  The Constitution guaranteed human rights irrespective of national identity, and legislation had been adopted to counter political extremism, stipulating criminal liability for acts based on social, racial and religious intolerance.

Also speaking today was the representative of Burkino Faso who said it was necessary to focus further attention on the situation of women and children, who often suffered from double discrimination.  She also raised concerns about possible racism and discrimination in the caste system, and condemned the incitement of racial hatred and violence on the Internet, as well as the increase in islamophobia and racism in sports.

Exercising his right of reply, the representative of Azerbaijan responded to the statement presented by the Armenian delegation. 

The Committee will reconvene tomorrow at 3 p.m. to take action on draft resolutions related to the following items:  the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly; social development, including questions relating to the world social situation and to youth, ageing, disabled persons and the family; crime prevention and criminal justice; the advancement of women; and the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.

Background

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) continued its consideration of racism and racial discrimination, the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and the rights of people to self-determination.

For further background information, please see Press Release GA/SHC/3751 of 24 October.

Introduction of Draft Resolutions

The representative of Gabon introduced a draft resolution on the Office of the Special Representative for Children and armed conflict (document A/C.3/58/L.28).  He said that the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, was suppported by voluntary contributions alone.  Given the importance of the protection of children in armed conflict, the draft stressed the urgent need to remedy the situation.  The draft recommended that the activities under the mandate of the Special Representative be supported through regular budgetary funding.

A draft resolution was introduced on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (document A/C.3/58/L.27) by the representative of Finland.  He said that the draft resolution pointed out that work remained to be done to address the situation of indigenous peoples and made recommendations for action within the Decade.

Statements

DINA PORAT (Israel) said the need for a fresh working definition of racism was more urgent than ever because of the rapid expansion of cyberspace, which was being used by extremist groups to disseminate propaganda inciting hate crimes, and because of lessons learned from the Durban conference, which called attention to the objectionable indiscriminate labeling of national, religious, territorial, or military conflicts as expressions of racism.

She called on the Third Committee to initiate a global task force on education against racism and discrimination that would advocate respect for the full human spectrum.  She noted that the January 2000 Stockholm International Forum, attended by 45 States and their leaders, had resulted in a unanimous decision to use the Holocaust as a primary educational tool for the building of a better millennium in which different forms of human existence would be acknowledged and respected.

On the issue of self-determination, she reiterated Israel’s recognizition of the right of peoples to self-determination throughout the world and the Middle East.  Israel respected the right of its neighbours, including the Palestinian people, to self-determination and did not want to dominate the Palestinians or to control their destiny.  Israel was committed to the vision of a two-State solution, but the right of self-determination did not legitimize any actions, including violent ones, undertaken in its name.  The conflict in the Middle East was a political struggle -- not a racist, religious or cultural struggle -- and it could only be resolved by political dialogue based on mutual respect and mutual compromise.

XIE BOHUA (China) said that to eliminate racism and racial discrimination, one must deal with both the phenomenon and the root causes.  In this respect, governments bore the primary responsibility.  Practice had shown that vigorous advocacy of exchanges and dialogue among different civilizations, promotion of the harmonious coexistence of different races and nationalities and raising the public awareness of the danger of racism and racial discrimination, constituted a fundamental guarantee for achieving harmonious relationships and the common development of mankind as a whole. 

The right of self-determination applied to peoples under foreign aggression and occupation, he said.  It must not be distorted as authorizing or encouraging any action to dismember a sovereign State or violate its territorial and political integrity.  China was a multi-ethnic country with a long history.  It was the common aspiration of all Chinese people to maintain the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.  In recent years, under the pretext of national self-determination, some people with ulterior motives had been engaged in activities aimed at undermining the sovereignty and unity of China.  This was a wilful trampling on the recognized norms of international law and a brazen provocation against the sovereignty of China and the will of the Chinese people.  The Chinese Government was confident that truth and justice would prevail against this nefarious attempt. 

RAM BABU DHAKAL (Nepal) said racism and racial discrimination were impediments to peace, development, justice and harmony.  The equal treatment of people regardless of their racial or ethnic origins was a cardinal characteristic of a civilized society.  His country attached great importance to the work of the United Nations in combating xenophobia, religious intolerance, hatred and violence against persons on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, or religion.

He said migration was both a cause and consequence of racial, ethnic and gender discrimination.  His delegation believed the entry into force of the International Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would be a significant step to protect migrants.

Nepal’s Constitution guaranteed the right of equality without discrimination based on race, cast, or religion, with particular emphasis on the interests of vulnerable groups such as women, children and older persons.  He added that his Government had taken measures to sensitize local government, police, prosecutors, judges and civil society to prevent racial discrimination and racially motivated crimes.

The Government of Nepal was seeking a political solution to the problems wrought by the Maoists who aimed to establish a dictatorial regime and had hampered economic activities, he said.  Nepal needed external assistance to deal with that problem.

