SUB-COMMISSION DISCUSSES REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED WITH SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS

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09/08/2004 | SUB-COMMISSION DISCUSSES REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED WITH SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS

The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights this morning continued to discuss specific human rights issues, hearing the presentation of a report on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons.

Barbara Frey, Sub-Commission Expert and Special Rapporteur on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons, presented her progress report, saying that attention had been paid to the role of small arms in violations of human rights and humanitarian norms in situations of armed conflict. The report also described the international humanitarian law framework, as well as the human rights obligations of States in situations of armed conflict.

It was time, she said, for the human rights community to reassert the primacy of human rights when it came to the use of small arms by state officials.

Experts asked questions and made comments on varied topics, including obligations between States with regard to each other in the context of the availability of small arms within their territory as these could be exported to a second party country, the need to focus in the study on the production of small arms, and the need to convince the public of the need to disarm their societies.

Experts speaking this morning included Francoise Jane Hampson, Florizelle O’Connor, El- Hadji Guisse, Jose Bengoa, Shiqiu Chen and Gaspar Biro.

The Sub-Commission also heard from a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) whose representatives focused on such issues as female genital mutilation, the status of women and girl children in societies, particularly in developing countries, and so-called honour killings. NGO representatives speaking were Interfaith International, Transnational Radical Party, and International Institute of Peace.

The Sub-Commission will reconvene this afternoon at 3 p.m. to begin voting on resolutions. It will close its three-week session on 13 August.

Statements on Specific Human Rights Issues

Mr. SHARUKH, of Interfaith International, said domestic violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, honour killings, kidnapping, cases of burnt and missing children and torture of children and women were common in the rural areas of most of Pakistan. Honour killings were another recurrent from a familiar violence against women and again the perpetrators vindication in the eyes of both the law and society and the practice of summary killings of women was known to occur in all parts of Pakistan. During the last year, 823 women including 20 minor girls became the victims of the barbaric custom of honour killing in the country. Two main factors which contributed to violence against women in the name of honour were women’s commodification and conceptions of honour. The end result was the right to life of women in Pakistan was conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.

MARINA SIKORA, of Transnational Radical Party, said female genital mutilation continued to be practiced under the most cruel conditions, and continued to act as a barrier to the proper acceptance and integration of women in the political, economic and social environment of many African and Arab countries. It continued to be a violation of the psycho-social integrity of women and children in many countries around the world, and continued to be an attack on human dignity. A twin approach for its elimination was necessary; and the problem should be tackled at all levels. It was necessary to break into long-established rules of custom, to delegitimise those who intended to continue the practice and to diminish social pressure on people who were willing to abandon it. It was equally necessary to address the problem through structural measures and to focus on ensuring the effective implementation of all existing treaties, conventions, legislations and protocols.

Ms. S. SAMINA, of International Institute for Peace, said the concept of honour being attached to sexual relations rather than democratic choice was a legacy of the times when a woman was viewed as a man’s marital property since she was looked after by him, herself having no means of income or wealth. There were cultures where the act of giving daughter in marriage was considered as transferring her physically to another man’s household where she would do the obeying of her husband and his family. In a country like Pakistan, in the rural areas feudal lords had their own rule of law, their own courts and private jails. Honour killing – Karo Kari -- was often used as a false pretext to kill one’s wife to get her property or to marry again. It was a convenient way to get rid of a wife since the society and the courts looked sympathetically at the husband as the wronged party.

Presentation of Report on Prevention of Human Rights Violations Committed with Small Arms and Light Weapons

BARBARA FREY (Sub-Commission Expert), Special Rapporteur on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons, said the preliminary report had discussed the adverse consequences for human rights caused by the estimated 640 million small arms and 230 million anti-personnel landmines in the world today, and focused on the human rights violations caused by the misuse of small arms by State agents, as well as the due diligence obligations of States to prevent human rights abuses committed by armed individuals and groups. From the findings and recommendations of the preliminary report, a set of draft principles had been developed and included in this year’s report, which were intended to assist Member States in defining and enforcing the human rights responsibilities of all State officials, especially law enforcement and security officials, who were authorized to carry and use small arms.

