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The Fifty-third Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Michael J. Dennis
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Extract

The fifty-third session of the UN Commission on Human Rights took place in Geneva from March 10 to April 18, 1997, with Miroslav Somol of the Czech Republic serving as chairman. More than twenty-three hundred individuals were in attendance, representing fifty-three member and ninety-two observer states, over two hundred nongovernmental organizations, and some forty specialized agencies, UN bodies and other organizations.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 112 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1998

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References

1 The Report of the Commission on Human Rights on its fifty-third session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/150 [hereinafter Report], contains the Commission’s resolutions and decisions, as well as a listing of the participants.

2 UN Comm’n on Human Rights [CHR] Press Release HR/CN/757 (Mar. 11, 1997). Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, assumed her duties as the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 1997.

3 The following decisions deferred matters to the 54th session: CHR Decision [Dec] 1997/104 (Apr. 3) (status of International Covenants); 1997/105 (Apr. 3) (effective implementation of international instruments); 1997/106 (Apr. 11) (juveniles in detention); 1997/107 (Apr. 11) (disabilities); 1997/111 (Apr. 11) (human rights education); 1997/117 (Apr. 16) (conscientious objection); and 1997/118 (Apr. 16) (tolerance and pluralism). The following resolutions adopted a biennial schedule: CHR Res. 1997/20 (Apr. 11) (contemporary forms of slavery); 1997/33 (Apr. 11) (HIV/AIDS); 1997/34 (Apr. 11) (regional arrangements); 1997/41 (Apr. 11) (public information activities); 1997/48 (Apr. 11) (strengthening the rule of law); and 1997/71 (Apr. 16) (bioethics). The question of human rights and the environment was deferred to the 55th session. CHR Dec. 1997/102 (Apr. 3).

4 Report, supra note 1, at 45–284.

5 See John, R. Crook, The Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights , 88 AJIL 806 (1994)Google Scholar [hereinafter Crook, 50th Session]; John, R. Crook, The Fifty-first Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights , 90 AJIL 126 (1996)Google Scholar [hereinafter Crook, 51st Session]; and Michael, J. Dennis, The Fifty-second Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights , 91 AJIL 167 (1997)Google Scholar.

6 CHR Res. 1997/12 (Apr. 3).

7 Report, supra note 1, at 374–78. At the 1994 General Assembly, Italy introduced a draft resolution calling for the abolition of capital punishment. An unfriendly Singaporean amendment that added a provision to the resolution affirming the right of sovereign states to determine the legal measures and penalties appropriate to their societies was adopted by a vote of 71–65 (U.S.) -21. After the amendment was approved, all cosponsors of the resolution withdrew and the resolution failed by a vote of 36–44 (U.S.) -74.

8 CHR Press Releases HR/CN/788 & 789 (Apr. 7, 1997).

9 See, e.g., treatment of the issue in the Commission’s annual resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

10 Report by the special rapporteur, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/60, at 20–22; CHR Press Release HR/CN/795 (Apr. 10, 1997).

11 A detailed report of the rapporteur for the 53d session concerning the situation in the United States is contained in UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/60/Add.1, at 127–30. The laws of a majority (38) of the states in the United States, as well as U.S. federal law, authorize courts to impose capital punishment for the most serious crimes, in accordance with due process of law and stringent procedural safeguards guaranteed by die U.S. Constitution and relevant state constitutions. Half of the U.S. states permit juveniles to be prosecuted as adults in certain capital cases—4 have chosen 17 as the minimum age, while 21 use 16 as the minimum age, either by stating an express age in the statute (9 states) or by court ruling (12 states). See Victor Streib, The Juvenile Death Penalty Today (July 2, 1996) (unpublished ms. on file with author).

12 See Helms Calls Death Row Probe “Absurd U.N. Charade, “Wash. Post, Oct. 8, 1997, at A7.

13 See Asbjorn, Eide, Allan, Rosas & Theodor, Meron, Combating Lawlessness in Gray Zone Conflicts through Minimum Humanitarian Standards , 89 AJIL 215 (1995)Google Scholar.

