Information You Can Use: A Bi-monthly Service for the UN and Civil Society
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - February 2005
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: IOR 40/026/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 311
2 December 2004
United Nations: All countries must use important report of High-level Panel
on Threats, Challenges and Change to strengthen human rights
Amnesty International welcomes the emphasis which the report of the High-level
Panel (HLP) places on the central role of the United Nations (UN) to protect
human rights when dealing with global threats and challenges. All states should
take note of the Panel's pertinent observation that the 2% which the UN Budget
allocates to its human rights programme contradicts the UN Charter's recognition
that human rights are a principal purpose of the UN. Amnesty International
urges all countries to seriously review the grossly under-funded Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights as recommended by the Panel.
Specifically, Amnesty International welcomes the Panel's support for the persistent efforts by the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to integrate human rights throughout the UN and to help develop strong domestic human rights institutions, especially in countries that emerge from conflict and in the fight against terrorism. The organization urges all governments to ensure that the protection of human rights is central to their deliberations, and that the views of civil society on the human rights aspects of this important report are fully taken into account. The Security Council should immediately implement the Panel's recommendation that the High Commissioner for Human Rights report regularly to the Council about how the human rights provisions in its resolutions are being implemented.
Amnesty International is pleased that the Panel has focused on the UN Commission on Human Rights' task to promote and protect human rights and its use of double standards in dealing with human rights violations. The HLP has addressed openly what has long been known but rarely acknowledged about the serious shortcomings of the Commission. Many of its members lack serious commitment to human rights and expertise, and refuse to address grave violations. Now that these concerns are in the open, Amnesty International urges all member states to seriously consider the Panel's proposals on Commission reform, including those that seek to enhance the human rights expertise on their delegations to the Commission.
The organization endorses the need for a global strategy to fight terrorism that addresses its root causes and strengthens the rule of law and fundamental human rights. As the report says, there should be better instruments for global counter-terrorism cooperation within legal frameworks that respect civil liberties and human rights. Any definition of terrorism such as proposed by the HLP should exclude broad language that lends itself to abuse like that unfortunately incorporated in Security Council resolution 1566.
Amnesty international also welcomes the HLP's focus on the need to review the manner in which individuals and organizations are put on lists dealing with sanctions and Al-Qaida and the Taliban to avoid the lack of accountability and potential for human rights violations inherent in current procedures used by the Security Council. Amnesty International hopes that the publication of the report will prompt the Security Council to conduct a long-overdue review to ensure that basic legal safeguards apply in future to the procedures used by these UN bodies in listing individuals and institutions.
The Panel's recommendation that any sanctions regimes - including arms embargoes - imposed by the Security Council must routinely establish monitoring mechanisms with the capacity to carry out in-depth investigations addresses a key concern of the organization about the ineffectiveness of some of the sanctions regimes put in place by the Security Council. It should be immediately implemented.
Amnesty International looks forward to participating in future
discussions on the many recommendations made in the report and urges all concerned
to ensure that human rights will be central to that debate.