The Work of Human Rights Watch

In July, Human Rights Watch succeeded in obtaining consultative status at the United Nations. Resistance from abusive governments had previously blocked our application, and on this occasion China and Cuba spoke against the petition. On July 30, however, in a departure from established procedure, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) decided on the status issue for Human Rights Watch with a vote rather than by consensus; the vote was 30 in favor and 3 against, with 13 abstentions. Consultative status enables a nongovernmental organization to attend working sessions of U.N. bodies and to lobby national delegations more effectively.

We used our consultative status during the General Assembly, which began in New York in late September, to focus in particular on the creation of a High Commissioner for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch representatives met with U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to discuss the commissioner post. We developed a joint proposal for the commissioner's role, function and authority with five other international human rights organizations and distributed it widely within the U.N. And through the regional divisions of Human Rights Watch we kept in contact with our colleague organizations in the various regions to urge them to follow up on this issue with their governments, where possible. As of mid-November, it was unclear whether the General Assembly would agree on the post before year's end.

Human Rights Watch also followed closely the progress of the U.N.'s war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia. During thelong search for a chief prosecutor, when the Security Council was repeatedly deadlocked on the appointment, Human Rights Watch successfully opposed one unqualified candidate and suggested a number of distinguished advocates of human rights as possible alternatives. We considered it essential that the tribunal be headed by a prosecutor of exceptional moral stature and proven commitment to accountability. The Security Council selected Ramón Escovar Salom, the incumbent Prosecutor General of Venezuela, whose record in that post had been strong on rhetoric but less so on substance. That mixed record placed a burden on Mr. Escovar to show his commitment to the tribunal's urgent and historic mission. It was therefore with concern that Human Rights Watch learned that the new prosecutor would not even be developing his staff for the tribunal until after the New Year.

The Women's Rights Project, which in February called on the U.N. to prosecute rape and forced pregnancy as war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, also participated in the Vienna conference and there engaged in developing such proposals as the one for the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, which was due to be taken up by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in early 1994. In October, representatives of the Women's Rights Project were invited, by the U.N.'s Deparatment for the Advancement of Women, to participate in an expert group meeting on measures to eradicate violence against women.