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IN THE NEWS 2004 Experts:
Revamp rights meets’ format By
Bonnie James Published: March 4 -5 2004 Gulf Times THE
UN has been urged to do a drastic evaluation of the practice of holding regional
workshops on the promotion and protection of human rights as the ‘process has
become very old’. “This
meeting is a fossil from the 50s and 60s of the UN,” Ravi Nair executive
director, South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) told Gulf Times
yesterday. Nair
was speaking on the sidelines of the 12th workshop on Regional Co-operation for
the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Asian-Pacific Region being
held here. The
noted human rights activist stated that the event lacked partnership with the
civil society, a vital component to achieve the objectives. “Governments
in the region, with some honourable exceptions, have seen that these workshops
have remained static without incremental progress,” stated Nair. Nair
was of the view that this was an attempt to negate the history of anti-colonial
struggle in the region. “The stands of the governments at this meeting does
not reflect the realities back home,” observed Nair. In
his opinion, many of the diplomats attending the workshop are ‘more
regressive’ as they are not subject to parliamentary scrutiny back home. “India,
Pakistan and Australia have adopted extremely regressive positions,” he
maintained while sharing his critical observations on the exercise. Countries
in the region have ratified only one (The Rights of the Child) of the six core
UN conventions on human rights, Nair said referring to the slow progress on the
front. Kieren
Fitzpatrick, director of the Asia Pacific Forum (APF) of National Human Rights
Institutions, urged countries in the region that have not established National
Human Rights Commissions to do the same and provide ideal working environments. “These
bodies should be independent of the state, civil society, parliament and
judiciary and be allowed to function without political compromises,” he told
Gulf Times. Fitzpatrick
was of the view that these national commissions have a big responsibility given
the fact that the UN is ‘completely inaccessible to 99% of the global
population’. “Given
the geographical limitations it is impossible for the people to approach the UN
directly to complain about human rights violations,” he clarified. All
the UN treaties are also completely irrelevant for a majority of countries for
the same reason. “So, it is the duty of the national commissions to turn
rhetoric into reality,” he maintained. The
senior APF official also stressed on the possibility of ‘synthesising’
international human rights law with Islamic law for the effective protection of
human rights in the countries concerned. Ahmad
Zia Langari, commissioner of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission,
said the forum was making satisfactory progress after being set up in June 2002. “Though
we cannot expect a revolution overnight after emerging from the shadows of 23
years of human rights violations, there is remarkable change,” Langari
maintained. The
Commission has set up seven regional offices apart from the headquarters in
Kabul. “We are having close ties with various departments and trying to
include human rights education in the curricula,” the official added. The
workshop, which has brought together 40 countries from the region as well as
non-governmental organisations, will conclude today. The
event has been organised by the Qatar government in association with the Office
of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). |
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