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SPEECH
BY DR. JUAN MÉNDEZ, PRESIDENT
OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AT
THE INAUGURATION OF THE 114th REGULAR SESSION February 25, 2002 Mr.
Chairman of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States;
Mr. Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs of the OAS; distinguished
permanent representatives; distinguished observers; ladies and gentlemen: I
am delighted to be attending this formal opening ceremony of the 114th
regular session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in the
company of the IACHR’s First Vice-President, Ms. Marta Altolaguirre; its
Second Vice-President, Dr. José Zalaquett; Commissioners Dr. Robert
Goldman, Dr. Julio Prado Vallejo, and Dr. Clare Kamau Roberts; the
Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Dr. Santiago Canton; and the Executive
Secretariat’s professional staff. As
you already know, this is the first period of sessions for Commissioners
José Zalaquett and Clare Kamau Roberts, who were elected to the IACHR at
the OAS General Assembly in Costa Rica last year. I would like to extend a
public welcome to our new commissioners, who are professionals with the
highest moral authority and renowned experience in the field of human
rights. It is an honor for the OAS and the IACHR to have the support of
such distinguished personalities.
As the Permanent Council also knows, on February 13 of this year,
Dr. Diego García-Sayán, who was also elected to the IACHR at the
Organization’s General Assembly last year, has resigned from the
Commission after being appointed to serve as Peru’s Minister of Foreign
Affairs. The Commission understands the reasons for his resignation but
nonetheless regrets it, since it denies it the presence among its members
of a person with Dr. García-Sayán’s professional record and commitment
to the inter-American human rights system. We wish Dr. García-Sayán
every success in his important duties as Peru’s Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
We also note that the Secretary General has already sent
information about the vacancy, with a view toward securing candidates to
fill it. We would like to use this occasion to state once again that we
are very keen to see the IACHR with a full complement of members at the
earliest possible juncture. During
this session, the Commission will hold 56 hearings on a range of matters
including pending cases, precautionary measures, friendly settlements, and
the general human rights situation in several member states. It will also
adopt decisions on the following matters: individual cases and petitions,
including the adoption of reports on admissibility, inadmissibility, and
merits, and their publication; the possible referral of cases to the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights; future on-site visits; and the work
of its rapporteurs who oversee different specific issues. Comments
on the human rights situation in the region
In
recent years, the human rights situation in the hemisphere has made
progress with respect to some human rights while taking major steps
backward with regard to others.
Its progress can be seen in the democratic regimes that prevail in
the hemisphere, which — unlike the dictatorships that held sway over a
sizable portion of the region during the 1970s and 1980s — do not commit
systematic, politically motivated violations of the right to life, the
right to personal liberty, the right to humane treatment, and the right of
free expression. Nevertheless, authoritarian regimes still arise — the
one headed by Fujimori and Montesinos in Peru, for example, now happily
relegated to the past. Even though they pay more attention to appearances,
these are still essentially a kind of dictatorship not very different from
traditional ones. I
also believe progress has been made in that we now have a more organized
civil society; although there is still a long way to go, people have a
better understanding of their rights; and there has been an evolution in
international human rights law, which continues to pursue its mission of
working for justice when it has been denied by domestic laws. In
contrast with these steps forward, some long-standing problems remain: the
fact that some human rights violations still go unpunished (torture and
extrajudicial killings, for example);
the inadequate development of the judiciary in most of the
region’s countries, and the attacks on judicial independence and
impartiality that take place in certain nations; inhuman detention
conditions in prisons; and a mentality of repression, often supported by
public opinion, that advocates a hard-line approach as the way to combat
the region’s increasing crime levels, which thereby fails to adequately
address the causes of that phenomenon and, instead, helps make it worse. Economic,
social, and cultural rights are also clearly deteriorating. I am talking
about the right to work, to health, to education, to proper sustenance, to
decent housing, and to social security: imperfectly observed rights that
affect the entire population of the hemisphere. A very large and
representative segment of our hemisphere faces extreme poverty, which
constitutes a generalized violation of every human right. The poor, whose
numbers increase with every passing day, cannot lead decent lives in
freedom from fear. They barely survive in an existence where their most
basic human rights, if they are present at all, stand on extremely shaky
ground.
In the IACHR we believe that the regime of liberties implied by
democracy must be upheld, by respecting not only civil and political
rights, but also rights of an economic, social, and cultural nature. That
would prevent, inter alia,
authoritarian temptations arising under the mantle of false populism and,
worse of all, the possible return of the rights-violating military
dictatorships that it cost us so many lives, so many disappearances, and
so much torture to overthrow.