Attention had been paid to the role of small arms in violations of human rights and humanitarian norms in situations of armed conflict. The report also described the international humanitarian law framework, as well as the human rights obligations of States in situations of armed conflict. The report addressed three specific issues relating to human rights violations with small arms: first, the effectiveness of arms embargoes as a method of preventing human rights violations in armed conflict; second, prosecution of individuals complicity in committing human rights violations with small arms; and third, the gender implications of small arms availability and misuse.

The Sub-Commission should take into consideration the draft principles included in the report. These included nine draft human rights principles concerning, among others, the possession and use of small arms by state officials including: establishment of regulations; chain of command; storage and management; screening and training of officials; and effective investigation of deaths, torture and injuries caused by small arms. It was critical for the human rights community to reassert the primacy of human rights when it came to the use of small arms by state officials, and these draft principles were one method of doing so.

The progress report (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/037) by Barbara Frey, Special Rapporteur on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light weapons, addresses human rights violations committed with small arms during situations of armed conflict, including the humanitarian consequences of small arms in situations of armed conflict; international law protections regarding the availability, misuse and transfer of small arms in armed conflict; gender implications of the availability of small arms; and conclusions and recommendations. Among these, the report recommends that the international community improve the design and enforcement of small arms embargoes, and enforce criminal sanctions against persons and groups that violate embargoes. It further recommends that the international community involve women in all phases of policy regarding the availability and use of small arms. (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/037/Add.1) is an addendum to the report which contains the draft principles on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and commentary thereto.

Statements on Report on Prevention of Human Rights Violations Committed with Small Arms and Light Weapons

FRANCOISE JANE HAMPSON (Sub-Commission Expert), referring to the draft guiding principles on the prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms, said she hoped that Ms. Frey would try to embark on the difficult task of judicial pursuit of States which supplied these small arms and weapons.

FLORIZELLE O’CONNOR (Sub-Commission Expert) said an area appeared to have been overlooked in terms of small states and whether they had the ability to produce small arms. With all the agreements already in place in terms of use of arms, unless or until there was some way of ensuring that various obligations were respected and adhered to, small island states particularly and countries in which there was rampant un- or under-employment would face the continuing problem of having small arms brought into their countries, which usually would be linked to the drug trade. Until and unless there was a way to have States in which it was perfectly legitimate for nationals to obtain arms freely, there would be an obligation to other States as to who was allowed to hold arms, particularly in the context of the possibilities of export of small arms by individuals.

There was a need to put into place an accountability mechanism as to who could have small arms. Officials also needed to be appropriately trained as to the legitimate uses of force. A look needed to be taken at the responsibilities of States which provided, manufactured and made available within their sovereign rights the abilities of their citizens to own guns in the context of the protection of other countries. Regarding the draft principles, the comments made by Ms. Hampson were agreed with, but the draft as it currently stood really was a reminder of principles that were already in place, and it would be far more useful to focus on the new considerations rather than reproducing what was already in use, and to encourage States to continue and increase regard and respect for these clauses and principles identified in the Code of Conduct and Basic Principles on the use of force and firearms.

EL-HADJI GUISSE (Sub-Commission Expert) said that although the Special Rapporteur succeeded in making an in-depth study on the issue, the Sub-Commission needed more elaboration on the use of small arms. The developing countries were not in a position to produce the small arms but they were importing them. The responsibility should be focused on those counties that produce the arms. The number of victims of small arms was much higher than those affected by heavy weapons. In the study, one should focus on the production of the arms. In many countries, ethnic conflicts were carried by small arms, which had a devastating effect. Millions of people had been killed by small arms. The use of such arms was a real threat to any society.

JOSE BENGOA (Sub-Commission Expert) said the report was part of the tradition of the Sub-Commission, which aimed to pacify society and to seek peace, as illustrated by past discussions about anti-personnel mines, another discussion which had caused much discussion, as many Experts and countries did not share the same points of view on this issue. Little by little, however, the issue had reached a global unanimity, with the position today that there was no trade, and that many countries were eliminating anti-personnel mines. The work of Ms. Frey should be long-term, convincing the public of the need to disarm societies, and this implicated all the phenomena that were involved in leading to civilians having access to cheap weapons enabling them to kill. She should therefore continue in her work.

