Interventions made during the 59th Session of the Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, March 17 to April 25, 2003.
Currently, humanitarian funding crisis exists for the UN, which raises many critical questions as far as the full enjoyment of Economic, Social and Cultural rights, particularly in relation to the poorest nations. Burundi, which is now officially listed as the third poorest nation on earth has received 3% of its UN request. Sierra Leone, where lassa fever is now rampaging through refugee camps has received 1%.
One wonders how such countries can "respect, fulfill and protect" Economical, Social and Cultural Rights.
Recently, Afghanistan was provided $ 50 million of which $ 35 million is to be spent on the construction of a five-star hotel in Kabul. Now, where does one situate the right to adequate housing? This is a case of skewed priorities, when aid is given in a post-conflict situation.
In the early months of this year owing to the cold wave in some of the northern regions of South Asia, nearly 1.700 people died in India and Bangladesh. All of them were extremely poor lacking shelter, food and healthcare. Had there been a complaints mechanism for International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural rights, perhaps they need not have died. In spite of growing justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in some countries domestic remedies are lacking or are certainly inadequate. While attention is drawn towards a declaration on extreme poverty and human rights, let us make a concerted effort to look beyond the phenomenon of extreme poverty and address with immediate effect the crisis faced by the extremely poor. They cannot wait for the progressive realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. An optional protocol points in that direction.
The Commission on Human Rights has gradually opened its flanks covering all the minimum core obligations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this connection, PAX ROMANA welcomes the preliminary report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, which among other things should include water, sanitation and the right to healthy environment. [1]
In reviewing his work plan, PAX ROMANA wishes to raise the following points:
Concluding, PAX ROMANA welcomes the statement made by the European Union on Friday 4th April 2003 stating the "willingness to contribute towards the realization of the target of the UN Millennium Declaration to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day by the year 2015". Yet, at the end of 2015, there will be 900 million people earning less than one dollar a day. Perhaps, it may be more meaningful to address the question of elimination of agricultural subsidies and better market access for agro-production from developing countries. This calls for a drastic revision of global economic governance. This comes out clearly in Mr. Mudho's report[5].
The current clamor on good governance is chiefly aimed at trade liberalization rather than the core issue of the enjoyment of all rights by all peoples and nations.
Thank you for your attention.
[1] Right to a healthy environment, Special Rapporteur on Toxic Waste (E/CN.4/2003/56) paragraph 90.
[2] Paragraph 54 World Summit on Sustainable Development Plan of Implementation:
"Strengthen the capacity of health-care systems to deliver basic health services to all, in an efficient, accessible and affordable manner aimed at preventing, controlling and treating disease and to reduce environmental health threats, in conformity with human rights and fundamental freedoms and consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values, taking account the reports of relevant UN conferences and summits and of special sessions of the General Assembly. (NGLS Round up n.96, November 2002)
[3] Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to the WSSD, 5-23rd August 2002 (paragraph 4):
"Affirming that policies, practices and the lack of enforcement of certain laws perpetuate racial discrimination, "environmental racism", and other forms of oppression which violate the rights to freedom, equality, and adequate access to basic needs such as clean water, food, shelter, energy, health and social care."
[4] Privatisation case of water
In 1980s, the UK privatised its water, gas, electricity and telephone services. When it borrowed from the IMF in the 1970s, the UK was not compelled by the IMF to privatise these utilities. Yet, pressure was being put on the Ghanaian government to privatise its water supply or lose $ 300 million in "aid". Amidst fierce protests and accusations of high level corruption the World Bank was finally forced to withdraw from a major contract to provide water for the capital city, Accra. As one official stated that it had a narrow escape and that the company concerned was interested only in the most profitable part of the country's system (The New African, January 2003; The Guardian Weekly, 2nd April 2003).
[5] In paragraph 76 (a) (E/CN.4/200310) it is stated that Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, particularly established and recognised rights related to health, food, employment, education and housing, that have been consistently and systematically undermined by SAPs must be respected
In the document (E/CN.4/2003/3) under the paragraph 81, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions points out that her mandate includes taking appropriate action concerning individuals and groups facing death threats, and concludes under concluding remarks that death threats against human rights defenders have been reported in a number of countries(para 86) particularly those who expose human rights violations.
Pax Romana is seriously concerned about Dr. Pradit Chareonthaitawee, a National Human Rights Commissioner in Thailand, who along with other Commissioners, publicly expressed their concerns about the killings of over 1,000 drug suspects in the Royal Thai Government’s campaign against drug trafficking which began on 1 February 2003. [1]He received death threats from anonymous callers on March 5 and 6. He has been under pressure that he may be impeached by the parliament. He is currently in Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
According to recent information, the total death toll may be as high as 2052. In its war on drugs, the Royal Thai Government has exerted strong pressure on the police and provincial authorities to produce quick results. In response, police appear to have used lethal force in arresting the drug suspects. So far, police have admitted to 46 killings.