14 See Crook, 50th Session, supra note 5, at 814–15; Crook, 51st Session, supra note 5, at 132; Dennis, supra note 5, at 167–68.

15 CHR Res. 1997/78 (Apr. 18). Other examples include CHR Res. 1997/57 (Apr. 15) (situation of human rights in territory of former Yugoslavia); CHR Res. 1997/59 (Apr. 15) (situation of human rights in the Sudan).

16 CHR Res. 1997/21 (Apr. 11). The resolution also welcomed the report of the International Workshop on Minimum Humanitarian Standards organized in Cape Town in September 1996. See UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/77/Add.1.

17 CHR Press Release HR/CN/799 (Apr. 14).

18 CHR Res. 1997/42 (Apr. 11). Compare CHR Res. 1994/46 (Mar. 4), 1995/43 (Mar. 3), and 1996/47 (Apr. 19). The Commission did adopt by consensus a Peruvian text on hostage taking, which like an earlier chairman’s statement on the subject condemns hostage taking as an illegal act aimed at the destruction of human rights.

CHR Res. 1997/28 (Apr. 11); Report, supra note 1, at 287 (chairman’s statement).

19 Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the Netherlands on behalf of the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States all gave explanations of vote in opposition to the resolution. Report, supra note 1, at 330.

20 Explanations of vote (on file with author). The term “acts of aggression” was defined by the General Assembly in its Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of December 14, 1974, and has a specific meaning in the context of Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Terrorist acts do not fall within that definition.

21 Several states, including die United States, emphasized that die proper forum for considering this issue was the Sixdi (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly. The General Assembly in 1996 adopted the Sixth Committee’s proposal to convene an ad hoc committee to elaborate an international convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings and, subsequently, an international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism. GA Res. 51/210, UN GAOR, 51st Sess., Supp. No. 49, Vol. 1, at 346, UN Doc. A/51/49 (1996). The General Assembly also approved a Declaration to Supplement the 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, which, inter alia, reaffirms that states should take appropriate measures before granting refugee status, to ensure that the asylum seeker has not participated in terrorist acts. Id.

22 GA Res. 50/203, UN GAOR, 50th Sess., Supp. No. 49, Vol. 1, at 270, UN Doc. A/50/49 (1995).

23 See, e.g., CHR Res. 1997/37 (Apr. 11) (inviting the thematic special rapporteurs and working groups to “[i]nclude regularly in their reports gender-disaggregated data and to address the characteristics and practice of human rights violations under their mandates that are specifically or primarily directed against women, or to which women are particularly vulnerable, in order to ensure the effective protection of their human rights’’).

24 Compare CHR Res. 1997/13 (Apr. 3) (violence against women migrant workers) and 1997/19 (Apr. 11) (traffic in women and girls) with Commission on the Status of Women Res. 41/4 (Mar. 20) (violence against women migrant workers) and 41/5 (Mar. 20) (traffic in women and girls), in Report on the forty-first session, UN Doc. E/CN.6/1997/9, at 24, 26, respectively, and GA Res. 51/65, UN GAOR, 51st Sess., supra note 21, at 194 (violence against women migrant workers) and 51/66, id. at 195 (traffic in women and girls). The Commission also replicated the same resolutions of the Commission on the Status of Women and the General Assembly in 1995 and 1996. See Dennis, supra note 5, at 169.

25 The Commission on the Status of Women has also been involved in standard-setting activities concerning a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. See Res. 41/3 (Mar. 21), Report of the forty-first session, supra note 24, at 23, 70.

26 CHR Res. 1997/78 (Apr. 18); Report, supra note 1, at 400.

27 For the Convention, Nov. 20, 1989, see GA Res. 44/25, UN GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, at 166, UN Doc. A/44/49 (1989). The United States has signed (Feb. 1995) but not yet ratified the Convention; it is one of only two states that are not parties (the other is Somalia). The United States has cosponsored the Commission’s omnibus resolution on children for three consecutive years.