As for the problems currently affecting the region, the Commission
is very concerned and is closely watching to see how developments unfold
in Colombia after President Andrés Pastrana announced, on February 20,
that he was ending the ongoing peace talks for settling the armed conflict
that has affected that country for so many years. Although we recognize
that his decision was preceded by provocation in the form of kidnappings
and attacks on civilian airliners, we hope that a way to rekindle the
peace process can be found. We hope so because our everyday experience in
monitoring Colombian affairs convinces us that the rights of the Colombian
people will enjoy better protection once an end is brought to the conflict
that has cost so many human lives and so much destruction. Meanwhile, the
Commission calls on all the parties involved in the conflict to respect
the applicable provisions of international humanitarian and human rights
law.
Another major challenge facing the region was set by the September
11 terrorist attack in the United States, which the Commission has
denounced and condemned most emphatically. The Commission places great
importance on the regional initiatives for tackling terrorism that have
taken shape within the OAS. As we have already said, we are ready and
willing to collaborate with the Permanent Council on drawing up
instruments that, in addition to offering effective antiterrorism tools,
acknowledge the need to uphold universal human rights standards. Within
the Commission, we have made particular efforts in this regard. In order
to better illustrate our deliberations and any future agreements on the
matter, in the coming days we will be holding a general hearing, with
speeches from expert guests. This is part of an ongoing study that will be
published as soon as it is finished. The study’s starting point is that
fighting terrorism and terrorists is not, in principle, incompatible with
upholding human rights in democratic states that observe the rule of law. The Commission
also continues to pay particular attention to the human rights situation
in Cuba and Haiti. In Cuba, because of the absence of democracy in that
country and the recurring violations of civil and political rights that
take place there, the Commission is constantly monitoring the situation
and reports on it regularly in its Annual Reports to the OAS General
Assembly. With respect to Haiti, in addition to the permanent monitoring
of the human rights situation there that it conducts as part of its
duties, the IACHR has been paying close attention to developments
following the armed attack on the National Palace in Port-au-Prince on
December 17, 2001, in which five people died and a number of others were
wounded. According to different sources, since then other violent attacks
have taken place, affecting the members of opposition political parties
and their property as well as journalists and television and radio
stations. Specific
activities and miscellaneous issues since the last session Since
closing its 113th regular session on October 17, 2001, the Commission has
carried out a range of activities in pursuit of its mandate. I will now
report on some of those activities and on other aspects related to the
IACHR’s work. On
December 7 to 13, 2001, the Commission conducted an on-site visit to the
Republic of Colombia, at the invitation of that country’s government,
with the purpose of observing the prevailing human rights situation there.
During its visit the IACHR met with representatives of all three branches
of government, including the nation’s president, Dr. Andrés Pastrana
Arango; different representatives of civil society; and international
organizations, including the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR, and the International Committee of
the Red Cross. It also received information and heard statements regarding
the situation in every region of the country. The Commission’s plenary
met with presidential candidates Luis Eduardo Garzón, Horacio Serpa Uribe,
and Alvaro Uribe Vélez. The Commission and its staff split up into
working teams to visit Medellín and Barrancabermeja. The Commission is
currently analyzing the information gathered during the visit with a view
toward issuing a report on the human rights situation in Colombia.
On February 7 of this year, in Mexico, Gen. José Francisco
Gallardo Rodríguez was released. In a report on the merits of this case
adopted in 1996, the Commission ruled that “the
detention and continuous submission of General José Francisco Gallardo to
16 preliminary inquiries and 8 criminal cases without a reasonable and
justifiable purpose[HJR1] ”
meant that several articles of the American Convention had been violated.
The IACHR therefore recommended that the Mexican State should take a
series of measures, including releasing Gen. Gallardo. His release now
constitutes an extremely positive development on the part of the Mexican
State and a concrete demonstration of that government’s commitment
toward increased protection for human rights. The IACHR believes that all
measures taken in compliance with its recommendations help strengthen the
inter-American human rights system.
