United Nations


Briefing to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights



Your Excellency,

Human Rights Watch has the honor to share with you our principal concerns and recommendations related to the upcoming 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

As almost any participant or observer would agree after the difficult session last year, the very credibility and integrity of the CHR are now at stake. It is of the utmost importance that governments ensure that the upcoming review of the working methods of the CHR strengthen this body's most important functions: the protection, promotion and monitoring of human rights. The best way to enhance the Commission's standing will be to make sure that it addresses adequately the most pressing current human rights crises and problems.

We therefore respectfully call to your attention the following issues and recommendations on specific steps the CHR should take.



Human Rights and Counter Terrorism

While governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens in the face of terrorist threats, counter terrorism measures have had a negative impact on human rights in many countries around the world. The Secretary-General has raised his concerns repeatedly, both at the Security Council and at the Commission, saying that there must be no trade-off between human rights and fighting terrorism. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello has pursued the issue actively and, among others, addressed the Counter Terrorism Committee in New York. The General Assembly during its 57th session unanimously passed a resolution, sponsored by Mexico, reaffirming the importance of respecting human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in combating terrorism. During its 59th session, the Commission on Human Rights will be receiving a report from the Secretary-General on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. It will be incumbent on the Commission to take action on this issue.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Commission on Human Rights to adopt a resolution on the protection of human rights in countering terrorism that would:

  • Emphasize the importance of the respect for international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law in combating terrorism.

  • Ask the High Commissioner to continue his leadership role in coordinating and encouraging the work of all relevant U.N. bodies and organs on matters related to terrorism and human rights; to make recommendations on safeguarding human rights in combating terrorism; and to seek, receive and exchange information from all relevant sources, including governments, international and non-governmental organizations for these purposes.

  • Ask the High Commissioner to create a dedicated unit within his office to support this work on human rights and counter terrorism.

  • Request relevant CHR special procedures and the U.N. treaty bodies to monitor counter terrorism measures adopted and implemented by member states.

  • Ask the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism who would examine the effect of counter terrorism measures, law and practices on human rights in countries worldwide; examine the compatibility of these measures, laws and practices with international law, in particular international human rights law; and make specific and timely recommendations to states on safeguarding human rights in the struggle against terrorism.


The Reform of the Commission on Human Rights

The 58th session of the Commission on Human Rights has often been described as the most difficult in recent memory. Among the many contributing factors were the changing nature of the Commission membership and the negative impact of session time cuts on the CHR Special Procedures whose speaking time was reduced to a symbolic minimum. The current review of the CHR needs to address these two issues in particular. At the same time it is important that this issue does not pull the energy and resources of the CHR away from its most essential duties, i.e. monitoring, protection and promotion of human rights.

In recent years, the membership of the Commission has changed significantly, with countries with poor human rights records gaining seats on the CHR and aggressively working toward making the Commission less credible and less relevant.

The Commission should insist that member states of the CHR or governments aspiring to membership of the CHR should meet, as a minimum, the following criteria:

  • ratify the main human rights treaties,

  • fulfill obligations to provide reports on their compliance with conventions already ratified,

  • issue a standing invitation to U.N. investigators, and

  • not have been condemned by the Commission in the recent past.

These requirements should be particularly observed with respect to governments seeking to be members of the CHR Bureau.

With respect to the CHR Special Procedures, Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to ensure that:

  • Each mandate holder be allocated sufficient time for his or her presentation and afforded an opportunity for a meaningful exchange with members during the plenary session of the CHR.

  • A segment should be created at the beginning of each respective CHR agenda item for the presentation and discussion of Special Procedures' reports of up to one hour per procedure, as is the current practice at the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly.

  • At each session there should be regular, focused and systematic deliberations on serious incidents or situations involving a failure or denial of cooperation by Governments with the Commission or its mechanisms.

  • The Commission should request the Office of the High Commissioner to submit annually a country-by-country compilation of information and recommendations from the Special Procedures for the previous twelve months, as well as a list of countries that CHR mechanisms have sought to visit. The report should include information on the implementation of Special Procedures' recommendations and follow up thereto.

