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NEWS - Human Rights Commission Open
- Subject: NEWS - Human Rights Commission Open
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 21:18:00
Subject: NEWS - Human Rights Commission Opens Annual Session
Human Rights Commission Opens Annual Session
AP
22-MAR-99
GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N. Human Rights Commission
opened its annual six-week session today with a plea for
more efforts to prevent abuses and punish the guilty.
"We meet today at the end of a century which has
witnessed
brutality on a scale without historical precedent," said
Mary
Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. 'It
has
also charted a new course in the protection of human
rights."
"Protection and prevention must define the Commission's
work in the years to come," she told the 53-nation
watchdog.
Robinson, a former president of the Irish Republic, said
more
must be done to implement existing international law and
try
those accused of crimes against humanity.
During the six-week commission meeting, violations in
countries including Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar as well as
the
Yugoslav province of Kosovo will come under the
spotlight.
The European Union was to announce today whether it
would press for formal condemnation of China, which has
recently clamped down on dissidents. The West dropped
long-running efforts to push through a censure motion on
China last year after developing countries repeatedly
sided
with Beijing to block the motion -- an outcome that would
almost certainly be repeated this year.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin will meet Robinson in
Geneva on Friday, but will not address the commission.
Robinson said in a statement that she continued to be
"concerned about human rights issues in China."
A four-man U.N. technical team returned from Beijing
after
giving advice to authorities on how to ratify two
international
covenants on political and economic rights.
Many foreign dignitaries are due to speak -- including
eight
foreign ministers on Tuesday. Dozens of non-governmental
organizations are on hand to lobby for their causes.
Anne Andersen of Ireland was elected president of the
meeting at its opening session.
"Ours is an island still seeking to finally heal the
scars of
history," she said. "Like so many countries here we have
learned the long and hard way how much human rights
matter."
The meeting opened under unprecedented security, with the
U.N. compound barricaded by barbed wire and guarded by
armed soldiers to prevent Kurds from invading the
building to
protest Turkey's detention of their leader, Abdullah
Ocalan.
About 25 Kurds began a demonstration today in front of
U.N.
headquarters.