Following the period of sessions that concluded four months ago,
the Commission has made declarations regarding two killings of human
rights workers in the hemisphere. On October 19, 2001, in Mexico City, the
lawyer and human rights activist Digna Ochoa was murdered. Dr. Digna
Ochoa’s work had earned her threats and attacks on several occasions, as
a result of which the IACHR and the Inter-American Court had ordered
precautionary and provisional measures, respectively, on her behalf and on
behalf of several other individuals employed at Mexico’s Miguel Agustín
Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH). With the approval of the Mexican
government, the Commission has appointed an expert who has since traveled
to Mexico City to help with the preliminary investigation into the killing
of this prominent human rights worker. Similarly, in Colombia, María del
Carmen Flores — a human rights worker, one of the founders of the
Colombian Juridical Foundation, and a representative of Mutatá
municipality — was murdered on Thursday, February 14, 2002. The case Ms.
Flores was working on was the alleged forced disappearance of Alcides
Torres Arias, which is currently pending before the Inter-American
Commission. The IACHR has a hearing on that case on its agenda for the
regular session that begins today, and Ms. Flores was working on
preparations for that hearing.
The IACHR deplores and vehemently condemns these murders. Human
rights defenders assume the crucial task of protecting the rights of
everyone else, and so protecting them is of particular importance.
On January 31, 2002, a delegation from the Commission’s Executive
Secretariat traveled to Peru for a working meeting with state and
petitioners’ representatives regarding recommendations that the IACHR
had made in individual reports on a large number of cases involving forced
disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Between
February 5 and 8 of this year, IACHR Executive Secretary Dr. Santiago
Canton visited the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela at the invitation of
that country’s government. The purpose of his visit was to gather
information on freedom of expression and to carry out a preliminary
assessment prior to the on-site visit that the Commission is planning to
make during the first half of May 2002 under an invitation extended by
President Hugo Chávez Frías in September 1999. Between
February 11 and 13 of this year, Ms. Marta Altolaguirre, the
Commission’s First Vice-President and Special Rapporteur on the Rights
of Women, made a two-day visit to Ciudad Juárez and Mexico City, at the
invitation of the government of President Vicente Fox, and in response to
expressions of concern voiced by certain segments of civil society. The
purpose of the visit was to investigate a disturbing number of violent
murders of women in Ciudad Juárez. The information she received will be
closely studied by the Rapporteur’s office, with a view toward drawing
up a report for consideration and future publication by the plenary of the
IACHR. Without prejudice to that, the Rapporteur offered a few initial
thoughts, with special reference to the ongoing violence against women in
Ciudad Juárez, in a press release dated February 13, 2002. On
February 18 of this year, a delegation from the IACHR’s Executive
Secretariat traveled to Haiti to prepare for the Commission’s on-site
visit there in accordance with the Permanent Council’s discussions on
the prevailing situation in that country. Since
the end of its 113th session in October 2001, the Commission has received
274 petitions alleging violations of human rights in different countries
around the hemisphere. Over the same period, processing of 74 petitions
began and, with respect to another 228 petitions, the submissions have
either been rejected for regulatory reasons or additional information has
been requested. These figures speak eloquently of the pre-processing
control work carried out by the Commission. Since
its last meeting, the Commission has referred the following cases to the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights: on December 4, 2001, case 12.034,
Carlos Torres Benvenuto et al.
vs. the Republic of Peru; on January 9, 2002, case 11.043, Maritza Urrutia vs. the
Republic of Guatemala; and February 5, 2002, case 11.016, Emilio
Moisés and Rafael Samuel Gómez Paquiyauri vs. the Republic of Peru. Over
that same period, the Commission has also sent the Court requests for
provisional measures in several ongoing cases. Progress
and challenges in the inter-American system’s protection of human rights
The inter-American human rights system has made notable progress
over recent years. Prior to 1948 there were no regional human rights
treaties nor any inter-American bodies charged with upholding those
rights. That year saw the enactment of the American Declaration of the
Rights and Duties of Man and, over the following fifty years, a whole
string of human rights treaties have been adopted: the American Convention
on Human Rights and its two additional protocols, the Inter-American
Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, the Inter-American Convention on
the Forced Disappearance of Persons, the Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (the
Convention of Belém do Pará), and the Inter-American Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Persons with
Disabilities.
So, even though not all the hemisphere’s states have ratified
each and every one of these instruments, recent years have nonetheless
seen significant progress in the establishment of inter-American standards
for the protection of human rights. With the next step — the creation
and consolidation of inter-American bodies that have jurisdiction when
nations fail to observe the obligations assumed by ratifying those
instruments — progress has been slower. Today, however, in spite of
resistance and the different hurdles that have affected their development,
both the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court have
settled more firmly into their roles and they enjoy the legitimacy and
credibility built up over years of serious, independent, and impartial
work on behalf of the human rights of our hemisphere’s men and women.