  • For country‑specific mandates, the Commission's effectiveness and efficiency might be enhanced by establishing terms exceeding a single year, where appropriate, as is the case with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.


International Standards

Since the last session of the Commission there have been important achievements in the development of new human rights standards. After many years, the Migrant Workers Convention finally came into force in December 2002, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, adopted in draft by the Commission and General Assembly last year, was opened for signature in January 2003.

A number of other important standard setting exercises are currently underway. Good progress is being made by the working group on a draft legally binding instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance. It is important that the Commission continue to give high priority to this initiative and ensure that the momentum is maintained. Further, a draft Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has undergone extensive consultation with governments. This new instrument would significantly strengthen the protection of economic, social and cultural rights by allowing the relevant treaty body to receive complaints and develop jurisprudence on critical economic, social and cultural rights issues.

Human Rights Watch joins with other NGOs in calling on the Commission to move this process into the next stage, by convening an open-ended working group to begin formal negotiations on the draft Optional Protocol.


The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders

Over the past three years, only the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, and Iran have imposed the death penalty on juvenile offenders, and the latter three countries have since repudiated the practice. In 2002, only three juvenile executions were known to have taken place in the world. All were in the U.S. state of Texas. Since 1990, the United States has put eighteen juvenile offenders to death, well over half the worldwide total. Outside the United States, a total of fourteen juvenile offenders were executed during the same period. The execution of juvenile offenders remains legal in twenty-two U.S. states, and seven states have actually carried out such death sentences in the past twenty-six years. Eighty-three juvenile offenders were on death row in fifteen states as of November 2002.

Death is an inhumane punishment, particularly for someone who was a child at the time of his or her crimes. Children are different from adults. They lack the experience, judgment, maturity, and restraint of an adult. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressly forbid capital punishment for offenders who were under the age of eighteen at the time of the offenses of which they were convicted. The prohibition on the execution of juvenile offenders is so widely observed that it has attained the status of a peremptory norm of international law, meaning that it is a binding obligation superior to other law. The United States is a state party to the ICCPR, although it purports to reserve the right to impose capital punishment on juvenile offenders. The U.N. Human Rights Committee has concluded that the U.S. reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty and therefore void as a matter of international law.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to address this issue in an omnibus children's resolution, a resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions, and any resolution on the death penalty. In particular, the CHR should:

  • Condemn the execution of juvenile offenders as a violation of human rights. Resolutions should state clearly that the imposition of the death penalty on persons who were under eighteen years old at the time of their crimes is expressly prohibited under international human rights law.

  • Urge those few countries that retain capital punishment for juvenile offenders to put an immediate end to the practice.


Special Envoy for the Abducted Children in Northern Uganda

Since the mid-1980s, a civil war in Northern Uganda has raged between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group based in northern Uganda, and the Ugandan government, with children being used as soldiers by both sides. The Government of Uganda has recruited children, often forcibly, to serve in the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) and in Local Defense Units. The LRA has abducted an estimated 10,000-16,000 children from Northern Uganda.

The LRA's brutal tactics are notorious. Children abducted by the LRA are forced to rape and slaughter civilians, and abduct other children. Girls as young as twelve are given to rebel commanders as "wives." Children who refuse to follow orders or try to escape are killed, typically by other children. An estimated 7,000 children have managed to escape, while many others have died from disease, maltreatment and war. In early 2002, estimates of the number of children still with the LRA ranged from several hundred to six thousand, but the true number is not known.

The plight of the abducted children in Northern Uganda has been repeatedly condemned by the international community and various initiatives have been taken unsuccessfully to secure the release of the abducted children. After fifteen years, decisive diplomatic action is needed.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to:

  • Request the Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy for the abducted children in Northern Uganda. The envoy should be an individual who is well known internationally and well respected. The envoy should conduct "shuttle diplomacy" between the LRA and the Ugandan government with the aim of securing the release into safety of all those abducted by the LRA as children, and to seek an end to future abductions.

  • Urge governments to provide assistance through voluntary contributions to enable the Special Envoy to carry out his/her mandate.


