Forty-ninth session

Geneva, 4-29 August 1997

This Monday, 4 August, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has begun its annual four-week session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

This sub-body of the Commission on Human Rights, a panel of 26 experts established in 1947 to undertake studies and make recommendations to the Commission concerning the prevention of discrimination and the protection of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, is to tackle this session with a much streamlined agenda. A significant change in the way the Subcommission conducts its business will be in evidence when it takes up the consideration of human rights violations. Unlike in the past, in order to avoid duplication of work, the Subcommission will not take action on the human rights situations in countries already under public scrutiny at the Commission. It will, none the less, continue to examine information on human rights violations in order to report to the Commission, and it may take action in cases in which new and particularly grave circumstances arise.

The Transnational Radical Party attends, having the consultative status (category I) with ECOSOC, already for the third time, in this year's session of the Subcommission and submits several statements focusing the wide range of issues:

1. The realization of economic, social and cultural rights; The right to development (Item 4b).

In its written statement the TRP concentrates on the deteriorating situation of workers in Chinese state-owned enterprises and the lack of independent trade unions to protect the basic rights of subsistence of these workers. It calls on the government of China to release immediately and unconditionally all those who are held in prison, labour camp and mental institutions.

2. The implementation of the human rights of women (Item 5)

In its oral statement the TRP expresses its concern about the fact that women continue to be excluded from some UN initiated processes. It points on the lack of implementation mechanisms for some principles approved by the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights held four years ago. TRP notes with condemn the situation of women in East Timer and request the equal participation of women in determination their own future.

3. Human rights of indigenous peoples (Item 7)

In its oral statement the TRP stresses that the indigenous peoples and violations of their rights were left unaddressed for a long time. It concentrates on the situation of indigenous in West Papua, the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Ogoni, whose rights are continuously violated. TRP welcomes and supports the efforts to establish a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples.

4. Protection of minorities (Item 8)

In its oral statement the TRP focuses on the deterioratingsituation of Albanian minority in Kosova and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). It raises again the need of organising the international conference on Kosova, organised by the European Union and United Nations, and in the meantime, the need of negotiations between the government of FYROM and the concerned parties.

5. The administration of justice and the human rights of detainees (Item 9)

In its oral statement the TRP welcomes the last resolution of the Commission on the death penalty, reports however, that a number of countries still maintain this punishment, including its application on minors and ethnic groups. The TRP considers the establishment of an International Criminal Court to be a secure, instrumental guarantee at the international level that would allow for the containment of this phenomenon. It also concentrates its attention on the situation in China, and urges the Chinese government to release immediately Wei Jingsheng and all those imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of opinion, expression and association.

6. Freedom of movement, population displacement (Item 10a)

In its written statement the TRP raise again the ongoing population influx of Chinese into Tibet and the serious violations of human rights of Tibetans resulting from this policy. It urges the Sub-Commission to take all the necessary means to put an end to this situation.

7. Elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion and belief (Item 11a)

In its oral statement the TRP concentrated on the long lasting violations of human rights by the Peoples Republic of China in East Turkistan, Inner Mongolia and Tibet.