28 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, opened for signature Dec. 12, 1977, 1125 UNTS 3.

29 See Report of the working group on its third (1997) session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/96.

30 Report of the working group on its second (1996) session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/102, at 5.

31 As a matter of U.S. law, an 18-year age limit could not be undertaken without statutory amendment. United States law specifies a minimum age of 17 for enlistment, as well as for admission to West Point and other U.S. military academies. See 10 U.S.C. §§505(a), 4346(a) (1994).

32 The Report of the working group on its third (1997) session is UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/97.

33 CHR Res. 1997/31 (Apr. 11). The Commission also adopted several other resolutions on the subject, including resolutions dealing with the possible establishment of a permanent forum in the United Nations system, the Working Group on indigenous populations and the International Decade for the World’s Indigenous People. CHR Res. 1997/30 (Apr. 11) and 1997/32 (Apr. 11), respectively. A Commission decision named Erica-Irene Daes as a Sub-Commission special rapporteur on indigenous land rights and authorized her to prepare a working paper on the subject. CHR Dec. 1997/114 (Apr. 11).

34 The working group’s Report on its second (1996) session is UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/102.

35 UN GAOR, 41st Sess., Supp. No. 53, at 178, UN Doc. A/41/53 (1986). The resolution provides agreed guidelines for setting new human rights standards.

36 Report of the working group on its first (1995) session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/84, at 7.

37 CHR Res. 1997/70 (Apr. 16).

38 The Report of the working group on its twelfth (1997) session is UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/92.

39 See CHR Res. 1997/27 (Apr. 11) (right to freedom of opinion and expression); 1997/61 (Apr. 16) (extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions); 1997/62 (Apr. 16) (Cuba).

40 CHR Res. 1997/24 (Apr. 11).

41 The Report of the working group on its fifth (1996) session is UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/33.

42 CHR Dec. 1997/103 (Apr. 3).

45 CHR Res. 1997/10 (Apr. 3).

44 CHR Res. 1997/72 (Apr. 16).

45 Explanation of position (on file with author). Earlier, in a speech delivered on the subject, the United States stated that it was encouraged that the working group on development created by the previous year’s resolution had determined that its major thrust would be the development of balanced proposals for “concrete and practical” measures in the context of the integrated and multidimensional concept of development. See UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/22 for the Report of the working group on its first (1996) session. This year’s Cuban resolution on debt, however, directed that the working group pay special attention to the social repercussions of unilateral coercive measures and foreign debt. CHR Res. 1997/10, supra note 43.

46 CHR Res. 1997/9 (Apr. 3).

47 See the explanations of vote by Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States, reported in CHR Press Release HR/CN/788 (Apr. 7, 1997). The report of the special rapporteur received considerable negative comment from states because of her failure to investigate allegations carefully and to give governments a chance to answer allegations before printing them in her report. See the explanations of vote by Japan and the Philippines. Id.

48 Id. The other resolution subjected to a vote under this agenda item was the annual Cuban resolution critical of unilateral coercive measures against developing countries (transparently, the U.S. embargo against Cuba). CHR Res. 1997/7 (Apr. 3), adopted by a vote of 37–8-7.

49 CHR Res. 1997/8 (Apr. 3).

50 See CHR Dec. 1997/120 (Apr. 16).

51 See UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/l/Add.I for a list of thematic and country-specific procedures of the Commission.

52 CHR Res. 1997/23 (Apr. 11), and CHR Res. 1997/44 (Apr. 11).

53 CHR Res. 1997/50 (Apr. 15).

54 After the negotiations were completed, Cuba also proposed a last-minute amendment to the resolution that would have further undermined the ability of the working group to examine cases of detention where a sentence has been arbitrarily imposed. Cuba withdrew its amendment after France offered subamendments to the Cuban amendment that would have strengthened the mandate of the working group. See Report, supra note 1, at 322.

55 See 1996 Report of the Working Group on arbitrary detention, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/4, at 25.

