SPECIAL ISSUE: Tibet at the UNCHR's 52nd Session in Geneva (18 March - 26 April, 1996)

On 19 March, the new Chinese Ambassador in Geneva, Mr. Wu Jianmin delivering a very provocative statement under agenda item 3 (work of the Commission) said: "No wonder that some representatives from the developing countries remark indignantly that the Commission is not really concerned about human rights. It has become a court where the vast majority of the developing countries are put on trial. The judges are a few developed countries. The supreme judge is that super power. Are developing countries really the arch perpetrators of human rights violations in today's world? Absolutely not! Are the serious violations of human rights like racial discrimination, police violence, unemployment and crimes not abundant enough within the territory of that super power? The Commission was a place for intense East-West confrontation. It is quite obvious that today, with the Cold War over, the East-West confrontation has been replaced by one between the North and the South."

In reaction to the above and similar statements from developing countries, particularly the main perpetrators of human rights abuses in the world, Mr. Leonard Legault of Canada said that a lengthy series of strikingly similar statement had departed from the tradition of brief procedural debate on the organisation of the session. Canada welcomed calls for improved cooperation and enhancement of working methods. However, the Commission must work on the basis of the principles contained in international instruments of human rights, and when cooperation did not lead to achievement those principles, harmonization was not the final goal--taking a firm stand on behalf of human rights principles was, he added.

Mr. Bill Baker of Australia said that there was an element of unwarranted negativism and pessimism in the remarks. Clearly everything was not perfect, but it hardly seemed to Australia that the credibility of the Commission was at stake, as some had claimed.

On 20 March, Mr. Salman Khurshid, the Indian Foreign Minister, speaking a Guest Speaker said: "Since we have always believed that impartiality, objectivity and universality must underpin all actions in the field of human rights, attempts to make human rights issues a matter of North-South or bilateral confrontation are an anti-thesis to what we had agreed a few short years ago."