Human Rights of Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Throughout the world, asylum seekers and refugees have been arbitrarily detained and sometimes subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention. Asylum seekers are often given inadequate access to legal representation and information pertaining to the refugee determination processes. In some situations, governments and inter-governmental agencies fail to adequately ensure the security of asylum seekers and refugees, particularly women and children. The rights of refugees to freedom of association and expression are also sometimes violated.

Asylum seekers and refugees, like all human beings, should not be subject to discrimination and should be treated equally before the law. However, governments have imposed entry policies, asylum determination procedures, and treatment in host countries that are discriminatory against refugees of particular nationalities or ethnicities. Discriminatory status determination procedures raise serious concerns about the rights of rejected asylum seekers, including the risk of their refoulement. Human Rights Watch has documented situations in which police have harassed specific ethnic groups or nationalities of asylum seekers and refugees, even when such individuals have permission to remain in a particular country. Government policies restricting access to social services and income support have curtailed the economic, social and cultural rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution on the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees that:

  • Urges states to end the arbitrary arrest and detention of refugees and asylum seekers, including those rejected.

  • Recognizes that asylum seekers and refugees have a right to be protected from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and calls on all governments to take all measures necessary to prevent such violations.

  • Recognizes the particular vulnerability of refugees and asylum seekers and their right to enjoy equality before the law and the equal protection of the law without discrimination in accordance with Article 26 of the ICCPR.

  • Reiterates that refugees have the right to engage in employment and to education, in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention, and that refugees have rights to freedom of movement, expression and assembly that are subject only to lawful limitations in accordance with the ICCPR.

  • Emphasizes the right of everyone to be free to leave any country, including his or her own as enshrined in Article 12 (2) of the ICCPR, as well as the right to seek and enjoy asylum as stated in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  • Reaffirms the duty of states to ensure the observance of the principle of non-refoulement recognized in Article 33 of the Refugee Convention, Article 7 of the ICCPR, and in Article 3 of the Convention against Torture.


China

Abuses against political dissidents, religious believers, labor activists, alleged "separatists" in Xinjiang and Tibet, and North Korean asylum seekers, as well as the political use of psychiatric imprisonment have continued in China.

In March 2002, officials responded to worker protests in several northeastern cities with arrests, attacks on unarmed protestors, and threats to fire workers whose relatives were participating. Hundreds of Falungong members have been imprisoned and thousands sent without judicial review to reeducation-through-labor camps. In addition, the government closed Christian churches, Muslim mosques, and Tibetan monasteries which resisted state control, and arrested clergy and laity who refused to comply with government edicts. Chinese authorities have continued to increase restrictions on the internet that violate rights of free expression. Thousands of internet cafes have been closed; foreign search engines have been shut down or selectively blocked; and dozens of activists arrested or sentenced to terms as long as eleven years.

Implementation of the nationwide "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, justified as a counter-terrorism measure, resulted in summary trials and mass sentencing rallies as officials proceeded with "quick arrest," and "quick proceedings" against ethnic Uighurs. There have been credible reports of the extensive use of torture and the death penalty in the course of the campaign.

The legal rights of defendants are routinely compromised by police officials, prosecutors, and judges. Defendants are denied timely access to counsel and to counsel of their own choosing; defense counsel's ability to gather and present evidence is severely limited in both the pre-trial period and during the trial itself; and although torture is officially prohibited, evidence obtained during torture is permitted at trial. Cases in point are those of Lobsang Dhondrup, reported to already have been executed, and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a prominent Tibetan spiritual leader sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, in connection with a series of bombings.

Despite its obligations as a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, China has forcibly repatriated North Korean asylum seekers although they may be severely punished upon their return home.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution on China that would:

  • Condemn China's grave human rights abuses.

  • Urge the Chinese authorities to revise the Law on Protecting State Secrets to bring the scope of information deemed secret in line with international human rights standards; amend China's constitution so that freedom of belief encompasses manifestation of that belief "in worship, observance, practice and teaching;" rescind the requirement that to be legal, a congregation must be vetted and registered; permit foreign and domestic legal observers to attend all trials as provided for under international human rights standards; revise the Criminal Procedure Code.

