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The Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

John R. Crook
John R. Crook*
Affiliation:
United States Mission, Geneva
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Extract

The fiftieth session of the UN Human Rights Commission took place in Geneva between January 31 and March 11, 1994, under the chairmanship of Peter P. van Wulfften Palthe of the Netherlands. During its annual six weeks of rhetoric and resolutions, the Commission adopted 109 resolutions and decisions, most by consensus. It adopted resolutions or took other actions addressing human rights violations in thirty countries.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 88 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 806 - 821
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1994

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References

1 The Commission’s resolutions and decisions are in Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Fiftieth Session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1994/132 [hereinafter Report]. For a detailed overview of the session, see UN Press Release, Commission of Human Rights Concludes Fiftieth Session, UN Doc. HR/CN/94/58 (Mar. 11, 1994). Some nongovernmental organizations have prepared useful synopses, e.g., Quaker United Nations Office-Geneva, Report on the 1994 UN Commission on Human Rights (1994). For detailed analysis of the Commission’s history and procedures, see Philip Alston, The Commission on Human Rights, in The United Nations and Human Rights 126 (Philip Alston ed., 1992).

2 For criticism of the Commission, and of the United Nations approach to human rights in general, see Morris Abram, The United Nations, the United States and International Human Rights, in U.S. Policy and the Future of the United Nations 113, 124–30 (Roger Coate ed., 1994).

3 See id. at 124; Alston, supra note 1, at 141, 151.

4 UN Commission on Human Rights [hereinafter CHR] Res. 1994/4 (Feb. 18).

5 CHR Res. 1994/1 (Feb. 18), adopted by 49–1 (United States) -1.

6 CHR Res. 1994/2 (Feb. 18), adopted by 25-1 (United States) -25.

7 CHR Res. 1994/3 (Feb. 18), part A of which was adopted by 26–3 (United States) -23, and part B by 26–1 (United States) -25.

8 CHR Res. 1994/5 (Feb. 18), adopted by 26–1 (United States) -25.

9 CHR Res. 1994/8 (Feb. 18).

10 CHR Res. 1994/10 (Feb. 18).

11 UN Press Release, supra note 1, at 1.

12 CHR Res. 1994/9 (Feb. 18).

13 See Marsha Freeman & Arvonne Fraser, Women’s Human. Rights: Making the Theory a Reality, in Human Rights: An Agenda for the Next Century 103 (Louis Henkin & John Lawrence Hargrove eds., 1994) [hereinafter Henkin & Hargrove].

14 CHR Res. 1993/46 (Mar. 8), Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Forty-ninth Session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1993/122.

15 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, pt. 11(38), UN Doc. A/CONF.157/23 (1993), reprinted in 32 ILM 1661, 1678 (1993) (“In particular, the World Conference … stresses the importance of working towards the elimination of violence against women in public and private life …”). See Donna Sullivan, Women’s Human Rights and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, 88 AJIL 152 (1994).

16 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, supra note 15, pt. 11(37), 32 ILM at 1678 (“The equal status of women and the human rights of women should be integrated into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activity.”). See Sullivan, supra note 15, at 163–64.

17 Sullivan, supra note 15, at 152.

18 GA Res. 48/104 (Dec. 20, 1993), reprinted in 33 ILM 1049 (1994).

19 CHR Res. 1994/45 (Mar. 4).

20 See, e.g., the resolutions on religious intolerance, CHR Res. 1994/18 (Feb. 25); effective functioning of treaty bodies, CHR Res. 1994/19 (Feb. 25); torture, CHR Res. 1994/37 (Mar. 4); enforced disappearance, CHR Res. 1994/39 (Mar. 4); thematic procedures, CHR Res. 1994/53 (Mar. 4); internally displaced persons, CHR Res. 1994/68 (Mar. 9); and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, CHR Res. 1994/82 (Mar. 9).