The next essential steps will be, one, to provide the system with
the economic and human resources it needs to operate correctly, and two,
to design a juridical and political mechanism that will enforce the
system’s principle of collective guarantees, thus ensuring that the
decisions of the Inter-American Commission and the judgments of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights are abided by in full. The
IACHR can now see a trend toward collaborating with the system on the part
of several democratic states, which is reflected in the large number of
cases that are undergoing friendly settlement proceedings. We are also
pleased to note several recent examples of compliance with the
Commission’s recommendations and the Court’s judgments. At the same
time, however, some states continue to see their human rights obligations
as optional or noncompulsory. In contrast, we in the IACHR hold that by
signing international instruments, states acquire solemn commitments than
can only be waived under certain very strict conditions
The challenge is thus to establish political priorities and to set
up the internal legislative, judicial, and other mechanisms needed to
ensure due national compliance with the decisions of the system’s
organs. This of course means going much further than observing the
monetary components of the Commission’s recommendations and the
Court’s judgments. One key element in making amends, for both individual
cases and for the human rights situation in general, is that the planners
and perpetrators of the gravest human rights violations must be
investigated, brought to justice, and punished. Another very important
element is bringing domestic laws into line with the American Convention,
which is a frequent component in the Commission’s recommendations and
the Inter-American Court’s judgments. In essence, we urge the
judiciaries of all our nations to set about the urgent task of
incorporating international human rights standards into domestic law.
The IACHR’s budget
As you already know, one of the basic problems facing the
inter-American human rights bodies is the limited budgetary resources they
have for discharging their duties. In spite of the speeches made
describing that need and the calls for greater funding for the Commission
and the Inter-American Court made by the heads of state and government of
the OAS member nations — at the last Summit of the Americas, for example
— and by the foreign ministers of the Organization’s member states at
recent General Assemblies, to date the Commission has received no increase
in its funding.
The sad fact of the matter is that the Commission’s overall
budget for the current financial year — a total of USD $3.1 million —
represents 4.1% of the Organization’s total budget. Approximately
two-thirds of the Commission’s funding is spent on staff salaries and
benefits. The remainder barely covers the costs of preparing and holding
two regular sessions and one special session, publishing an annual report,
covering performance contract fees, and paying for supplies and similar
items. As a result, on-site visits, dealings with the Inter-American
Court, and the Commission’s other activities in promoting and protecting
human rights have to be financed with voluntary contributions from member
states and assistance from observer nations.
I must emphasize and express our gratitude for the voluntary
contributions, regular and occasional alike, that a number of states make
to the Commission. Since January 2001 we have received voluntary
contributions from the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, for which we are
grateful. We have also received assistance for certain specific projects
from Denmark, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, and the Inter-American
Development Bank, of which we are equally appreciative. The
fact that the Commission has to depend on the generous voluntary
contributions of member states and the assistance provided by European
countries to fund essential elements of its mandate should be a cause of
concern for the Organization’s members.
An increase in the material and human resources of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is essential. Priority must be
given to an analysis of the long-term impact on our countries of expanding
the scope of the IACHR’s work through increasing the funds the
Commission needs to fully serve those individuals that come before it in
search of justice. Development, democracy, and respect for human rights go
hand-in-hand. As has been brilliantly shown by Nobel Economics Prize
Winner Amartya Sen, more respect for human rights means more development
and greater balance and sustainability within that development. Strictly,
it would be more than economic development and would be full “human
development.” That is why we must not wait for full development before
beginning to respect human rights. The Commission’s work in promoting
and protecting human rights offers more than just an international forum
for ensuring justice is done in specific cases; it also represents, in the
long term, a major contribution to our countries’ development, and that
is, undoubtedly, a common priority.
On behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, I
respectfully urge the distinguished members of the Permanent Council to
increase the human and financial resources that the Commission needs in
order to pursue the mandate entrusted to it by the member states.
Finally, my colleagues at the Commission and I would like to repeat
our thanks to the OAS Secretary General, César Gaviria, for his
unwavering support for the Commission’s work and his unlimited respect
for the IACHR’s independence and autonomy. Similarly, we would like to
publicly express our thanks and appreciation of the IACHR’s Executive
Secretary, Dr. Santiago Canton, and the Commission’s professional and
administrative staff, for their tireless efforts and dedication in their
work on behalf of the region’s people.
Thank you very much. [HJR1] www.cidh.org/annualrep/96eng/96ech3z6.htm
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