BARBARA FREY (Sub-Commission Expert), reacting to some of the questions, said a friend of hers had been a victim of a random shooting in Minnesota recently. States were not giving adequate attention to the study made on small arms. The principles should be enacted in national legislation. Additional responsibilities of licensing should be added to the guiding principles she drafted. The standards could be expanded to include criminal responsibilities on the transfer of small arms.

Statements on Specific Human Rights Issues

Mr. S. KOHLI, of Indian Council of Education, said safeguarding women’s rights did not only mean introducing law on statute books. It required the creation of a social and international environment where women were granted the respect they deserved as the nurtures of humanity. Violence in the home, aggressive sexual harassment in the workplace, and the relegation of women to the status of second class citizens in some societies were all instruments that had been fashioned by largely male dominated world to perpetuate a false sense of superiority over women. It was ironic that while actions had been led by women leaders whose contributions to the development of their societies were universally acknowledged, other less fortunate women, on a day-to-day basis, continued to be discriminated against in many societies. Old taboos and traditions were cited to deprive women of basic fundamental rights such as the rights to choose their own husbands, the right to drive a car, and the right to travel without a male escort, for example.

SHIQIU CHEN (Sub-Commission Expert) said the situation of international terrorism was very grave. The global terrorist organizations were emulating Al-Qaeda, becoming a global terrorist network, with mobile, secretive and more frequent terrorist activities. In some places, these activities occurred at almost any time and it was almost impossible to prevent them, with the scope expanding, and proliferation from some areas to all other areas of the world. Means were more diversified, with hostage-taking, bombing and suicide attacks becoming the main features. Countries of the world had to cooperate, with a basis of respect for territorial integrity, with the Security Council as the coordinator for an international mechanism to fight terrorism.

The definition of terrorism was a very complicated issue, and it was necessary to solve this issue urgently in order to be able to work together. Indiscriminate explanations of terrorism based on political needs should be avoided. Regarding the measures of protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism, Ms. Koufa had elaborated remarks on this in her report, and this was a document that deserved careful study. Her general principles were fully supported. The fight against terrorism should take legitimate means and respect international norms and Conventions, refraining from summary execution, torture, and detention without trial. War and military attacks did not and would not achieve sustainable results, and were in themselves a violation of human rights in a wider scope and depth. The international community should make greater efforts in the establishment of new orders promoting world peace and development, getting rid of conflict and suffering.

GASPAR BIRO (Sub-Commission Expert) said there were various approaches towards non-State actors in scientific literature. Some authors went as far as to be treated as non-State actors with a multinational character. Others were of the opinion that in certain situations, individuals should be considered as full capacity actors of international relations. In any case, the number of non-State actors was ranging from a few hundreds to tens of thousands. The question was that from a human rights perspective which characteristics should be taken into account when addressing the issue of accountability: publicly stated goals, actor behaviour, organizational structure and outreach, among other things. His opinion was that preliminary research was needed to address the problem of non-State actors and human rights. Such research should contain an overview of the most recent literature on non-State actors and the formulation of some general principles through which the question of accountability could be approached in a systematic way.

CORRIGENDUM

In press release HR/SC/04/15 of 6 August, 2004, the summary of the statement of the delegation of Guatemala on page 8 should read as follows:

CARLOS ARROYAVE (Guatemala) said the Working Group on Indigenous Populations was a source of ideas and experiences within the United Nations system concerning the rights of indigenous peoples. Due to the growing participation of indigenous organizations and to the request of the Mayan representatives, Guatemala supported the continuation of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples. Guatemala would also continue supporting both Voluntary Trust Funds, for the Decade and for Indigenous Peoples. His delegation was making advance preparations for the second indigenous decade. Guatemala was a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic state. The Government was making efforts to implement the Peace Agreements. Guatemala encouraged other states and international bodies organizing meetings to provoke certain facilities and considerations to indigenous representatives, including visas. Guatemala supported the theme of indigenous peoples and domestic and international protection of traditional knowledge at the twenty-third session of the Working Group and suggested the discussion on conflict resolutions.

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