21 See, e.g., the resolutions on the former Yugoslavia, CHR Res. 1994/72 (Mar. 9); the Islamic Republic of Iran, CHR Res. 1994/73 (Mar. 9); Iraq, CHR Res. 1994/74 (Mar. 9); rape and abuse of women in the former Yugoslavia, CHR Res. 1994/77 (Mar. 9); the Sudan, CHR Res. 1994/79 (Mar. 9); Afghanistan, CHR Res. 1994/84 (Mar. 9); and Myanmar, CHR Res. 1994/85 (Mar. 9).

22 See, e.g., the resolutions on extreme poverty, CHR Res. 1994/12 (Feb. 25); right to own property, CHR Res. 1994/13 (Feb. 25); forensic science, CHR Res. 1994/31 (Mar. 4); administration of justice, CHR Res. 1994/34 (Mar. 4); human rights, HIV and AIDS, CHR Res. 1994/49 (Mar. 4); human rights education, CHR Res. 1994/51 (Mar. 4); strengthening the Centre for Human Rights, CHR Res. 1994/55 (Mar. 4); and trade union rights, CHR Res. 1994/63 (Mar. 4).

23 CHR Res. 1994/40 (Mar. 4). For the European Convention, opened for signature Nov. 26, 1987, see 27 ILM 1152 (1988). For the UN Convention, see GA Res. 39/46 (Dec. 10, 1984).

24 CHR Res. 1994/96 (Mar. 10). On the problems faced by human rights defenders, see Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Shackling the Defenders: Legal Restrictions on Independent Human Rights Advocacy Worldwide (1994); and Michael Posner, The Establishment of the Right of Nongovernmental Human Rights Groups to Operate, in Henkin & Hargrove, supra note 13, at 405.

25 CHR Res. 1994/91 (Mar. 9). A proposed draft optional protocol prepared by the Committee on the Rights of the Child is in UN Doc. E/CN.4/1994/91. For the Convention, see GA Res. 44/25 (Nov. 20, 1989).

26 CHR Res. 1994/90 (Mar. 9).

27 CHR Res. 1994/29 (Mar. 4).

28 The working group was established as a forum for UN review of current developments affecting indigenous groups and for work on relevant human rights standards. See Russel Lawrence Barsh, Indigenous Peoples: An Emerging Object of International Law, 80 AJIL 369 (1986). There is continuing controversy as to whether it deals with rights of “people” or of “peoples.” Texts adopted by the Commission speak of “people”; those from the working group, of “peoples.” As Hurst Hannum suggests, this simplistic debate over nomenclature exalts form over substance. Hurst Hannum, New Developments in Indigenous Rights, 28 Va. J. Int’l L. 649 (1988). Nevertheless, the issues underlying the debate are important: whether indigenous communities have the right of self-determination under international law, and the implications of claims to self-determination for states.

29 The Commission also adopted a resolution on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, CHR Res. 1994/26 (Mar. 4), and one requesting views of interested parties on the concept of a possible UN “permanent forum for indigenous people,” CHR Res. 1994/28 (Mar. 4).

30 See Alston, supra note 1, at 173–81.

31 CHR Res. 1994/41 (Mar. 4). Nongovernmental organizations have highlighted the threats to human rights posed by harassment and persecution of judges and lawyers. See, e.g., Centre for the Independence of Judces and Lawyers, Attacks on Justice: The Harassment and Persecution of Judges and Lawyers, June 1991-May 1992 (Mona A. Rishmawi ed., 1992); and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, In Defense of Rights: Attacks on Lawyers and Judges in 1992 (1993).

32 CHR Res. 1994/65 (Mar. 9).

33 CHR Res. 1994/32 (Mar. 4). See generally Reed Brody, The United Nations Creates a Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 85 AJIL 709 (1991) (origins of working group).

