From: "Human Rights Coordinator" <hrcoord%IGC.ORG@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Subject:      UN SUBCOMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS EXAMINES IMPUNITY
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 22:02:49 GMT

/* Written 12:10 am  Aug 11, 1992 by newsdesk in
cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: UNITED NATIONS: SUBCOMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS EXAMINES
IMPUNITY

an inter press service feature

by juan gasparini

geneva, aug 8 (ips) -- the use of presidential pardons and amnesty
laws to cover up massive repression in many third world countries
is one of the thorny issues on the agenda, as the united nations
subcommission on human rights meets in geneva.

the theme has sparked passions, due to the number of countries
involved and the many victims affected.

fierce debates have errupted between representatives from
implicated governments and non-governmental organisations (ngos)
representing human rights and victims groups.

in 1991, the subcommission assigned two of its experts, louis
joinet, from france, and hakji guisse, of senegal, to prepare ''a
study of amnesty laws and the role they play in protecting and
promoting human rights.''

the idea for the study had been suggested by various ngos working
out of the united nations geneva site, including the international
commission, pax christi, the international federation for human
rights and the american association of jurists.

the subcommission specified that joinet and guisse include
politcal crimes and atrocities in their study.

amongst these types of crimes, they specified arbitrary
detentions, tortures, disappearances, rapes and executions, and
crimes committed against children, the elderly and handicapped.

joiner and guisse were also told to consider economic crimes
-- land appropriations, official corruption and unfair labor
practices -- as well as drug trafficking, as human rights
violations.

these parameters give joinet and guisse considerable influence
over the eventual content of a criminal code of human rights
violations, and the creation of an international tribunal, with
binding jurisdiction, to rule on and hear cases of human rights
abuses.

the final report that joinet and guisse have compiled for their 24
colleagues on the subcommission remains secret.

the conclusions and recommendations of the study will be released
in the coming days, when they are presented at the 44th session of
the subcommission, scheduled to conclude during the second week of
september. (more/ips)
----

united nations: subcommission (2)

neverthess, sources say that the report's title has been changed
and strengthened to ''a study of the impunity of authors of human
rights violations.''

according to meetings between joinet, guisse and ngos, two
conflictive points have prevented a clear consensus on conclusions
and recommendations.

the first point under contention involves the question of
retroactivity -- whether any subsequent u.n. conventions or
tribunals will be able to persue human rights abuses already
absolved by amnesty laws and presidential pardons.

this point would affect many latin american, asian and african
countries, in addition to european countries, like france, which
are faced with pending cases of human rights abuses committed by
the german nazi and eastern european communist regimes.

the second point under contention is the extent and type of
reparations allowed to address human rights abuses.

for some, the reparations must include compensation for both the
victims and their families, and the release of documents
classified or altered to protect the guilty parties. this is
considered unacceptable by many governments.

for the ngos, initiatives relating to repartations must be
separated from judicial and legal measures.

the ngos reject the current trend of absolving major human rights
abuses and abusers via economic reparations that benefit only a
minority of the victims.

the majority of the victims, they claim, have been tortured,
killed and abused without any concern over the psychological and
physical costs for the survivors, family and neighbours.

in an attempt to accomodate opposing positions, 35 ngos have
recieved a guarantee that a declaration synthesising their
positions will be added as an amendment to joinet and guisse's
report.

still, the ngos' position will not be an integral part of the
study and so they have released a document in geneva outlining
their stance.

the text states that ''crimes against humanity and serious human
rights violations eliminate any possiblity of human coexistence,
and as consequence, any chance of democratic solutions to social
conflicts.'' (more/ips)
----

united nations: subcommission (3)

the document goes on to say that serious crimes committed in the
past must be sanctioned, as they can never be errased by time and
''international law demands the punishment of their authors.''

''impunity benefits the authors'' of human rights abuses,
encourages their repetition and contributes to ''the persistence
of state terrorism.''

to support their arguments, the ngos cite the french court that
tried and condemned nazi war criminal klaus barbie.

the court stated that a crime against humanity ''is above all, an
attack on fundamental human rights: the right to equal treatment
before the law, regardless of race, nationality or social
standing, and the freedom to hold and express individual religious
and political beliefs.''

moreover, ''this type of crime is not meant just to cause death or
injury, but to also deliberately and gratuitously violate the
dignity of the victim.''

the ngos agree with the court's judgement and feel that the same
criteria used to try barbie, is valid against human rights abusers
from other eras and in other latitudes.
(end/ips/trd/so/jg/ica/eli/92)
----

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