Making human dignity violations proof; Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural - GA 57 Session

UN Chronicle, March-May, 2003

Packing a punch for an better world, the Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) Committee, after ten years of negotiations, gave shape to a global system of inspections of places of detention to prevent torture of prisoners. The mechanism enables visits by independent international and national bodies to detention centres, "where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty". Called the "Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment", it helps in implementing the 1984 Convention agreed to by 129 countries.

Under the Protocol, the Subcommittee on prevention recommends measures to strengthen the protection of prisoners and requests States to put together domestic preventive measures. "The Optional Protocol is based on the approach of prevention, rather than monitoring and penalizing", Committee Chairman Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein told the UN Chronicle. "It is a known fact that torture is mostly carried out under specific circumstances and places--usually places of detention." In the General Assembly, 104 countries voted in favour of the Protocol, while eight--China, Cuba, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Viet Nam, Syria, United States--voted against, and 37 abstained.

Earlier, Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur on torture of the Commission on Human Rights, told the Committee in a backgrounder that a number of countries had tightened anti-terrorism measures, and the only "effective prophylactic" against terror was greater respect for human rights. The Committee also waged two other important resolutions on human rights: on the "Khmer Rouge trials" and on a Mexican initiative on "Protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism".

In the 1970s, some 1 million Cambodians were slain by the Khmer Rouge regime. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, told the Committee that after the "deafening silence" of the international community during the Khmer Rouge era and a period of indifference thereafter, it had become strongly involved in the country.

Ambassador Wenaweser said that the text constituted one of the biggest challenges to him. "There were strong differences of opinion as to the right moment to have the text put before the Committee for adoption", he said, "and as the Chair, I had to steer a clear and fair course". The Assembly voted 150 to none, with 30 abstentions, on the Khmer Rouge trials. Heeding the resolution, the United Nations and Cambodia have begun exploratory talks to establish a special court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.

The Assembly also unanimously adopted the Mexican initiative on human rights and terrorism. "It was perhaps the most important and timely resolution", the Canadian delegate, Gilbert Laurin, told the Chronicle. "This was a particularly important message to send to all Member States at this time. The fact that it was adopted by consensus shows that Member States have taken this initiative to heart."

During his talk to the Committee, Mr. Leuprecht said Cambodia provided a telling example of the "factual indivisibility" of human rights. "Whatever human rights issue one addressed [in Cambodia], one was confronted with fundamental crosscutting problems and challenges, such as poverty, violence, corruption and lawlessness." Many of the resolutions confronted the "crosscutting problems" and that sometimes solutions rightly overlapped. For instance, there were eight separate resolutions on the well-being of women, seven of which were adopted without a vote. Some tied human rights with poverty and cultural diversity, some were omnibus resolutions on children, and others were exclusively on the girl child, indigenes, migrants, older persons, youth, family and refugees. Many were either adopted unanimously or with more than three-fourths majority.

Nevertheless, exceptions remained. On "Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights", the Assembly voted 124 to 52, with 5 abstentions; on the "Situation of and assistance to Palestinian children", the vote was 108-5-60, with Israel, the United States, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau voting against; and on the "Rights of the child", it was 175 to 2, with the United States and Israel casting the negative votes.

Responding to a question on the sudden fault lines along similar issues in the Committee, Ambassador Wenaweser said: "One of the fascinating things about the United Nations to me is the coming together of so many different cultures that results in a unique blend of a common diplomatic culture--that is the way in which we do business at the UN."

The common diplomatic culture though had come under criticism from youth representatives during the debate on the world social situation. These young debaters, in the wisdom of their experiences, complained that the United Nations was seen as an organization of "good intentions" rather than "good results", and that youth were losing faith in the UN due to a lack of resolve by Member States. To which Chairman Wenaweser told the Chronicle: "I believe that criticism voiced by them should be taken very seriously, since they offer a perspective that we are all too often very far away from. Also, I believe that they got to witness that the UN can only be what its Member States want it to be."