UN - COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Fifty fourth Session

16 March - 24 April 1998

Agenda item 9

Further promotion and encouragement of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the question of the programme and methods of work of the Commission:

Statement by The Transnational Radical Party

NGO in consultative status (Category I)

Delivered by Lorena Gonzalez Ortega

Mr Chairman,

I would like to underline the importance of what you said and you did a few days ago in this hall. You adjourned the Session because of the absence of some distinguished Special Rapporteur, and you said that it is here where debates must be held, and where decisions must be taken. Here, Mr Chairman. The greek "Agora'" used to be the place, the exclusive place of decision making; now democratic Parliaments are, or should be that. Procedures are as important as contents are. The credibility of an institution comes from procedures, information, transparency of the forms and procedures: these are the main substances of a democratic decision-making process.

That is why we draw your attention to what is happening in Afghanistan. Talebans have been recognized by not more than 3 of the UN Member States. As it was also noted with deep concern by the last years' session of this Commission (resolution E/CN.4/1997/65), they are committing the most serious violations of human and political rights and humanitarian law in this region. The right to life, liberty and security of person, freedom of opinion, expression, religion and association, daily violations and abuses against women and children are also committed, especially regarding access to basic education for girl children, and access by women to health care, employment and training and their effective participation in political, economic, social and cultural life.

Mr Chairman,

It must be underlined that even though the Commission approved a Resolution, silence was substancially expressed by the world community, and it is thanks to the strong initiative of the EU Commissioner Emma Bonino that we now have more information, and silence is not so absolute. At last the specialists and Governments are not the only ones to know what is happening in Afghanistan. The Talibans' case makes evident other structural and institutional limits of the UN System.

On the one hand, Mr Chairman, UN and its member States take a firm standpoint. On the other hand a UN Agency, the UNDCP headed by Mr. Arlacchi, proposes a project on the basis of which Talebans should receive huge financement for eradication of poppy straw.

It seems reasonable to avoid legitimating such a regime and therefore it does not seem prudent choosing such a regime as an interlocutor. It is reasonably probable that crop would be eradicated to be planted again in the closest field. Moreover, the crop eradication policy is very far from being unanimously accepted in the scientific environment and by UN Reports.

But above all, Mr Chairman - what is relevant in the frame of the current Item - we face UN Agency, an executive body trying to affirm political decisions without having any competence for doing so; moreover, denying any value to the clear position expressed by the UN and its member States on Talibans.

Mr Chairman,

Credibility of UN comes out of the effectiveness of its decisions, and of its legality. We may quote Martin Luther King by saying that justice comes first of all out of its real implementation and effectiveness.

Mr Chairman,

I'd like to focus on another important issue. This year is the 10th anniversary of the notorious Anfal campaign wich caused the disappearances of 182.000 Kurds and the destruction of 4.500 villages in Kurdistan. Moreover it's also the 10th anniversary of the chemical bombardment of the Kurdish city of Halabja, 5.000 people were killed and 10.000 wounded and the Iraqi regime has never expressed remorse. Ten years later, the people of Halabja and some 200 other localities which were gassed by Iraq are still suffering much higher rates of serious diseases and birth defects. In addition, more than ten million land mines were planted in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Kwait, resulting in over 15.000 casualties. The ethnic cleansing policy in oil rich Kurdish areas such as Kirkuk and Khanaqin is continuing. Over 500.000 people from these areas have been internally displaced with their homes, belongings and ration cards confiscated. This is a serious breach of the UNSCR 688 and 986.Iraq holds the world record in the matter

of forcible disappearances in addition to the more than 600 missing Kwaitis, 200.000 Kurds have disappeared. The UN Special Rapporteur on Iraq Mr. Max Van der Stoel has repeatedly qualified the Iraqi government's crimes as crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of war. However this has never reflected in the resolutions adopted by this Commission on Iraq. Moreover the Government of Iraq continuosly refuses the Special Rapporteur on Iraq to visit the country.

Mr Chairman,

Democracy is communication. The globalization of economy makes ever more evident the need for effective new laws and institutions at a global level. The UN and the Commission on Human Rights should put as one of their priorities the development of their methods. regarding the issue of methods, the problem of the languages used by the Commission and the UN, is crucial. There are six official languages. It was not and it is not a neutral or merely technical choice. It was and it is a political one.

The European Parliament made a different choice, and the enlargement of the EU will soon show that it is impossible to deal with dozens of working languages.

But above all, Mr Chairman, it is a matter of Law and individual rights, like the right to communicate among individuals, and the right to preserve languages and cultural identities.

The time has come to face this question without taboos or ambiguity and find solutions that could preserve the cultural and linguistic diversities, to favour the communication between all the citizens, favour the communication between citizens and institutions, to facilitate, simplify and rationalize the communication within and with the UN.

A bridge language of juridical reference should be introduced as a first step; a further step could be the promotion of teaching an international language all over the world. International Language Esperanto fits the needs. Either globalization will find answers and political solutions to the fundamental problems of communication among individuals, without discrimination, or globalization will deepen disproportions, and jeopardize levels of democracy.

Thank you, Mr Chairman