34 CHR Res. 1994/67 (Mar. 9).

35 CHR Res. 1994/58 (Mar. 4) and 1994/81 (Mar. 9).

36 Theo van Boven, Study Concerning the Right to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/8.

37 CHR Res. 1994/16 (Feb. 25).

38 Thus, under Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 999 UNTS 171, “[e]ach State Patty … undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant ….” Article 2 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 993 UNTS 3, is similar. See 1 Lassa Oppenheim, International Law: A Treatise 737 (Hersch Lauterpacht ed., 8th ed. 1955) (rights “are possible only on the assumption of a limitation on the absolute sovereignty of the State”).

39 Operative paragraph 1 of the resolution on violence against women, supra note 19, condemns “all violations of human rights against women, including acts of gender-based violence against women” (emphasis added). Operative paragraph 2 then calls for elimination of such violence “in the family, within the general community and where perpetrated or condoned by the State.” Thus, the domain of human rights protection extends to violence within the family and other spheres not involving action by the state. See also CHR Dec. 1994/104 (Mar. 4), which authorizes continued work by the Sub-Commission on traditional practices like female circumcision “in so far as they constitute violations of human rights within the meaning of the relevant provisions of the International Bill of Human Rights and many other international instruments.”

40 CHR Res. 1994/46 (Mar. 4).

41 GA Res. 48/122 (Dec. 20, 1993).

42 CHR Res. 1994/49 (Mar. 4).

43 See Marta Santos Pais, Rights of Children and the Family, in Henkin & Hargrove, supra note 13, at 183, 188–90.

44 The new ninth edition of Oppenheim credits the Commission with “substantial work in … the protection of human rights in armed conflicts,” suggesting that its work resulted in adoption of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. 1 Oppenheim’s International Law 1005–06 (Robert Jennings & Arthur Watts eds., 9th ed. 1992). This claim seems difficult to sustain. See Alston, supra note 1, at 134–35; and George Aldrich, Some reflections on the origins of the 1977 Geneva Protocols, in Studies and Essays on International Humanitarian Law and Red Cross Principles in Honour of Jean Pictet 129, 134 (Christophe Swinarski ed., 1984) (noting the central role of the ICRC in developing the Protocols).

45 On human rights and armed conflict, see Theodor Meron, Human Rights in Internal Strife: Their International Protection (1987); and UN Bull. Hum. Rts., No. 91/1, 1992. On the separate roots of human rights and humanitarian law, see Louise Doswald-Beck & Sylvain Vite, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law, Int’l Rev. Red Cross, Mar.-Apr. 1993, at 94.

46 CHR Res. 1991/67 (Mar. 6), Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Forty-seventh Session (28 January-8 March 1991), UN Doc. E/1991/22, at 154.

47 Report on the situation of human rights in Kuwait under Iraqi occupation, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1992/26. See Doswald-Beck & Vite, supra note 45, at 114–15. In 1992 the Commission expressed appreciation for this report and condemned Iraq’s failure to observe its humanitarian’law obligations. CHR Res. 1992/60 (Mar. 3), Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Forty-eighth Session (27 January-6 March 1992), UN Doc. E/1992/22, at 140.

48 CHR Res. 1992/S–1/1 (Aug. 14). Subsequent resolutions regarding human rights in areas of the former Yugoslavia have continued to apply both human rights and humanitarian principles.

49 On the Commission’s May special session on Rwanda, see text at notes 94–96 infra.

50 Alston notes that for its first 20 years, the Commission did not consider specific violations at all. Alston, supra note 1, at 139–42. He suggests that more recently the Commission has had a de facto limit of six to eight on the number of countries it will address annually in public proceedings. Id. at 151. The 1994 Commission well exceeded this limit.

