Forty-ninth session

13 August 1997

Steps must be taken to end impunity for violators of economic, social, and cultural rights, a Special Rapporteur of the Subcommission said this morning.

The Special Rapporteur, El-Hadji Guisse, independent expert from Senegal, added, among other things, that international economic embargoes appeared to be unjustifiable violations of this kind, in that they almost never harmed the dictators and regimes at which they were aimed, but instead caused great damage to innocent and vulnerable people, including children.

The expert's remarks came as the Subcommission carried on with a discussion of economic, social, and cultural rights begun Tuesday. Among comments provided by other Subcommission members were those of Sang Yong Park, who contended that while the international community had made progress simply by recognizing the existence of a "right to development", it had a long way to go to achieve such a goal and was showing "reluctance" in facing up to numerous obstacles in the way.

Also speaking at the morning meeting were representatives of Indigenous World Association; African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters; International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education; International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and Subcommission experts Mustapha Mehedi and Asbjorn Eide.

Harmful traditional practices affecting the health of women and girls were perpetrated by official passivity, despite yearly warnings of the many grave violations they caused, a human rights expert told the Subcommission in the afternoon.

According to Halima Embarek Warzazi, who has been studying the question for the Subcommission since 1988, her latest report would have been more substantial if concerned Governments had been more forthcoming with information. She went on to list harmful traditional practices affecting women and girls in northern Thailand, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Egypt.

Mrs. Warzazi said cutting aid to the countries where these practices were prevalent was not the answer, and she called instead for awareness raising, persuasion and even criticism.

Earlier in the afternoon the Subcommission heard the statements from NGOs and observer delegation on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. The rights to clean drinking water and to adequate housing, the violation of human rights through tourism, and official development aid were some of the issues raised by the participants.