  • Urge China to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which it signed in October 1998.

  • Call upon China to honor its refugee commitments.

  • Urge China to cooperate with U.N. human rights mechanisms (which should pay special attention to the situation of Uighurs in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region).


Colombia

Colombia's internal war has intensified over the past year following the collapse of peace talks in February 2002. Paramilitary groups allied within the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia commit massacres, selective killings, and death threats. These groups operate with the tolerance and often support of units within Colombia's military. Attacks against human rights defenders remain common, especially in rural areas. In 2002, sixteen defenders were reported killed, most by groups that were not clearly identified at the time of writing. Those responsible for previous attacks remain largely unpunished and impunity for human rights crimes increased markedly as Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio, who took office in mid-2001, undermined or derailed key ongoing prosecutions. His hostility to human rights investigations was evidenced by his purge of prosecutors and investigators willing to pursue such cases. In April 2002, seven prosecutors with the Attorney General's Human Rights Unit and one member of the Technical Investigations Unit received threats related to their investigations of high-profile cases of human rights violations.

The guerrilla movement, known as FARC-EP, escalated attacks on civilians, among them hundreds of mayors and other local officials. FARC-EP were responsible for numerous killings, including a May 1 attack in which 119 displaced persons, including at least forty-eight children, were killed when a gas cylinder bomb hit a church in which they had sought shelter. Guerrillas also sought to influence politics and raise money via kidnapping.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Deplore Colombia's failure to implement recommendations made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights; call on Colombia to improve its record of implementation; and request the Office of the High Commissioner to submit a report on follow-up.

  • Call for an increase in the number of permanent staff of the Office of the High Commissioner in Colombia.

  • Request the High Commissioner to renegotiate the mandate of his Office in Colombia to include the power to transmit information on cases to international and nongovernmental organizations and the press as appropriate, and to release statements summarizing its investigations on a case-by-case basis.

  • Recommend that U.N. thematic mechanisms visit Colombia to investigate, in particular, the administration of justice, forced disappearances, and violence against indigenous and ethnic groups, in particular Afro-Colombians.


Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

The closed nature of the DPRK and the lack of access by private human rights organizations and U.N. human rights experts is a major obstacle to monitoring abuses and promoting improvements. However, Human Rights Watch has conducted research with North Korean refugees who have fled to China, and now reside in Seoul. We collected testimony on horrific conditions and treatment in labor camps and prisons in the DPRK, which we have corroborated with information from other sources. In a report on North Korean refugees published in November 2002, HRW documented serious abuses including: arbitrary and discriminatory treatment of citizens based on family background; torture and cruel and degrading treatment of detainees in labor training camps, provincial concentration centers, and political prison camps known as administrative camps; and the use of forced labor.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Express grave concern about serious abuses of human rights in the DPRK, and press the DPRK to fully implement the recommendations of the U.N. Human Rights Committee.

  • Call on the DPRK government to provide complete and unrestricted access to the U.N. special rapporteurs and working groups on arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, religious freedom, violence against women, and the independence of judges and lawyers.

  • Call on the DPRK government to provide the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights access to citizens who have left the country and been forcibly returned in order to determine their safety, treatment and welfare.


The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Even though there was significant diplomatic progress towards a peaceful settlement of the DRC war, throughout 2002 hundreds of civilians were killed by different armed groups. In May 2002, RCD-Goma forces killed at least 80 people in Kisangani in response to a short-lived mutiny. In the second half of 2002, armed groups fighting for control over Ituri province and adjacent parts of North Kivu killed hundreds of civilians. Combatants continued to submit women and girls to horrific acts of sexual violence. Government forces and armed groups in eastern DRC continue to recruit and use children as soldiers. In many cases, the fighting was motivated by a brutal quest for natural resources such as timber, diamonds, gold, coltan and other minerals. The war in DRC has sparked a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions. Over two million people are currently displaced in eastern DRC, often without any access to humanitarian aid, and their numbers are rising. Human rights defenders, whether in government or rebel-held areas, were frequently targeted for their peaceful investigative and public activities. The justice system has collapsed.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Condemn war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in eastern DRC, specifically Ituri, North and South Kivu, and call on all warring parties to stop targeting civilians through killings, sexual violence, child recruitment, and other unlawful acts.