The high number of extra-judicial killings demonstrates that the Royal Thai Government has failed to take effective measures to ensure the right to life. The Royal Thai Government, being a State party to ICCPR, must conform to its international treaty obligation by protecting the right to life, the right to a fair trail and the presumption of innocence, which are non-derogable. The two Sub-Committees set up by the Thai government to investigate all drug-related killings has failed to play its role.
Failure to investigate signals a deterioration of the rule of law and creation of a culture of impunity.
In this connection, Pax Romana, noting that the Royal Thai Government has been cooperating actively with all thematic mechanisms under the civil and political rights, appeals to the Royal Thai Government to facilitate the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions at the earliest possible date.
It would also be equally helpful to issue a standing invitationto all the thematic mechanisms.[2]
[1]Dr Pradit faced a similar threat in 1992.
[2]Till date, nearly 35 member-States have issued open (standing) invitation to all thematic mechanisms established by the UN Commission on Human Rights.
(a) Migrant Workers
Dear Madam Chairperson,
The new Spanish legislation about the rights and freedoms of migrants, in its 2000 reform of the previous legal text, has introduced substantial modifications characterised by a lack of equal rights and freedoms to both the immigrant citizens and the Spanish citizens. There is a distinction between legal and illegal migrants by which only the former is fully entitled to equality with respect to Spanish citizens. The new law focuses on clarifying the notion of legal residence, increasing the administration’s power in connection with entry denial and expulsion from Spain, restricting the right to family regrouping, limiting the right to free legal counselling, etc. In sum, even if it introduces some improvements, this law is intended to curtail the legal guarantees which, until its enactment immigrants had enjoyed in Spain.
The above-mentioned increase in the administration‘s power has lead to an unfair application of the immigration laws because they are being applied in a unequal way in the Spanish territory. A migrant who arrives to Ceuta, for instance, will be usually sent to the Peninsula with an order of expulsion that, being inapplicable, will leave him in an illegal situation, unable of being employed in Spain. In Melilla, however, the same immigrant could be sent to the Peninsula with a work and residence licence or taken back to Morocco in a repatriation process which is no longer applicable. And, in the Canary Islands, this immigrant would be probably detained for a period of even 40 days in conditions less acceptable and following a process that violates Spanish, regional and international norms, to, at a later date, be sent back to his country of origin or, more probably, be left in freedom to live in illegality.
The problems associated with the arbitrary application of the law are increased with the serious violations of the proceeding’s rights of the immigrant, including their rights to juridical assistance, to translations services, to the fact that his case is considered in an individual way, to the access to the procedures of determination of asylum and to the revision of the decisions that affect his legal situation in Spain. The Special Rapporteur herself, Mrs. Gabriela Rodriguez Pizarro in her report E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.1 has stated the latter violations. All this means a violation of the right of effective juridical assistance recognised both in the article 24 of the Spanish Constitution and in the article 14 from the International pact of Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Spain in 1977. As a result of these procedural deficiencies, the risk that immigrants and seekers of asylum who have arrived to Spain, in case of being subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, are not able to denounce, can increase. Indeed, as it is reflected in the Special Rapporteur’s report, in Spain cases of degrading treatment and torture by the police authorities to immigrants, both adults and children, frequently take place.
In view of the above, we urge the Spanish Government to:
The Right of peoples to self-determinationand its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation.
Ms. Chairperson,
Global developments demand us to reconceptualize one of the UN founding principles and rights, that of self-determination, enshrined in the UN Charter, major human rights covenants and other standard-setting instruments. The 57th UN General Assembly reaffirmed that the universal realisation of the right of all peoples, including those under colonial, foreign and alien domination, to self-determination is a fundamental condition for the effective guarantee and observance of human rights and for the preservation and promotion of such rights,[1]. This affirmation is broader in scope than that of the Commission on Human Rights, which limits its discussion exclusively to a right of peoples under colonial, foreign and alien domination.
In addressing this agenda item, Pax Romana and the UNESCO Center of Catalonia would like to draw the attention of this Commission to the following developments affecting the prevailing interpretations of the right to self-determination.
Globalisation is transforming in an accelerated manner the current conception of nation-state based sovereignties. The progressive dilution of traditional pillars of state sovereignty, as well as the meaning and importance of borders are being relativized Under these impulses the right to self-determination can be exercised through innovative forms of power-sharing, without necessarily leading to the creation of new states. Thus self-determination is a tool particularly relevant to intra-state conflict prevention and transformation, as inter alia in the Sudan, Cyprus and Sri Lanka.
Hence we urge the Commission to reinterpret self-determination in a broad sense, as an ongoing process of choice for the achievement of human security and fulfilment of human needs with a broad scope of possible outcomes and expressions suited to different specific situations. These can include, but are not limited to, guarantees of cultural security, forms of self-governance and autonomy, economic self-reliance, effective participation at the international level, land rights and the ability to care for the natural environment, spiritual freedom and the various forms that ensure the free expression and protection of collective identity in dignity[2].
Colonisation, foreign occupation and alien domination depriving people from exercising their right to self-determination continue to exist, be it in new forms. The essence of self-determination has always been related to the promotion of democracy and good governance. No effective promotion of democracy is possible without effective participation of all peoples in democratic processes. This entails the right of people, individually and collectively, to decide on their form of government/governance, and to participate effectively in decision-making at all levels. In essence it simply means that individuals and groups should be in control of their own destinies. Their institutions should be devised accordingly. It is this ideal that promotes democratic reform in today’s world. Nowadays democracy is measured usually only by periodic elections.
Yet in modern Western democracies the voter turn out is alarmingly low. Globally women, indigenous peoples and minorities are marginalized and cannot participate equally nor effectively in decision-making. Although there are more democracies then ever before in history, citizens are showing increased dissatisfaction with their governments. This can be witnessed in the massive mobilisation of people against the Summits of the G-8 and the European Union, as well as as the world-wide support for alternative globalisation.. In this context: what is the value and the meaning of the right to self-determination?
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the United Nations system, including this Commission, continue to approach self-determination issues with outdated concepts and tools. UN Security Council members rushed to equate self-determination movements with terrorists. Globally the adoption of anti-terrorist laws is being abused to criminalise any type of difference, restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms. Even in Europe physical integrity, freedom of expression and association are no longer to be taken for granted. A struggle against terrorism that ignores basic human rights and fundamental freedoms has the same result as terrorism itself, namely the suspension of the universal and common standards of humanity at all time and place, for all actors. If peace is to prevail, the struggle against terrorism needs to address the denial of all human rights, including self-determination.
As the Special Rapporteur on terrorism and human rights, Ms. Kouffa. Recalls, "to reduce terrorism" means that "all efforts must be made to address better the realisation of human rights, in particular, in relation to self-determination, racism, internal ethnic and political representation and class-based economic or cultural divisions in society. The same right has been in the forefront regarding the political participation of minorities and indigenous peoples within existing democracies of member States.[3].
While oppressed peoples place their hopes on the UN, this very institution will loose its credibility and legitimacy if it continues to ignore these challenges. Kosovo was a tragic illustration of the denial of the right to self-determination resulting in a serious erosion of all human rights. The escalation into a major conflict lead to unilateral intervention outside the UN mandate. This lesson is particularly relevant in these sad days when the United Nations is impotently witnessing the circumvention of international law.
In conclusion, the UN should device a conflict prevention framework balancing the exercise of self-determination with the observance of other human rights and UN Charter principles to peacefully resolve victims' claims in a regulated manner on the basis of the rule of law.
Its mere existence would delegitimize any unilateral exercise by a people of their right to self-determination, strengthen the UN' s credibility and legitimacy, as well as the effectiveness of UN conflict prevention policies and practices.
Pax Romana, therefore, recommends the Commission on Human Rights to request the High Commissioner to establish a focal point concerning the implementation of the right to self-determination as a contribution to conflict prevention.
Thank you, Madame Chairperson
[1] UN GA Res on the Universal Realisation of the right of peoples to self-determination, A/Res/57/197, para.1, emphasis added, 18 December 2002
[2] UNESCO/ UNESCO Center of Catalonia conference The Implementation of the Right to Self-determination as a contribution to conflict prevention Barcelona, 1998), p.19
[3][E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/31].
Madam Chairperson,
Pax Romana welcomes the reports of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerence, and the recommendations.
Pax Romana draws the attention to paras. 8 to 20 of the report (E/CN.4/2003/24) emphasising the importance of identity. Today, identity politics in many parts of the world results to be a vehicle of power and a principle of governance, leading to consistent patterns of ’new forms of discrimination and racism’. Victims of these policies include inter alia minorities, minorised peoples, indigeneous peoples, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Also the manipulation of the "self" by mis-governance generates grave misery and suffering locally and globally. In the context of globalization, the monopoly of global cultural industries impose a kind of cultural globalization at odds with the identity of the people(s). Cultural pluralism is disappearing as a governing principle and the tolerance of diversity replaced by a discriminatory citizenship based on differences that generates new uncertainties. In this context the concern for human security, based upon the exercise of the individual and collective right to self-determination to determine freely one’s own identity becomes central.