AWA NDEYE OUEDRAOGO (Burkina Faso) said her country was a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society and that the Constitution of Burkina Faso guaranteed all people freedom from discrimination.  Relations between different ethnic groups were based on respect for the other, and it helped that relations were often good-humoured between peoples.  Burkina Faso attached great importance to the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.  Regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstance, Burkina Faso had experienced a serious delay in its submission of its twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

She said she had read, with great interest, the report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on Racism and congratulated him for its important content and conclusions.  It was necessary to focus further attention on the situation of women and children, who often suffered from double discrimination.  Concerning coordinated approaches to combat racism, she said that a meeting held in Dakar had provided some answers as to the root causes and responses to racism.  It was always useful for governments to share their best practices and experiences in combating racism.  She also raised concerns about possible racism and discrimination in the caste system, and condemned the incitement of racial hatred and violence on the Internet, as well as the increase in islamophobia and racism in sports.

GREGORY LUKYANTSEV (Russian Federation) said racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance were a spawning ground for the most widespread violations of human rights, which were a challenge to security and stability in the twenty-first century.

He said ethnic factors played a key role in Russia’s multinational society, and his delegation valued the harmonization of inter-ethnic relations.  The Constitution guaranteed human rights irrespective of national identity and defined a list of grounds according to which rights could not be infringed.  Legislation had been adopted to counter political extremism, stipulating criminal liability for acts based on social, racial and religious intolerance.  Law enforcement agencies used educational measures as part of the federal programme adopted to combat extremism and minimize hatred and intolerance.  Educational measures had been adopted to foster a culture of communication among nationalities.

His delegation was very concerned about the discrimination suffered by Russians living in Latvia and Estonia, he said.  The Russian Federation called on the international community to make a maximum effort to eradicate all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

ARMEN MARTIROSYAN (Armenia) stressed that all peoples, large communities or small, were entitled to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.  Regretfully, in most cases, the realization of the right to self-determination had been and continued to be preceded by its denial, thus leading to violent conflicts in many parts of the world.  He said it was not his intention to diminish the importance of the principle of territorial integrity.

The realization of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh of their inalienable right to self-determination and Azerbaijan’s claims for territorial integrity was a clear demonstration of an ill-fated attempt to create a collision between the two fundamental principles, he said.  However, in this case, such attempts were even more invalid, since Azerbaijan’s claims for territorial integrity were legally, politically and morally deficient.

When it came to complex and sensitive issues such as peoples’ right to self-determination, there were no “one size fits all” solutions, he said.  Such situations required an intense search for solutions that were based on real commitment to compromise, taking into account individual specificities of each case and current realities.  It was with this understanding that Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh had constructively engaged in negotiations to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict.  It was regretted Azerbaijan had opted for warmongering and jingoism as opposed to negotiations.

MUINR AKRAM (Pakistan) said there were a number of current manifestations of racism that needed to be urgently addressed.  One was the construction of new ideologies of hate and discrimination.  They sought to promote an historic clash of civilizations to serve their own partisan political objectives.  A second and related phenomenon was the campaign of vilification of Islam and discrimination against Muslims.  The recent proliferation of blasphemous remarks by certain religious leaders and other personalities attacking Islam and the Holy Prophet were clear manifestations of religious bigotry and demagoguery. 

A third area of concern was the combined exploitation of terrorism and the defamation of Islam to justify the brutal suppression and colonization of Muslim peoples in various parts of the world, he said.  It was sad, that in his own region, this theme of denigrating the struggle for self-determination as terrorism, and associating terrorism with Islam, was being actively promoted to justify the ongoing brutal repression of the Kashmiri people. 

A fourth area of concern was the promotion of racist policies through “democratic” politics, he said.  The international community could not ignore the upsurge of extreme right-wing parties in several countries and the adverse consequences for minorities and migrants of their policies that sought to exploit fear and frustration, racial pride and prejudice.  Democracy was no doubt the best system of governing.  But one must caution that, where racism persisted and was promoted, democracy could be abused to facilitate the ascendancy of extremist and fascist forces.  Hitler had come to power democratically.  Today, this ominous phenomenon was being re-enacted.  The Chief Minister of the Indian State of Gujarat, of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, had organized and perpetrated one of the worst racial massacres in history, killing over 2000 Muslim men, women and children. 

Statement in Exercise of Right of Reply

Exercising his right of reply in response to a statement made by Armenia, the representative of Azerbaijan said he regretted that the Armenian representative had attempted to represent their age-old illegitimate attempts to gain control over Nagorno-Karabakh.  The Armenian representative had resorted to the falsification of historical facts.  The League of Nations, the former Soviet Union, and the United Nations had rejected the activities of Armenians aiming to destroy the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.  The United Nations, including the Security Council, had expressed regret, in resolutions, that Armenia had failed to recognize the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.  As for the theoretical justifications of Armenia, he said that the United Nations had it clear that any attempt to destroy the national sovereignty of another State went against the United Nations Charter. 

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