  • Urge the U.N. Security Council to ensure that the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), "protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence."

  • Call upon the DRC government to comply fully with its human rights obligations; in particular, to bring perpetrators of abuses to justice, to allow human rights defenders and government critics to speak out freely, to disband the Military Order Court and to reinstate the moratorium on executions.

  • Renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the DRC and provide her with the necessary resources for meaningful interventions.

  • Strengthen the Field Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the DRC.

  • Call upon the DRC government and all Congolese and foreign actors to ensure that perpetrators of abuses, including foreign nationals on all sides, are held accountable.

  • Urge the U.N. Security Council to establish a U.N. Commission of Experts to determine responsibility for grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the DRC since 1993.


Iran

Since the last session of the Commission, the Iranian government has issued a standing invitation to U.N. Special Procedures and established human rights dialogues with the European Union and other countries. Despite these welcome developments, the human rights situation remains grave and warrants continued scrutiny by the Commission.

The political standoff between reformists, in control of the directly elected elements of the government, and the conservatives who exercise authority through the office of the Leader, the Judiciary and the armed forces, continues to hamper human rights progress. Patently unfair trials of political opposition members, incommunicado detention and coercion into making incriminatory statements, as well as extremely poor detention conditions for several elderly prisoners have been a particular cause of concern.

Several writers and journalists remain in prison solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The judiciary has confirmed the sentences of several lawyers associated with reformist causes, including cases relating to the assassinations of writers and intellectuals in 1998. One lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison and fifty lashes after he probed the involvement of Ministry of Intelligence officials in the 1998 murders. A Revolutionary Court in Hamedan sentenced a prominent academic to death for alleged blasphemy and insulting the clergy. The head of the National Institute for Opinion Polls is awaiting his imprisonment sentence after publishing a poll showing a majority of Iranians favor restoring relations with the United States. The heads of the private research institutes that conducted the poll have received eight and nine years imprisonment respectively, charged with "collaboration with U.S. elements and British intelligence" and with conducting "psychological warfare" against the government.

The lack of public school education in the Kurdish language remains a perennial source of Kurdish frustration. Followers of the Baha'i faith also continue to face persecution, including being denied permission to worship or to carry out other communal affairs publicly. At least four Baha'is are serving prison terms for their religious beliefs.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Re-establish a special mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Iran.

  • Call on Iranian authorities to facilitate visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on violence against women, torture, and freedom of religion; and make public and time-based commitments to full implementation of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and other Special Rapporteurs' recommendations.

  • Call on the government to ratify the CEDAW, CAT and the ICC treaties, and announce an official review of reservations entered upon ratification of other major human rights instruments.

  • Call on the government to release all political prisoners; abolish of the death penalty for juvenile offenders as a first step towards total abolition of the death penalty; amend the press law to safeguard freedom of the press; establish and enforce strict limits on incommunicado detention, and ensure prompt access to lawyers and family members for detainees.


Israel/Occupied Territories

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of repeated, egregious violations of international humanitarian law by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups. At least 1,985 Palestinians and 720 Israelis were killed between September 2000 and January 2003, the majority civilians, including more than 300 Palestinian and 80 Israeli children.

The number and gravity of violations committed by the IDF escalated as clashes culminated in the military reoccupation of most areas of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli soldiers repeatedly used indiscriminate and excessive force, killed civilians willfully and unlawfully, and used Palestinian civilians as human shields. The IDF continued to fail to investigate wrongful deaths or other violations by Israeli soldiers, and as of January 2003, had not responded to repeated requests from Human Rights Watch for information on killings the organization documented in Jenin.

Armed Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians—suicide bombings and other deliberate attacks—also reached unprecedented levels. PA officials condemned such attacks, but failed to move decisively against those responsible for ordering and organizing them. Armed Palestinians also killed at least twenty-two alleged collaborators.

