Human Rights in Action
The United Nations has been adapting its human rights machinery in order to better respond to the changing demands of the international community. During the cold war, the United Nations created the normative and institutional structures for international human rights protection, steadily broadening its competence in this area. At the same time, it supported the vast process of decolonization, which led to the birth of over 80 new independent nations. Landmark United Nations actions, such as the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960), provided the blueprint for universally establishing the collective right to self-determination. The United Nations also concentrated its efforts on the human rights abuses resulting from the policy of apartheid in South Africa, overseeing international action which eventually helped to end this gross abrogation of fundamental rights. Despite these successes, however, the effectiveness of the United Nations was severely restricted by the cold war, both in terms of the range of human rights to be defended and in terms of ensuring their respect in practice. The world political situation did not allow for much concerted human rights activism in the field. Doctrines of national security and sovereignty were often invoked to conceal, excuse or justify human rights abuses.
Today, there is widespread recognition that the 50-year investment in development and human rights promotion requires new impetus to secure broader realization of economic and social rights. Extreme poverty and exclusion from economic, political and cultural life continue to be the fate of millions in both developing and developed countries. Currently, there are 48 countries where more than one fifth of the population live in "absolute poverty", with little prospect of dramatic change in the short term. Breaking the cycle of poverty thus continues to be a formidable task for the international community. For this reason, the United Nations has increasingly emphasized the right to development, which can provide the basis for a strategy for a more comprehensive human rights programme.
Strengthening the human rights machinery
In the wake of the Vienna Conference, the United Nations has intensified efforts to refocus its human rights programme, shifting its main concern from standard setting to implementation.This effort was led by the main intergovernmental body in this area, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, supported by the secretariat of the United Nations Centre for Human Rights. In 1993, the General Assembly significantly strengthened the Organization's human rights machinery by creating the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mandated to coordinate all United Nations human rights programmes and improve their impact and overall efficiency, the High Commissioner is the chief official responsible for human rights. Operating under the direction and authority of the Secretary-General as his representative in the field of human rights, the High Commissioner also reports to the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on Human Rights. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) serves as the secretariat of the Commission on Human Rights, the treaty bodies and other United Nations human rights organs, and is the focal point for all United Nations human rights activities.
The first High Commissioner was Mr. José Ayala Lasso, who served from 1994 to 1997. Having assumed office only one day before the outbreak of genocidal killing in Rwanda, Mr. Ayala Lasso called for the convening of an emergency session of the Commission on Human Rights to address the human rights situation in that country. The Rwandan tragedy made clear the need to strengthen the range of human rights instruments at the disposal of the United Nations.
In 1997, as part of wide-ranging reforms to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan placed human rights at the heart of all the work of the Organization. The Secretary-General organized the work of the United Nations into four substantive fields -- peace and security, economic and social affairs, development cooperation, and humanitarian affairs -- with human rights as the issue fifth priority area across each of these four programme fields. The United Nations is thus enhancing its human rights programme by integrating a human rights focus into the entire range of the Organization's activities. In addition, the High Commissioner's Office and the Centre for Human Rights were consolidated into a single Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This merger gave the new High Commissioner a solid institutional basis from which to lead, as the focal point of all systemwide integration of human rights activities, the Organization's mission in the domain of human rights (see chart on facing page).
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ms. Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, assumed her post as the second High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 1997. The High Commissioner's mandate has four essential components:
The Office of the High Commissioner, based in Geneva with country offices around the world, has a staff of some 200; its three main components deal with activities and progammes, research and right to development, and support services. The Office has a limited annual budget of about $20 million, about 1.7 per cent of the United Nations regular budget. However, the growing number of human rights activities in the field has led to a sharp increase in costs. Overall funding requirements for 1998 were $54 million. The High Commissioner's broadened mandate supports the work of the Commission on Human Rights and the treaty bodies, focusing, among other things, on advancing the rights of women and children, combating racial discrimination in all its forms and protecting vulnerable groups and minorities, such as indigenous people, migrants and disabled people.
In order to carry out these expanded mandates, the office increasingly relies on voluntary contributions to finance its activities. The Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda, for example, was funded entirely by voluntary contributions from Governments. Several voluntary funds support the High Commissioner's initiatives on indigenous people, the rights of the child, economic rights, victims of torture and contemporary forms of slavery, as well as combating racism and racial discrimination.
Especially through the expansion of its technical cooperation programme, OHCHR has been able to provide human rights support to virtually all programmes and agencies within the United Nations system. In the area of peacekeeping, for example, the programme has provided various forms of assistance to major United Nations missions in Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Haiti and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. It has also advised the United Nations electoral missions in Eritrea and South Africa. Such advisory services often entail the provision of human rights expertise, legislative analysis and training for personnel. The increased focus on joint operations has made it possible to fund a presence in the field through the regular budgets of the wider United Nations system.
Today, virtually every United Nations body and specialized agency, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is making efforts to incorporate the promotion or protection of human rights into its programmes and activities, including a gender perspective and an emphasis on the right to development. OHCHR is taking other steps to strengthen the United Nations human rights machinery by supporting the human rights bodies and monitoring mechanisms in their efforts to streamline their work.