Therefore,while fully endorsing the strategies proposed by the Special Rapporteur, we invite him
The discrimination based on work and descent or castism is a social construct that cruelly discriminates against certain groups considered inferior. Castism exists in certain South Asian and African countries. Untouchables or Dalits are marginalized and face severe forms of violence. Dalit women suffer from multiple forms of discrimination, including rape and forced prostitution. Dalits are not only being denied their rights but are also access to those rights, such as access to drinking water. If a Dalit touches a water source, the water is considered impure. In this International Year of Freshwater, special attention should be paid to the Dalits’ right to access to drinking water.
With the CERD we reiterate that discrimination based on descent including discrimination against members of communities based on forms of social stratification such as caste and analogous systems of inherited status which nullify or impair their equal enjoyment of human rights. [1] . Our appreciation goes also to the work done by the Sub-Commission on the Promotionand Protection of Human Rights on issues relating to discrimination based on Descent and work.
We call upon this Commission to
Madam chair,
While the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination is ending, the follow up of the Durban Conference is a pending issue for the international community. Many countries yet have to sign and ratify the ICERD convention. Many of those who signed fail to submit their periodic reports. Others did not device their national action plans to combat racism.
We witnessed with great concern that in yesterday debate on the Durban Follow up the Asian Group, JUSCANZ and Eastern European Group did not provide any national or regional action plan.
Thank you, madam chair.
[1]Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to the General Assembly. Official Records. 57th session. Supplement No.18 (A/57/18)
Geneva, March 25, 2003
1. We, the undersigned Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in consultative status with the UN Economic Social Council (ECOSOC) and concerned civil society organizations, condemn the illegal invasion of Iraq by the United States of America and the United Kingdom which began on March 20, 2003 without the clear mandate of the UN Security Council and against the vast majority of global public opinion.
2. We call for the immediate cessation of this act of aggression launched in the name of a ‘pre-emptive war’ which is a grave threat to international peace and security. We call for the resumption of the UN arms inspection, in order to complete its task as mandated by the UN Security Council.
3. We fully agree with the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, that "any unilateral military action withoutthe approval of the UN Security Council is a violation of UN Charter" and we urge the Security Council to address this issue as a matter of grave concern.
4. The international human rights community has consistently denounced the human rights violations committed by the Iraqi regime over the years, but it is also deeply concerned about the plight and suffering of Iraqi people caused by twelve years of severe and unjust sanctions imposed on their country. The question of human rights violations in Iraq will be considered by the 59th session of the Commission under the relevant item of its agenda.
5. We firmly believe that military action cannot be a solution to such violations and cannot be justified under the pretext of protecting human rights or restoring democracy. Military action necessarily imperils all other human rights, specially the right to life. This is not acceptable. Human rights should be implemented by just and peaceful means based on principles of rule of law, universal jurisdiction, non-violence, universality and indivisibility and interdependence of human rights.
6. We call for a universal ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an appropriate way to address gross human rights violations. This would have a much stronger deterrent effect and would more effectively ensure the protection of victims of human rights violations.
7. We are convinced that we have to look for ways to increase the effectiveness of human rights mechanisms at the national and global levels that would have prevented this catastrophic event. Only genuine democracy built on the principles of human rights can only safeguard peace and security. Peace without human rights, and human rights without peace are both empty illusion.
8. We are deeply concerned that the ongoing military action has used up resources that are desperately needed to meet the global challenges facing humanity, such as poverty eradication as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by all member States at the Millennium Summit in September 2000.
9. The UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR),as a UN Charter-based body, has a duty touphold the human rights principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially in this emergency situation. In this context, the CHR is challenged to deal with the human rights and humanitarian dimensions of the current crisis in Iraq. In doing so, the principle of interdependence between peace, democracy, development and human rights needs to be taken into account.
10. We strongly support the efforts currently under way by many governments to call an emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Iraq based on the resolution 377(A) (1950) entitled "Uniting for Peace" since the UN Security Council was unable to agree on a course of action.
11. We, the undersigned NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC under Article 71 of the UN Charter and civil society organizations, also have an obligation to uphold the human rights principles enshrined in the UN Charter as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
12. In viewof the above statement, we urge the Commission on Human Rights
i) to condemn the invasion of Iraq as a violation of the UN Charter,
ii) to hold a special sitting within the 59th session of the CHR as soon as possible to address the current crisis from the human rights and humanitarian perspective,
iii) to formulate preventive measures based on human rights principles with a view to preventing similar occurrence in the future and
iv) to ask the UN High-Commissioner for Human Rghts to undertake all other necessary measures including independent enquiry about the human rights situation in Iraq since the invasion.
Please contact Anselmo Lee, Pax Romana if you wish to endorse this statement.
leesh@paxromana.int.ch or (41) 79 253 7815 (mobile)