Third Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
Putting People First in Development
Section Coordinated and Written By Namrita Talwar
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“One of the main problems faced by the Third Committee is the duplication of the work of the Committee and other social and humanitarian bodies, in particular the Commission on Human Rights.”
— Valeriy P. Kuchinsky
Permanent Representative of Ukraine
Chairman of the Third Committee
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The Third Committee deals with myriad topics related to social development, advancement of women, international drug control and human rights issues. Delegates meet, discuss and debate these issues and work to forge resolutions that enjoy unanimous support, or if this is not possible can be voted upon.
On the recommendation of the Third Committee, the General Assembly during its fifty-ninth session, passed 66 resolutions, 46 of which were adopted unanimously and only 10 had more than 5 votes cast against them. “The majority of these proposals, primarily of social, humanitarian and cultural character, were adopted by consensus”, Committee Chairman Valeriy P. Kuchinsky of Ukraine told the UN Chronicle. It was the country-specific resolutions pertaining to human rights issues that were heavily debated, he said.
It is estimated that about 1 million persons are shipped across and within national borders to be sold into modern-day slavery, Marie Yvette Banzon of the Philippines told the Chronicle. Of this number, women and girls comprise a staggering majority, fuelling a billion-dollar sex industry. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that more than 200,000 children are enslaved through cross-border smuggling in West and Central Africa. They are often sold by unsuspecting parents who believe their children are going to be looked after, learn a trade or be educated, only to be forced to work as prostitutes, abused labourers or servants.
On the important issue of trafficking, the Assembly adopted by consensus the resolution on “Trafficking in women and girls”. Since 1995 when the Philippines first led the tabling and negotiations on a draft on trafficking, the text has enjoyed the broadest support from UN Member States. “The resolution is one of the international tools that has provided a basis and guidance for action by Governments, international bodies and civil society to combat the trafficking problem”, according to Ms. Banzon. It was when the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, came into existence in 2000 that the resolution’s content was strengthened to include the Convention’s legal and juridical principles. The text “aims to complement the force of the Trafficking Protocol by highlighting the vulnerability, needs and concerns of the majority of the victims of trafficking, she said. While also expressing concern about the situation of male victims, the resolution points to the strategic importance and value of adopting a gender-based approach to effectively combat the trafficking problem, Ms. Banzon added.
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| It is estimated that 250 million children aged between 5 and 14 engaged in unacceptable forms of labour, and more than 100 million children remain out of school. Photo/Mikel Flamm
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This year, a significant development was the inclusion of language pointing out the need to address the demand which fuels the trafficking of victims. “The debate on the issue of demand has always been wrought by the divergence of interests between countries of origin and destination”, she said. For that reason, negotiating this resolution has not always been an easy task. However, the Protocol as the international legal instrument and the adopted text can constitute an effective and strategic foundation for action by all concerned to eliminate this modern-day slavery.
The Assembly also adopted without a vote the resolution “Protection of migrants”, which aims to end acts of racism and intolerance against these people, as well as all forms of discrimination related to access to employment, vocational training, housing, schooling, and health and social services. Two other traditional resolutions—on “Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance” and “Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions”—were adopted by 186 votes to none, and by 142 to none, with 43 abstentions, respectively.
On issues relating to crime prevention and international drug control, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told the Third Committee that the transnational nature of organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism demanded increased international cooperation and strong partnerships. “What we are witnessing is the globalization of crime”, he said. Organized crime, illegal trafficking, corruption and terrorism had compromised national borders that had once been depended on to contain those threats. He noted that corruption in all its forms was costing legitimate businesses $1 trillion every year.
The Assembly also adopted three new resolutions on international drug control, which addressed the specific issues of control of cultivation of and trafficking in cannabis, on chemical precursors (introduced by Mexico), and on international support for efforts by the Government of Afghanistan to eliminate illicit opium, (sent to the Assembly by the Economic and Social Council). All three were adopted without a vote, in addition to the omnibus text on “International cooperation against the world drug problem”. “It is a problem that affects everyone”, Jennifer Feller of Mexico told the Chronicle. However, as part of the revitalizing effort to avoid repetition of work, the Committee should not have to work on re-approving resolutions sent to it by the Council, she added.
One of the main problems faced by the Third Committee, according to its Chairman, is the duplication of the work of the Committee and other social and humanitarian bodies, in particular the Commission on Human Rights. “It is well known that these two organs very often consider the same issues”, Mr. Kuchinsky said. The end result is that the work bears similar results and may not contribute to the implementation of corresponding decisions. “In this connection, I believe that the Committee’s document on the revitalization of its work will, at least partly, make an input into the rationalization of the agenda of the body.”
With the ten-year anniversary of both the 1995 World Summit for Social Development and the International Year of the Family fast approaching, many delegates expressed the hope that activities in observance of these events would include a follow-up on the implementation of their conclusions and recommendations. A resolution on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit, held in Denmark, Copenhagen, was adopted without a vote. Also before the Committee was the Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit and of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly. It concludes that three issues appear to be of particular interest to countries struggling to define their role in a globalizing and interdependent world economy: the social aspects of globalization, the compatibility of macroeconomic policies to social development, and the capacity of national governments to define and implement social policies.
The World Bank Deputy Representative to the United Nations, Clare Fleming, said that social development was a critical factor in making poverty reduction effective and sustainable. Development was not sustainable in social terms and it would not be in economic and environmental terms as well. Noting that the average level of real income in the richest countries was fifty times that of the poorest, she said that in a globalized, technologically advanced world, there was much more scope to work on those imbalances. Jorge Cumberbach Miguen of Cuba said that the promotion of social development at the international level implied the total fulfilment of the commitments assumed in Denmark by countries in various conferences and summits. He also stressed the need for industrialized nations to commit 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product to official development assistance for developing countries.
Continuing with the reports and recommendations of the Third Committee, the General Assembly reaffirmed that narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor remained an explicit goal at the national and international levels, as it adopted the resolution, “Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights” by a vote of 129 to 53, with 4 abstentions. Similarly, a text on “Human rights and extreme poverty”, adopted without a vote, reaffirmed that extreme poverty constituted a violation of human dignity and that urgent action is required to eliminate it.
Although Member States expressed concern that rampant globalization had negatively impacted the social situation worldwide, many recognized that globalization was not a natural phenomenon but one that was directed by individual decisions and therefore could be controlled, Chairman Kuchinsky said. On behalf of the European Union, Mr. Hof of the Netherlands said that the text was “imbalanced”, and for that reason the Union had voted against it. “Certainly there is a relationship between globalization and human rights, but not all human rights are affected by globalization. How do you explain globalization and torture? There is no relation between globalization leading to more torture.” Globalization could have both positive and negative aspects; however its benefits had not been highlighted in the draft resolution. For example, Mr Hof said, freedom of expression and access to information could be attributed to the Internet, which had been made possible through globalization. Though the European Union had suggested certain amendments to the text, due to time constraints, Egypt—the main sponsor of the draft—was unable to include those changes.
The Committee also debated the issue of the rights of a child. It is estimated that 250 million children aged between 5 and 14 engaged in unacceptable forms of labour, and more than 100 million children remained out of school. The omnibus resolution was adopted by a vote of 166 to 2 (Marshall Islands, United States), with 1 abstention (India). It would have the Assembly urge States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Assembly also approved a draft text on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian children by a recorded vote of 117 to 5 (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 62 abstentions.
During the session, 23 special rapporteurs and independent experts, mostly on human rights issues, presented their reports and participated in the interactive discussion with delegates. The Chairman’s text on the “Revitalization on the Work of the Committee” focused on proposals to guide the Committee’s work in the future and included suggestions to simplify the programme of work and promote dialogue with members of the civil society, Mr. Kuchinsky said.