Commission on Human Rights
United Nations policy on human rights is governed, through the General Assembly, by a number of intergovernmental bodies, which also provide guidance to OHCHR. The main intergovernmental policy-making body concerned with human rights issues is the Commission on Human Rights. Established in 1946 by the Economic and Social Council, the Commission provides overall policy guidance, studies human rights problems, develops and codifies new international norms, and monitors the observance of human rights around the world. Made up of 53 Member States elected for three-year terms, the Commission provides a forum for States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to voice their concerns about human rights issues.
The Commission originally concentrated its efforts on defining and codifying international human rights standards. In the past two decades, however, the Commission has set up a system of special procedures to investigate alleged violations of human rights, and routinely dispatches fact-finding missions to countries in all parts of the world. Today, the Commission's annual six-week session in Geneva provides a unique global forum for raising, discussing and clarifying allegations of a wide range of violations. States as well as NGOs present information on situations of concern to them; the Governments involved often submit replies. In the light of the examination of such situations, fact-finding groups of experts may be designated, on-the-spot visits may be organized, discussions with Governments pursued, assistance provided and violations condemned.
In recent years, the Commission has increasingly turned its attention to the promotion of
economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development. It has established a
number of subsidiary bodies to assist its work in this area, such as the working groups on the effects of foreign-debt burdens and the impact of extreme poverty on the enjoyment of human rights.
High on the Commission's agenda are the promotion of women's rights and the protection of the rights of the child. Special attention is given to children in situations of armed conflict, to violence against women, including against women migrant workers, and to trafficking in women and girls. The Commission has further sought to protect the rights of vulnerable groups, particularly ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous people. For this reason, it is seeking to create a permanent forum for indigenous people within the United Nations system.
Since 1948, the Commission has been assisted by the 26-member Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, composed of independent experts from all regions of the world. The Subcommission, in turn, has established several working groups, which serve as forums for interaction between Governments and civil society concerning the rights of indigenous people, minorities and groups vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery. Among other issues, the Subcommission focuses on contemporary forms of slavery, including forced labour, illegal and pseudo-legal adoptions aiming at the exploitation of children, and sexual slavery during wartime. It also considers human rights issues concerning domestic and migrant workers and examines preventive measures for the elimination of violence against women, in particular in situations of armed conflict.
[Click here for more information on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.]
Monitoring human rights violations
An integral part of the body of human rights law provides for a monitoring role for the United Nations. At the heart of the United Nations monitoring system are two types of human rights mechanisms -- conventional and extra-conventional -- which respond to individual human rights abuses and to the systematic abrogation of rights by Member States.
Six core human rights treaties provide for so-called conventional monitoring mechanisms consisting of six treaty bodies or committees, which monitor States parties' adherence to the international standards established in the treaties. However, States parties must ratify these treaties before their principles and standards apply to them.
The Human Rights Committee monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In periodic reports to the committees, States parties outline the legislative, judicial and administrative measures taken to ensure that government policies and practices conform to treaty principles. The Human Rights Committee, for example, has considered over 800 reports with respect to 56 countries and published 270 decisions. While the committees' views are not legally binding, they possess significant weight. States have frequently followed their decisions and made constitutional changes or adjusted their policies as a result of their recommendations.
Three human rights treaties allow for communications from individuals. The Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination are authorized to accept individual complaints from citizens of States that have ratified the respective provisions concerning individual communications. Two specialized agencies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), also examine alleged discrimination in their respective fields of competence.
In 1967, the Economic and Social Council adopted resolution 1235 (XLII), authorizing the Commission on Human Rights and its Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to examine information relevant to gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In 1970,
the Council adopted resolution 1503 (XLVIII), establishing a mechanism to respond to complaints by individuals, now commonly known as the "1503 procedure". The allegations are summarized in confidential documents sent to the Commission on Human Rights for review. If a consistent pattern of verified and serious human rights abuse is evident, the Commission can investigate the situation through its system of "special procedures".
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights maintains a 24-hour fax "hot line" (0041-22-917-0092) for reporting alleged human rights violations. Each year, it receives nearly 200,000 communications reporting violations.
Special procedures
The United Nations human rights programme relies increasingly on an independent system of fact-finding outside the treaty framework, which permits a more flexible approach to individual violations. This system of so-called extra-conventional mechanisms refers to the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission can appoint independent experts of international stature to examine, monitor and publicly report either on the situation of human rights in specific countries or, in the case of a thematic mandate, on serious human rights violations related to certain phenomena in various parts of the world, such as religious intolerance or the use of mercenaries. These experts, acting in their personal capacity, are designated as special rapporteurs, representatives, independent experts or, when several experts share a mandate, working groups.
