United Nations Commission on Human Rights
58th Session

item 11 - Civil and Political Rights

(Read by Ms Daria Cave Secretary General of the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom)
Joint statement

Mr. President, I speak on behalf of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, International Peace Bureau, International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations, Association of World Citizens, and World Young Women's Christian Association, all in consultative status with ECOSOC.

As NGOs committed to the principles of the UN Charter, we are united in unequivocally condemning and rejecting terrorism in all its forms. However, in the name of fighting terrorism, we observe that human rights are also put at risk. Regrettably, we note that actions taken by the UN Security Council give rise to serious questions regarding the respect for human rights. The Security Council was immediately convened after 11 September to enact stringent measures with a rigorous reporting mechanism to be applied by all countries. In November 2001, the Security Council instituted measures pertaining to the situation in Afghanistan to be applicable world-wide to a loosely defined category of individuals and entities accused of association with Osama bin Laden. The assets of a major Somali bank and business association, Al Barakat, were frozen. A range of persons, connected to Al Barakat, living in different countries and with various citizenship were named, had their assets frozen. They were blocked from conducting any economic activity, including receiving a salary at a bank account. These measures against individuals included a parliamentary candidate for the governing Social Democratic Party in Sweden. No evidence has been presented to substantiate the accusations. This has been accepted by the Security Council Sanctions Committee so far. It is a most serious matter as the Security Council by this action has set aside the core principles of due process that are the heart of the human rights concept and of democratic society. We consider it a matter of urgency that the Security Council establish clear rules under which the names of individuals can be placed on sanctions lists, and that a transparent mechanism for appeal and clear guidelines for review be established. We consider it urgent also that the conditions needed for removal from the lists be clearly specified. It is fundamental that the basic due-process rights of these and all individuals are guaranteed, including the right of equality before the law. The Security Council, one of the main organs of the United Nations, must abide by the core human rights principles contained in the International Bill of Human Rights. We wish to express our high appreciation for the repeated statements by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, on the dangers encountered for human rights after 11 September. We strongly agree with the statement by the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, that there should be no trade-off between effective action against terrorism and the protection of human rights. The world needs a strong and democratic United Nations. Its credibility must not be allowed to be placed at risk by any of its bodies not respecting the organization's most elementary agreed-to human rights standards. We call on this Commission to act accordingly.

Text of Letter sent to each of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council with copies to those indicated at the end of the text:

Excellency, The violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel is continuing unabated despite the two recent resolutions adopted by consensus by the Security Council. The extraordinary session of the Security Council on 1 April, also called on Israel to withdraw its troops and declare an immediate cease-fire. This war against the Palestinian people is being waged at all levels to humiliate and oppress them in their own homeland. This naked aggression goes from stripping ordinary citizens in house-to-house search to confining the elected leader of the Palestinians to a tiny part of his headquarters in Ramallah, virtually reducing him to being a prisoner and leaving Palestine without a legitimate leadership. Israel has declared war on the Palestinian Authority and is moving toward eliminating the Palestinian people. It is shocking to note the conspiracy of silence by the world's leaders except for a few progressive voices of the international community, just as happened in the genocide in Rwanda, the humanitarian disaster in Somalia and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. The Palestinian people at this time have no redress except to continue to resist the oppression of occupation by the means available to them. Under these extreme conditions it is not surprising that they use such means as suicide attacks. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pointed out on 2 April 2002, the parties must come out of the logic of war and move toward the logic of peace. At this juncture, it should be remembered that the rules of the international humanitarian and human rights laws continue to apply and that they have been seriously violated by Israel throughout the occupation and now particularly since its military operations against the Palestinians began. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, having worked for many years for a just and peaceful solution of the Israel/Palestine conflict, urges the Security Council to take immediate measures 1. To take immediate steps to provide effective protection of the Palestinians in the occupied territories; 2. To take steps for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops and military equipment from all areas under the Palestinian Authority; 3. To decide to halt all military and economic assistance that allows Israel to continue its occupation of the Palestinian Arab territories; 4. To take immediate action to get both parties to negotiate the establishment of an independent Palestinian State within the pre-1967 borders, side by side with Israel with Jerusalem as the capital of both states. It surely has become clear by now to everyone in the world that peace in the region can be established only on the basis of implementing the relevant United Nations resolutions on ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Arab territories and guaranteeing the Palestinians their right to establish their independent State. As has been said so often by so many: there is no military but only a political solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.



Joint Statement by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, International Peace Bureau, International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations, Association of World Citizens, and World Young Women's Christian Association