The text on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, adopted without a vote, calls upon the Government to end the systematic violations of human rights, restore democracy and release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the National League for Democracy. Myanmar’s representative said the resolution was based on unsubstantiated allegations by remnant insurgents and anti-government groups that were waging a war of disinformation. It was a blatant attempt to interfere in the domestic political process, thus Myanmar would therefore dissociate itself from the resolution, he added. The representative of China noted that Myanmar had expressed strong reservations regarding the text, which showed that differences remained between the positions of the resolution’s main sponsors and the Government concerned. Given such a situation, it was hard to see the usefulness of passing it.
Voting patterns on country-specific resolutions had the Assembly deeply divided. The draft text on the human rights situation in Turkmenistan was adopted by a vote of 69 to 47, with 63 abstentions, while that on the situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by 71 to 54, with 55 abstentions. Draft resolutions on the human rights situations in Belarus, Sudan and Zimbabwe were dismissed through a no-action motion (adjournment of debate). Some delegations widely welcomed such a move and considered it to be the first step in the optimization of the Committee’s work, Mr. Kuchinsky said. The existence of “country resolutions” was one of the major difficulties in the work of the Committee. “Such documents have been actively criticized for having a mostly political colour of the human rights situation and for being a tool to put pressure on particular countries”, he added.
Peter-Derrek Hof of the Netherlands, on behalf of the European Union, said in an interview with the UN Chronicle that it was very important to have the General Assembly speak out against human rights violations in countries. “Governments are res-ponsible to protect human rights under their jurisdiction, and if they fail to do so, then there is a legitimate concern for the international community to deal with it.” Country-specific resolutions go back to the 1940s when the Assembly first addressed human rights violations in Hungary and Romania, and to the 1970s when it had East Germany, Chile and some other Latin American countries on its radar. Although it is not a perfect instrument, it has had a good track record in addressing human rights violations in countries across the world, Mr. Hof said. |
25 Million Internally Displaced Persons
By crossing an international border, refugees are generally entitled to food, shelter and protection from the host country. However, for those groups or individuals who are driven from their communities but remain in their home countries, no such provisions exist, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are 25 million of them in the world today. Known as internally displaced persons (IDPs), they are forced to flee their communities to escape armed conflict, human rights abuses and natural or man-made disasters. They have little basic protection.
While the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees created a legal framework to safeguard international refugees after the Second World War, the United Nations has been unable to establish similar measures for IDPs. On the one hand, Governments view UN involvement in IDP issues as an infringement on State sovereignty, while on the other, the world Organization is often compelled to intervene to prevent or stop human rights abuses.
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| Children at a day home for internally displaced people in Chigorodo, Uraba, Colombia run by the UNHCR local partner Compartir, where vulnerable internally displaced children receive psychological counselling, basic education and meals. UNHCR photo/P. Smith |
As this ongoing tension between upholding State sovereignty and protecting human rights has left the United Nations unable to act in certain situations, it has, however, begun to look toward other means of increasing international awareness and support for IDPs. In 1992, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Francis Deng, former Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, as his Special Representative for IDPs. Mr. Deng then produced the “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement”, a booklet that describes thirty strategies for Governments and humanitarian organizations to help internal refugees. Yet, as the United Nations has no specific agency to work with IDPs, UNHCR often undertakes such issues on an ad hoc basis. In the resolution on assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa, the General Assembly recognizes that among refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons, women and children are the majority of the population affected by conflict and bear the brunt of atrocities and other consequences of conflict. Through the resolution, adopted without a vote, the Assembly also calls upon States and other parties to armed conflict to observe international humani-tarian law, bearing in mind that armed conflict is one of the principal causes of forced displacement in Africa.
Despite such efforts, UNHCR has found that the overall number of IDPs has remained “relatively stable in the first years of the new millennium”. As such, until States and the United Nations can come to terms with protecting the rights of all people, IDPs will likely remain one of the most vulnerable populations across the globe. —Lisa Krutky
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