The special rapporteurs are free to use all reliable sources available to them to prepare their reports, and much of their research is done in the field, where they conduct interviews with authorities, NGOs and victims, gathering on-site evidence whenever possible. In 1997, there were fact-finding missions to 14 countries; and inquiries regarding more than 5,000 cases were transmitted to Governments. The special rapporteurs report annually to the Commission on Human Rights, with recommendations for action. Their findings are also used by the treaty-bodies in their work, especially in evaluating States' reports.
As of mid-1998, there were over 20 country mandates on the human rights situation in specific regions. Country rapporteurs generally monitor the complex human rights situation in regions where massive violations have occurred, often in the aftermath of large-scale violence or conflict, as in Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. They make recommendations on how human rights can be strengthened at the national level. The Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Rwanda in May 1994, while the genocide was still ongoing, to examine all human rights aspects of the situation, including root causes and responsibilities for the atrocities. In 1997, the Commission followed up on that three-year mandate by appointing a Special Representative to facilitate the creation and effective functioning of an independent national human rights commission in Rwanda.
The General Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to investigate the systematic rape and abuse of women and children during the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia, particularly in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The experts entrusted with thematic mandates cover a range of specific human rights issues of worldwide significance. The right to life, for instance, is recognized as the most fundamental right, and its violation by States is an issue of international concern. The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, established in 1980, was the first to take up individual complaints and visit States. In 1995, one of the experts of the Working Group began to examine the problem of missing persons in the former Yugoslavia. In his final report of 1997, the expert reported that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some 20,000 persons were still missing, the great majority of whom _ Bosnian men of Muslim origin _ were victims of systematic "ethnic cleansing" operations carried out by Bosnian Serb forces between 1992 and 1995.
In 1997, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women visited Rwanda to study the issue of violence against women in wartime and in post-conflict situations and met with numerous women survivors. The Special Rapporteur also visited the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, where she observed the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu -- the first such trial which included charges of sexual violence in the indictment.
Since 1982, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has been entrusted with the investigation of violations of the right to life committed by State authorities or armed groups. Working closely with Governments, United Nations bodies and NGOs, the Special Rapporteur appeals to Governments to prevent executions, particularly when the right to a fair trial seems to have been violated. The Rapporteur responds to information on death threats against individuals and deaths in custody, calling for public inquiries or submitting urgent appeals.
Civil society -- partners in human rights action
The United Nations believes that creating a pervasive culture of human rights requires a dynamic network of partnerships worldwide. The High Commissioner for Human Rights implements her broad mandate in partnership with a variety of actors, including the programmes and agencies within the United Nations system, Governments, regional organizations, academic communities, committed individuals and the NGO community. New types of partnerships are being developed with civil society. In the field of child rights, NGOs have participated in discussions relating to the preparation of government reports. With the help of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), they have submitted their own information to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, attended the Committee's sessions and monitored, at the national level, the implementation of its recommendations.
NGOs and other representatives of civil society, such as academic institutions and citizens' groups, have been crucial to the United Nations human rights work since its inception -- from the inclusion of human rights clauses in the Charter to the establishment of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. NGOs have also been key to developing human rights priorities in the major world conferences of this decade -- particularly the agreements achieved on human rights in Vienna (1993), on population and development in Cairo (1994), on social development in Copenhagen (1995), on women's rights in Beijing (1995) and on food security in Rome (1996).
NGOs provide leadership in other areas, too. In the preparation of the Rome Conference, which approved the establishment of an International Criminal Court in July 1998, a well-informed and vocal NGO coalition was instrumental in pushing for a strong mandate for the Court. The coalition often led the debate on contentious issues such as the need for an independent prosecutor and the inclusion of the crime of aggression as one of the core crimes under the Court's jurisdiction. The strong NGO partnership with Governments and the United Nations ensured that the International Criminal Court, the last international institution expected to be created in this century, possesses the capacity to exercise its dual purpose of prosecuting individuals responsible for atrocities and deterring future barbarities.
The strength of non-governmental human rights organizations lies in their ability to mobilize public opinion, disseminate information and pressure Governments to conform to international human rights standards. There is great diversity among these NGOs. Some defend all human rights in general, while others protect the specific rights of particular vulnerable groups, such as women and children, or deal with urgent human rights issues, such as torture, enforced disappearances or the treatment of prisoners.
NGOs are vital actors in human rights advocacy: representing and protecting victims, providing expertise, collecting and disseminating information and encouraging human rights education. Among human rights NGOs, women's groups are among the most active in the world today, playing a vital role in the advancement and empowerment of women by increasing awareness of women's issues, as well as educating women in their human rights. Many other NGOs have an indirect role in defending human rights. They focus primarily on other issues but have incorporated human rights into their activities and, by offering legal assistance to vulnerable groups, advance the cause of human rights.
Some human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights, have a large international reach, and conduct independent surveys, publish newsletters and disseminate detailed reports. Today, there are hundreds of NGOs whose human rights work has taken on a transnational character. Amnesty International, for example, the largest human rights NGO, with 1.2 million members in 160 countries, recently launched a worldwide petition drive to secure the commitment of over 6 million people to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The pledges will be handed over to the United Nations General Assembly on Human Rights Day, 10 December, on the occasion of the Fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration.