[hr-education] The state of human rights ten years after the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights

[***Moderator's note: Below is the full text of a speech by Bertrand
Ramcharan on the occassion of the tenth anniversary of the Vienna World
Conference. Note the negative assessment of the UN Decade for HRE. At the
same time, the Acting UN High Commisioner for Human Rights emphasises the
importance of education and awareness raising as means to protect and
promote human rights.***]


xxxxxxxxxxTHE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS TEN YEARS AFTER THE VIENNA WORLD
CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS (1993)xxxxxxxxxx

ADDRESS OF BERTRAND RAMCHARAN TO CONFERENCE
ORGANIZED BY THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
NEW YORK, 10 NOVEMBER 2003

Friends of the Human Rights Movement,

I am particularly pleased to be with you at this conference and to join
you in reflection on where we have reached in the quest for the universal
realization of human rights ten years after the Vienna Conference adopted
the Declaration and Programme of Action on 25 June 1993.

The World Council of Churches has been a strategic partner of the United
Nations on human rights issues ever since the San Francisco conference in
1945. The late Fred Nolde, who was present at San Francisco, wrote of the
efforts of non governmental representatives to obtain the human rights
provisions of the Charter. Since then, the World Council of Churches has
contributed in so many ways to standard setting, monitoring, fact finding,
and human rights capacity-building. I should like to take this occasion to
pay tribute to the World Council of Churches, to Fred Nolde in particular
and to his many successors, several of whom I count as very close friends.
Fred Nolde's Free and Equal is enduring testimony to the contribution of
the World Council of Churches to shaping the human rights mission of the
United Nations.

I have cited this historic contribution of the World Council of Churches
and other non-governmental organizations to the framing of the human
rights mission of the United Nations because I think that we must consider
the state of affairs after the Vienna Conference against the background of
the vision of the founders of the United Nations and of those who shaped
the vision of the Commission on Human Rights in its early days. As you
know well, the Commission on Human Rights, responding to an invitation
from the San Francisco Conference, gave us the vision, in 1947, of an
International Bill of Human Rights consisting of a declaration of human
rights, one or more treaties, and measures of implementation. The period
between 1945 and 1966 was largely devoted to standard setting. The period
between 1966 and 1993 saw some efforts at measures of implementation. But
the world considered by the Vienna Conference was one of pervasive gross
violations of human rights and a world in which even the universality of
human rights was under challenge.

The great accomplishment of Vienna was to reaffirm the universality of
human rights and to reiterate that human rights and fundamental freedoms
are the birthright of all human beings. Their protection and promotion is
the first responsibility of governments. The Vienna Conference also
reaffirmed, in explicit terms, that "all human rights are universal,
indivisible and interdependent and interrelated".

What can one say about the universality of human rights ten years after
the Vienna Declaration? One might offer the following opening
observations: first the Millennium Declaration, adopted by the General
Assembly, considered as essential to international relations, the values
of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and
shared responsibility. The Declaration proudly proclaimed the commitment
of the membership of the United Nations to spare no effort to promote
democracy and strengthen the rule of law as well as respect for all
internationally recognized human rights. One can thus say that the
Millennium Declaration was another formal reaffirmation of the
universality of human rights.

Another observation that one might make about universality is that in many
parts of the world, for a variety of reasons, it is formal universality
rather than applied universality. This has to do with issues of poverty
and underdevelopment with lack of access to the means for a dignified life
and with lack of access to education. The universality of human rights
must repose, in practical terms, in each and every one of us as human
beings. We should however be prepared to recognize that while there is, in
every one of us, an instinct for freedom and for our inalienable human
rights, that the actual enjoyment of basic human rights remains illusory
for large masses of the world's people. Poverty, lack of access to the
means for a dignified life, governmental violence, prejudice and
discrimination are some of the root causes for this state of affairs.

The third observation that can be made about universality is that
governments and peoples the world over are striving for the emplacement of
national protecting systems reflecting the international human rights
norms. This striving is of some importance and when one follows the
deliberations of the Commission on Human Rights and one listens to the
statements of government leaders visiting the Commission, there is ample
evidence of formal commitment to the development of national capacity for
the protection of human rights.

Moving from the issue of universality to the issue of enjoyment in
practice, I have already stated that for millions of people the world over
the basic human rights of the Universal Declaration remain illusory. There
has been increasing resort to special rapporteurs and other independent
experts on issues such as the right to food, the right to health, the
right to education, the right to an adequate standard of living including
housing, and human rights and extreme poverty. Thanks to the reforms
initiated by the Secretary-General in 1997, there is wider recognition
these days that human rights must be integrated into strategies and
activities for conflict prevention, peace-making, peace-keeping,
peace-building, humanitarian operations and development.

