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FOCUS
ON
Kosovo: For the immediate and unconditional release of Kosovo-Albanian
prisoners of opinion deported to Serbia
France: France condemned for torture
France:
Call for an independent control of prisons
and detention centres
Tunisia: A harsh verdict following a parody of justice
IN ACTION
Turkey: Call for Freedom of Expression ! Campaign of the Turkish
Human Rignts Association
The fight against racism: A New Conference for the Third Millenium
FIGHTING AGAINST IMPUNITY
International
justice: The FIDH gets involved on the
judicial field
PROTECTING EVERYONE'S RIGHTS
Europe: NGOs, watchdogs of the Social Charter
THE STRUGGLE FOR ALL RIGHTS
Globalisation: The fight against market
globalisation : an agenda for a democratic alternative
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
The Observatory: Urgent action
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LISTEN TO
THE VICTIMS !
‘You
are constantly aware that death might strike you any moment and you
try to cope with this situation’. This is not an expert on landmine
clearance describing his profession ; it is our Colombian friend Luis
Guillermo Perez, Deputy Secretary General of the FIDH, describing
the every-day life of human rights defenders in his country, a few
days after the assassination of Jaime Garzon, a famous political humorist
and peace activist.
In Colombia as in several other states, it seems to be time to deprive
those activists fighting for the victims of injustice of their power
and influence. In the Eastern part of the ‘Democratic’ Republic
of Congo (DRC), activists, already victims of a regime which has forced
some of them into exile, are exposed to the wrath of the rebels of
the Congolese Alliance ‘for Democracy’. In Turkey, the Human
Rights Association faces yet another trial, with six months to two
years of imprisonment for the eleven members of the leadership and
the closure of the organisation, firstly, because it is an affiliate
of the FIDH and secondly, because our Bureau International was held
in Istanbul in February this year ! In Palestine, Human Rights NGOs
are faced with ‘Egyptian-style’ muzzling if President Arafat
holds on to his scandalous plans to place them under the control of
the Ministry of the Interior. An extraordinary blow in the face of
the excellent law on Associations adopted by the Palestinian Legislative
Council in 1998, which President Arafat has always refused to promulgate.
Among the events of the last few weeks are also amnesties, which are
used as inevitable tools for national reconciliation, but, alas, they
all too often destroy real truth and justice. In Sierra Leone where
a so called ‘lasting peace’ is allegedly under way, the
result of amnesty is that those massacring the country’s children
get away with complete impunity. In Turkey, our Vice-President, Akin
Birdal, will stay in prison while his attackers will come out. In
Algeria, the problem of those who ‘disappeared’ tends to
be forgotten with the encouraging peace process under way.
We now know all too well that there cannot be lasting peace or national
reconciliation without respect for the right to be informed and without
respect for the need of victims to be treated with justice. Human
Rights defenders pay the heavy price in trying to promote these basic
principles. The intervention of an independent third party, the judge,
should bring before the law those who make compromises which amount
to irresponsibility on their part and sacrifice for the victims.
This is one of the crucial challenges for international justice currently
under construction.
Antoine Bernard
Executive director of the FIDH
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