UN General Assembly
2002

bribes offered abroad. There are even some Member States that protect corrupt leaders under the guise of banking secrecy. The United Nations should forbid all such acts and prevent the granting of amnesty, asylum and travel visas to those who seek to evade justice. The protection of human rights may be weakened without multilateral protection, monitoring and sanctions mechanisms. Costa Rica advocates the creation of a new generation of human rights mechanisms to provide greater protection to all individuals. This effort has already born its first fruit in the form of a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. That legal instrument, recently adopted by the Economic and Social Council, will be submitted to the General Assembly for consideration in the next few days. I urge all States actively to support the draft as a sign of their unequivocal commitment to human rights and to the primacy of the dignity and integrity of all human beings. We welcome the recent entry into force of the