Notwithstanding this push for the integration of human rights, can one say
that there is better realization of economic, social and cultural rights
ten years after the Vienna Conference? It would be hard to answer this
question in the affirmative. Can one say that the work of the Commission
on Human Rights to advance the implementation of the right to development
has so far helped alleviate the plight of the poor? Again, it would be
difficult to answer in the affirmative.

Perhaps the most significant activity when it comes to the realization of
economic, social and cultural rights over the past ten years has been the
development of human rights guidelines for poverty reduction strategies.
The guidelines promulgated by the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights in 2002 are based on the reasoning that strategies for
poverty reduction should be based explicitly on the norms and values set
out in the international law of human rights. Underpinned by universally
recognized moral values and reinforced by legal obligations, international
human rights provide a compelling normative framework for the formulation
of national and international policies for poverty reduction.

Moving from the realization of economic, social and cultural rights to the
enjoyment of equality and the realization of civil and political rights,
the picture is equally grim. In today's world women face numerous
obstacles to the enjoyment of basic human rights and continue to be the
victims of pervasive discrimination and injustice. Millions of young women
are trafficked into slavery and prostitution before our very eyes.
Millions of girl children are deprived of the right to an education and
women are the victims of domestic violence in shocking proportions. The
special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against
women, in her report to the Commission this year, made a
country-by-country presentation on the plight of women the world over. It
was a deeply troubling report.

When it comes to the situation of children, UNICEF continues its heroic
work in the face of wrenching statistics about the lack of enjoyment of
basic human rights by millions of the world's children. The International
Convention on the Rights of the Child has certainly helped to raise
awareness of child-rights issues in the world and one could say that this
has been one of the positive developments over the past decade.
Nevertheless, the protection of the rights of children leaves so much to
be desired in numerous parts of the world.

On the issue of equality in the areas of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and other forms of related intolerance, the assessment of the
Durban Conference (2001) was as follows: "...despite efforts undertaken by
the international community, Governments and local authorities, the
scourge of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance persists and continues to result in violations of human
rights, suffering, disadvantage and violence, which must be combated by
all available and appropriate means and as a matter of the highest
priority, preferably in cooperation with affected communities."

Notwithstanding this grim assessment of the Durban Conference, it is cause
for celebration that the past decade has seen the dismantling of the
apartheid regime. This must be counted among the great accomplishments for
human rights during the past decade.

In painting a tableau of the state of human rights over the past ten
years, we cannot help noting the mounting number of internal conflicts in
different parts of the world. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo
alone, it is estimated that some three million people have been killed and
millions of others have suffered shocking violations of human rights. In
Colombia, there has been an internal conflict going back for decades and
one reads of acts of violence on different sides of the conflict that are
cause for deep anguish.

When it comes to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, let it be
noted that arbitrary and summary executions, torture, enforced and
involuntary disappearances, arbitrary detention, violence against women,
religious intolerance, denial of freedom of expression, all abound in
today's world. I have just mentioned some of the topics being covered by
the thematic special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights.
Alongside these thematic procedures there are country rapporteurs and
rapporteurs on economic, social and cultural rights. No one can deny that
what we have witnessed over the past decade, and what we continue to
witness, are violations of human rights that are shocking to the human
conscience.

When it comes to the discharge of the protection functions of the human
rights organs of the international community, we may note that the special
procedures of the Commission on Human Rights undertake a growing number of
urgent action intercessions, issue more and more statements on situations
of concern, and provide detailed thematic and country reports to the
Commission on Human Rights. It would be fair to say that this contribution
to human rights protection by the special procedures of the Commission has
been a significant contribution over the past decade. Nevertheless, can
one say that there is effective national or international action to
prevent gross violations of human rights? Can one say that action to
curtail gross violations of human rights is effective on the ground and
with rapidity? It would be hard to answer these questions in the
affirmative. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, in
an address a few weeks ago, castigated the failures of the United Nations
when it comes to the protection of human rights. The Secretary-General
declared, plaintively:...

On top of the violence committed by governments and armed factions on
their own populations, we are nowadays seeing violence committed by
terrorists on innocent people and we are also seeing human rights
curtailed worldwide on the grounds of countering terrorism."