Extensive IDF damage to civilian buildings and infrastructure, including the partial or complete destruction of roads, sewage networks, water supplies, and electrical grids, appeared to exceed any requirement of military necessity in urban areas such as Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah. The IDF also destroyed hundreds of houses, primarily in Gaza, on alleged security grounds in excess of military necessity. Israeli forces also demolished homes of families of alleged suicide bombers or armed militants.

Israeli curfews and restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were so severe and widespread as to constitute collective punishment. Israeli authorities also restricted and harassed humanitarian agencies responsible for providing food, medication, and other essential goods and services in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli authorities continued to confiscate Palestinian lands to expand illegal Israeli settlements and bypass roads. Israeli authorities rarely prevented, halted, or punished settlers for attacks against Palestinian civilians and their property.

Thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children, were arrested throughout the year. Reports of ill-treatment were widespread, including kicking, beating, squalid conditions, deprivation of food and drink, and even gradual reversion to the use of torture. As of January 2003, some 5,100 Palestinians were being held on security-related grounds - the highest level in over a decade. More than one thousand of them are held in administrative detention without charge - an increase from twenty-seven such detainees held in October 2001.

Human Rights Watch urges the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Condemn systematic and grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by all parties to the conflict;

  • Urge the United Nations Security Council to authorize the establishment of an international observer mission to monitor and report on continuing human rights and international humanitarian law violations in the West Bank and Gaza.

  • Incorporate the text and standards contained in the December 2001 Declaration of the reconvened conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention;

  • Call on Israel to conduct impartial investigations into all suspicious killings by members of its security forces, make the results public, and to discipline or punish individuals found guilty of wrongdoing;

  • Call on the Palestinian Authority to arrest and bring to justice in accordance with international standards those responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians.


Russian Federation/Chechnya

During sweep operations in Chechnya, Russian forces rounded up thousands of men, looted homes, physically abused villagers, and in some cases committed extrajudicial executions. Those detained face beatings and other forms of torture, aimed at coercing information or confessions about Chechen forces. Federal forces routinely extort money from detainees' relatives as a condition for release, and also require detainees upon release to sign statements that their treatment in custody was adequate. In hundreds of cases those last seen in the custody of Russian forces "disappear," never to be seen again by their relatives.

Since last year's Commission, Russian authorities have put undue pressure on displaced persons to return to Chechnya where they remain at risk. In June authorities cut off electricity, gas and rations in smaller settlements for IDPs in Ingushetia in an attempt to pressure them to return to Chechnya.

Russia continued to resist establishing any meaningful accountability process for crimes committed by its forces. Although the procuracy opened hundreds of criminal investigations into abuses by Russian troops, in most cases officials failed to conduct even the most basic investigative steps (including questioning eyewitnesses and relatives). As a result, most investigations remained unsolved and almost none made it to the courts. The only trial of a high-ranking officer, Yuri Budanov, charged with the March 2000 murder of Kheda Kungaeva, an eighteen-year-old Chechen woman, ended in acquittal on the grounds of temporary insanity.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Condemn ongoing violations of human rights and humanitarian law by both parties to the conflict.

  • Insist on accountability by: calling on the Russian authorities to ensure meaningful investigations into all reported crimes by Russian troops against civilians in Chechnya or Ingushetia; calling on the Russian authorities to publish a detailed list of all current and past investigations into such abuses and indicate their current status; renewing the call for a national commission of inquiry to document abuses by both sides to the conflict; and making clear that continued failure on the part of Russian authorities to make progress on accountability will result in the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to document abuses and produce an official record of them.

  • Call on Russia to desist from coerced returns of internally displaced persons and to ensure their well-being.

  • Call for visits to the region by key U.N. thematic mechanisms, as required by the previous CHR resolutions.

  • Call for renewal of the OSCE Assistance Group's mandate.


