Hollow celebration of 50 years of human-rights campaigning

Abstract

T Amnesty International (AI) 1998 Annual Report, published last week, documents human-rights abuses in 141 countries during 1997, and asks how much has been achieved in the 50 years since the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Secretary General of AI, Pierre Sane, commented “for most people around the world, the rights in the UDHR are little more than a paper promise”. AI describes how, in Africa, conflict and political instability led to serious viloations of human rights, such as massacres in the Great Lakes region. Accountable legal and civic institutions are needed in Liberia and elsewhere, and AI repeats its call for an investigation in Algeria. Prisoners of conscience are held in 27 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Cameroon, with deaths of prisoners in 14 countries. In Asia, economic crisis further jeopardises human rights in such politically repressive countries as China, Indonesia, and Myanmar. In 1997, people “disappeared” throughout South America, 140 in Colombia alone. Death squads target “disposable” sections of society, such as vagrants and street children; indigenous people and peasants also face attacks over land ownership. 20 members of the Koreguaje community in Caqueta region, Columbia, were killed in just 3 months by paramilitaries. Brutality by security forces is pervasive; the case of Argentinean Gabriel Gutierrez epitomises so many others. He was arrested by police in Buenos Aires for alleged infringement of by-laws and died 4 h later after a severe beating. AI also scrutinises human rights in countries that support the UDHR. Last year, 74 people were executed in the USA. In Europe, torture and abuse by security forces and police occurred in 28 countries, including Turkey, the Russian Federation, and France. AI questions unfair policing in Northern Ireland and UK police methods of restraint that have led to deaths from “positional asphyxia” citing the cases of Ibrahima Sey and Kenneth Severin. AI also reviews wider themes, for example, the limits of the rights framework for women and the responsibility of economic institutions. Another concern is how, as Pierre Sane warns, some countries challenge “the whole ethos of universality and indivisibility of human rights set out in the UDHR”. AI’s report shows that most governments who claim that the western tradition of individual rights is inimical to their culture do so to disguise their own political and economic interests. After World War II, the UDHR symbolised a collective determination for a better future—that human rights are universal and indivisible and that we have responsibilities and obligations to each other. AI’s report is a compelling testimony of how many governments worldwide have failed to fulfil this promise.