56 The Universal Declaration states in Articles 10–11 that “[e]veryone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal”; that “[e]veryone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence’’; and that “ [n] o one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.” GA Res. 217A (III), UN Doc. A/810, at 71 (1948).

57 CHR Res. 1997/65 (Apr. 16), 1997/77 (Apr. 18), 1997/64 (Apr. 16), 1997/66 (Apr. 16) (special representative), 1997/59 (Apr. 15), 1997/57 (Apr. 15), 1997/58 (Apr. 15), 1997/67 (Apr. 16).

58 CHR Res. 1997/62 (Apr. 16), 1997/60 (Apr. 16), 1997/54 (Apr. 15) (special representative).

59 CHR Res. 1997/53 (Apr. 15).

60 CHR Press Release HR/CN/804 (Apr. 16); Report, supra note 1, at 349–50.

61 CHR Res. 1997/63 (Apr. 16).

62 CHR Res. 1997/49 (Apr. 11) (special representative), 1997/52 (Apr. 15), 1997/47 (Apr. 11).

63 CHR Res. 1997/51 (Apr. 15). The Commission expressed its appreciation for the work of independent expert Monica Pinto, who resigned in March 1997.

64 Report, supra note 1, at 363–64.

65 In 1990 the no-action motion carried by 17–15–11; in 1992, by 27–15–10; in 1993, by 22–17–12; in 1994, by 20–16–17; in 1996, by 27–20–6; and in 1997, by 27–17–9. In 1995 the no-action motion was defeated by a vote of 22–22–9, but the resolution ultimately failed by a vote of 20–21–12. No China resolution was submitted in 1991.

66 See Defying Threat, Denmark to Press China on Rights, Int’l Herald Trib., Apr. 8, 1997, at 1; and Top Beijing Envoy Accuses West of Hostility in UN Censure Bid, Int’l Herald Trib., Apr. 17, 1997, at 4; China Warns U.S. on Human Rights Resolution, Wash. Post, Apr. 11, 1997, at A30.

67 In 1997 only 15 countries cosponsored the resolution, compared to 26 countries in 1996. The text of the unsuccessful 1997 resolution is contained in the Report, supra note 1, at 355.

68 CHR Press Release HR/CN/804 (Apr. 16, 1997).

69 The annual Middle East resolutions critical of Israel were as follows: (1) a Syrian resolution on human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (CHR Res. 1997/2 (Mar. 26)), adopted by 26–1-23; (2) an Indonesian resolution on human rights in the occupied territories, including Palestine (CHR Res. 1997/1 (Mar. 26)), adopted by 25–1-23; (3) an Egyptian text on the situation in occupied Palestine (CHR Res. 1997/4 (Mar. 26)), adopted by 28–1-21; (4) another Egyptian text on the situation of human rights in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa (CHR Res. 1997/55 (Apr. 15)), adopted by 51–1-1; and (5) a European Union text on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories (CHR Res. 1997/3 (Mar. 26)), adopted by 47–1-2.

70 CHR Res. 1997/6 (Mar. 26).

71 See CHR Press Release HR/CN/760 (Mar. 13, 1997).

72 Letter from U.S. Deputy ecosoc Representative to ecosoc President (July 18, 1997) (on file with author).

73 CHR Press Release HR/CN/807 (Apr. 21, 1997).

74 The reference was contained in extracts from a report received from the Israeli Government on anti-Semitic trends around the world. See Report of the special rapporteur, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/71, at 11–12.

75 CHR Dec. 1997/125 (Apr. 18).

76 See Crook, 51st Session, supra note 5, at 136–37.

77 CHR Res. 1997/22 (Apr. 11).

78 CHR Res. 1997/74 (Apr. 18).

79 CHR Press Release HR/CN/807 (Apr. 21, 1997).

80 Closing remarks of Chairman Somol (1997) (on file with author).

81 The first session of the Commission took place in Lake Success, New York, from January 27 to February 10, 1947. See Report of the Commission on Human Rights on its first session, UN Doc. E/259 (1947).