Sudan

Human Rights Watch has followed in detail the armed conflict and human rights abuses in Sudan for many years. Our research shows that the Sudanese government has targeted and bombed civilians and civilian objects, including relief distribution locations, churches, and schools, causing many civilian casualties and damage to the fragile civilian infrastructure of the south.

In the cities of the north, far from any armed conflict, a state of emergency has remained in place for three years. The government has continued to impose tight controls on political activity through a pervasive web of laws and security forces. Security forces break up demonstrations and meetings, arbitrarily detain human rights advocates and political activists, including students, and hold them without trial, sometimes torturing them. An executive decree has kept the leading Islamist political opponent in prolonged arbitrary detention for two years, with no charges pending against him.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) engaged in abuses against southern populations, on at least two occasions in 2002 killing or abducting scores of civilians in two villages, Tuhubak and Todaj. It has often impeded the rights of assembly and expression of persons living in SPLM-controlled areas. During its capture of Torit in August 2002, the SPLM/A reportedly summarily executed scores of captured government soldiers or combatants.

Human Rights Watch calls on the CHR to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights for Sudan.

  • Condemn the gross abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Sudanese government.

  • Call on the Sudanese government to end impunity and ensure accountability for gross abuses of human rights.

  • Call on the Sudanese government to lift the state of emergency in non-conflict areas, and rescind the laws granting impunity and extensive powers on the security forces.

  • Condemn the gross abuses of humanitarian law by the SPLM/A and call on it to investigate and hold accountable those responsible. The resolution should also call on the SPLM/A to respect the civil and political rights of persons living in the territories it controls.


Turkmenistan

The Turkmen government tolerates no opposition and crushes critical thinking. There are no free and fair elections and Saparmurat Niazov is president for life. Turkmen opposition figures were either driven into exile in the early 1990s or imprisoned. Most were released, and after the awful prison experience and constant surveillance afterward do not dare speak out again. No independent human rights organizations can operate in Turkmenistan. There is no free media: the government subjects all newspaper outlets to prepublication censorship, has banned most Russian-language media, and has introduced measures to limit access to the Internet. The opera, ballet, circus, the philharmonic orchestra, and non-Turkmen cultural associations are banned and the Academy of Sciences has been closed. Followers of faiths other than Russian orthodoxy and Sunni Islam have faced criminal prosecution, police beatings, deportation, and in some cases demolition of their houses of worship.

On November 25, 2002, unknown gunmen opened fire on President Niazov's motorcade, injuring several people. The president was unharmed. Government officials claim that sixty-seven people have been arrested, though the figure is believed to be much higher. Many are relatives of the exiled political opposition. Reliable sources report that some have suffered torture and ill-treatment in custody. To date fifty-eight people have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from five years to life imprisonment in relation to the assassination attempt, and more await trial. There is reason to fear that they and their families have been subjected to ill treatment as well as intimidation in order to compel confessions and testimony. A broadcast on national television of a "confession" by a former politician —which was visibly forced—conjured the image of the show trials of the Stalin era.

To date, the Turkmen government has not cooperated with the U.N. human rights system, although it has ratified the ICCPR, the ICESCR, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and other major human rights treaties. It has not filed a single report to U.N. treaty bodies.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Commission to adopt a resolution that would:

  • Express grave concern about serious abuses of human rights in Turkmenistan, and press the Turkmen government to undertake systemic reforms to fully comply with its international human rights obligations.

  • Call on the government to ensure fair and open trials for all those charged in relation to the November 25 assassination attempt, and to guarantee due process to all those detained; to retry those already convicted in full compliance with international standards and release them prior to trial, and to allow international monitoring of all trials in order to promote transparency.

  • Call on the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the U.N. thematic mechanisms to request invitations to visit Turkmenistan. The High Commissioner should be asked to report on his trip to the 60th session of the Commission. Should the Turkmen government fail to issue an invitation, the High Commissioner should be asked to report to the Commission using information gathered by a UNDP mission and other sources.

Thank you in advance for your attention to these important issues. We look forward to working with you throughout the 59th Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

With kind regards,

Sincerely,

Joanna Weschler Loubna Freih
U.N. Representative Associate U.N. Representative


February 27, 2003

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