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Paris
- Geneva, 20 March 2002
Today, FIDH
expressed to the U.N. Commission for Human Rights, opening its
58th session at Geneva, its profound concerns implicated by
the antiterrorist struggle begun after 11 September 2001. FIDH
called upon the 53 member states " not to sacrifice human
rights on the alter of the antiterrorist struggle. "
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was
requested by FIDH to take its concerns into consideration on
22 January 2001, as was the Inter-American Commission of Human
Rights on 13 March 2002 with regard to the detainees at Guantanamo
Bay in a joint request deblocking an urgent injunction made
to the United States. FIDH also urged the United Nations Committee
for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to
act against discriminatory laws adopted by the United States,
Great Britain and Germany.
For Sidiki
Kaba, President of FIDH, " the Commission has an obligation
to announce loudly and clearly that all is not permitted ! The
recent developments observed in a number of states enormously
exceed the requirements of the struggle against terrorism and
portend a terrible regression. The necessity for respect for
the universal laws protecting human rights must be guarded tirelessly.
In the end, respect for human dignity distinguishes an organised
international community from a collection of fanatics. "
According
to the Charter of the United Nations (Art. 1-3, 55, 56 and 68),
the first responsibility of the Commission for Human Rights
is to foster " universal and effective respect of human
rights and of fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction
of race, sex, language, or religion." The actual composition
of the Commission, whose members include a number of states
known to commit daily violations of human rights, outlines the
absurd difficulty of the task. FIDH counts, nevertheless, on
the mobilisation of states, from the North as well as the South,
who proclaim their adherence to universal norms. FIDH calls
them to take the initiative at the heart of the Commission and
to thus seize the opportunity which is handed to them today
by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Commission
must in particular ask that the Security Council associate,
formally and in a permanent manner, the High Commissioner for
Human Rights with the mechanism for the instigation of Resolution
1373. It must order an urgent report on the compatibility of
antiterrorist measures and practices with the international
obligations of states. This report must be immediately presented
to the Committee Against Terrorism of the Security Council of
the United Nations and put in action by the General Assembly.
The Commission for Human Rights must formally mobilise all of
its thematic and geographic organs on the subject and show its
formal adhesion to the appeal made by the states on 10 December
2001.
These recommendations
will be discussed at a meeting organised jointly by FIDH, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, International Commission
of Jurists, and Cairo Institute for Human Rights and held in
the Palace of Nations (Room XXIII) in Geneva between 1pm and
3pm.
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