51 CHR Res. 1994/85 (Mar. 9).

52 CHR Dec. 1994/108 (Mar. 9). The text of the unsuccessful resolution is in Report, supra note 1, at 388–89.

53 CHR Res. 1994/71 (Mar. 9).

54 Report, supra note 1, at 381–82.

55 CHR Res. 1994/73 (Mar. 9).

56 CHR Dec. 1994/109 (Mar. 9). The text of the draft resolution is in Report, supra note 1, at 383.

57 CHR Res. 1994/81 (Mar. 9).

58 Report, supra note 1, at 381.

59 CHR Res. 1994/79 (Mar. 9), adopted by 35-9-9.

60 Report, supra note 1, at 377–78.

61 CHR Res. 1994/72 (Mar. 9).

62 CHR Res. 1994/75 (Mar. 9), adopted by 41-1-10. Russia voted no; the United States abstained because of inappropriate language regarding genocide.

63 CHR Res. 1994/76 (Mar. 9), adopted by consensus.

64 CHR Res. 1994/77 (Mar. 9). This resolution was adopted by consensus although Russia called for a paragraph vote on a preambular paragraph deeming rape and abuse of women a deliberate weapon of Serbian forces; five countries abstained on the paragraph.

65 CHR Res. 1994/87 (Mar. 9).

66 CHR Res. 1994/89 (Mar. 9).

67 CHR Res. 1994/78 (Mar. 9).

68 CHR Res. 1994/86 (Mar. 9).

69 CHR Res. 1994/88 (Mar. 9).

70 CHR Res. 1994/74 (Mar. 9), adopted by 34-1-18.

71 CHR Res. 1994/80 (Mar. 9).

72 CHR Res. 1994/84 (Mar. 9).

73 CHR Res. 1994/83 (Mar. 9), adopted by 48-1 (United States) -3.

74 See Alston, supra note 1, at 165.

75 CHR Res. 1994/58 (Mar. 4).

76 CHR Res. 1994/62 (Mar. 4).

77 CHR Res. 1994/57 (Mar. 4) (Albania); CHR Res. 1994/59 (Mar. 4) (Georgia); CHR Res. 1994/60 (Mar. 4) (Somalia); and CHR Res. 1994/61 (Mar. 4) (Cambodia). The chairman’s statement is in Report, supra note 1, at 447–48.

78 For an assessment of the 1503 procedure, see Alston, supra note 1, at 144–55.

79 Report, supra note 1, at 411.

80 Part 1(10) of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, supra note 15, 32 ILM at 1666, affirms the right to development in language that also affirms both that the person is the central subject of development and that the lack of development cannot justify denial of human rights. Abram, supra note 2, at 119, criticizes U.S. acceptance of the Vienna final document.

81 CHR Res. 1994/13 (Feb. 25).

82 CHR Res. 1994/63 (Mar. 4).

83 CHR Res. 1994/20 (Mar. 1).

84 CHR Res. 1994/11 (Feb. 25). In 1993 the vote on the corresponding resolution was 36-2-12.

85 CHR Res. 1994/12 (Feb. 25).

86 CHR Res. 1994/21 (Mar. 1).

87 CHR Res. 1994/22 (Mar. 1).

88 CHR Dec. 1994/103 (Mar. 4).

89 CHR Res. 1994/17 (Feb. 25).

90 CHR Res. 1994/47 (Mar. 4).

91 CHR Res. 1994/56 (Mar. 4).

92 CHR Res. 1994/97 (Mar. 10).

93 CHR Dec. 1994/111 (Mar. 12).

94 See UN Press Releases, Human Rights Commission to Discuss Human Rights Situation in Rwanda During Special Session, UN Doc. HR/94/18 (May 20, 1994), and Human Rights Commission Appoints Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, UN Doc. HR/CN/94/63 (May 25, 1994). This was the third special session of the Commission; there were special sessions on August 13–14, 1992, and November 30-December 1, 1992, on the human rights situation in the former Yugoslavia.

95 The report of the special session, including its resolution, is UN Doc. E/CN.4/S-3/L.1 (1994).

96 UN Doc. E/CN.4/1995/7 (1994).