Non-governmental organizations in different parts of the world are
pleading that human rights are being suppressed in some places on the
pretext of countering terrorism. We have a difficult problem here. It is
admittedly the duty of a Government in a democracy to protect its citizens
against terrorist violence. The European Court of Human Rights has drawn a
difference in judging the margin of appreciation given to a Government,
between a democratically elected Government and a despotic one. One knows
that even if the tide is in favour of democratic governance, there are
numerous despots in power in different parts of the globe. This alone
should give reason for caution when it comes to curtailments of human
rights on the ground of countering terrorism.

A strand of development over the past decade that one must put into the
positive column is the establishment of the International Criminal
Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the establishment of
the International Criminal Court. There is some evidence that some leaders
of government and other factions are factoring into their thinking the
possibility that they might be called to account before a national or
international tribunal.

How can one assess efforts to promote human rights education over the past
decade -- which has coincided with the Decade for Human Rights Education?
One can point to a few programmes and to a few manuals here and there, but
there is no evidence that efforts to develop human rights education have
picked up the world over. This is distressing. At the end of the day, it
is young people who will be called upon to vindicate the International
Bill of Human Rights. This failure to rise to the challenges of human
rights education must be a cause for deep concern.

Can one say that efforts to protect minorities, indigenous populations and
migrants have gathered pace over the past decade? Just before the Vienna
World Conference, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a
Declaration for the Protection of Persons belonging to Minorities. The
OSCE has developed significant standards in this area and the Council of
Europe Convention for the Protection of Minorities has been a positive
development. The struggle for the protection of minority rights is still,
however, a hard one and continued to be so in the past decade.

Over the past decade there has been a sorry failure to advance on the
drafting of a declaration for the protection of indigenous populations.
This is cause for deep concern because indigenous populations are in dire
need of protection. The establishment of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues, which held its first session in 2002, has led to hopes of
breakthroughs in the protection of indigenous peoples. But it is too early
to say whether the Forum will live up to these hopes.

The Convention on the Human Rights of Migrants and their Families entered
into force early this year and the Convention has so far been ratified by
(20) countries. The promise of the Convention, however, is more in the
future than in the past.

On the institutional side, the most positive development over the past
decade has been the growing strength of non-governmental organizations
nationally, regionally and internationally. The participation of
non-governmental organizations in the Commission on Human Rights continues
to be strong. The Commission, for its part, has given rise to growing
controversy. Historically, the role of the Commission in developing
international standards and mechanisms of protection has been second to
none. It would however be important to heed the voices of those calling
for a Commission that is responsive to the needs for protection of human
rights on the ground in different parts of the world.

The past decade has seen the combination of the European Commission and
the European Court of Human Rights into a single court. In the closing
years of the past decade, the African Commission on Human and People's
Rights began to issue some notable decisions. The Inter-American
Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have remained on
the same course as when the Vienna Conference took place. The OSCE has
seen the development of significant institutions such as ODIHR and the
High Commissioner on National Minorities. The African Union has entered
onto the African stage and the NEPAD Peer Review Mechanism has given rise
to great hopes for the promotion of good governance and the prevention of
conflicts. The promise of some of these institutions we shall need to
follow closely.

To conclude this assessment of human rights ten years after the Vienna
Conference, one could place on the positive side of the balance sheet:
formal commitment to universality; formal commitment to democracy, the
rule of law and respect for human rights; the impact of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child; the end of the apartheid regime; the
establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and
Rwanda and the International Criminal Court; the efforts of special
procedures of the Commission on Human Rights; and the growing mobilization
of non-governmental organizations.

On the negative side, one can place the continuing gross violations of
economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights;
violence against innocent people committed by terrorists; stifling of
freedom on the ground of countering terrorism; violence and injustices
against women; trafficking in women; inequality and prejudice;
deprivations experienced by minorities and indigenous populations; and bad
governance in many parts of the world.

Where should this assessment of the state of human rights ten years after
the Vienna Conference point us? I would answer: renewed determination to
counter gross violations of human rights, to promote democracy, the rule
of law, good governance and the strengthening of national protection
systems in every country of the world. There is no alternative. One cannot
throw up one's hands in despair. The times are hard but the cause is just.
In the end, I am convinced that the quest for justice and human rights
will win because young people the world over wish them to win. It is the
young people of the world who will vindicate the protection of human
rights. This is why it is so important to increase our efforts to provide
information and education about human rights to the young people of the
world.



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