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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.50
December 11, 2000


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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net

Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Please note that the Human Rights Messages by the Religious Personnel and the Asian Human Rights Commission are found in the AHRC web site.

The editor. 

1) AUNG SAN SUU KYI AWARDED THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM by President Clinton

Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy party leader who won the 1991 Nobel for her pro-democracy work and is being detained by the country's military government, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom America's highest civilian award from President Clinton. The award will be accepted by Suu Kyi's son because she has been held virtually incommunicado and allowed visits only by close relatives since Sept. 21, after a dispute with the government in Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

President Clinton's remarked: Aung San Suu Kyi . . . sits confined . . . in her home in Rangoon, unable to speak to her people or the world. . . . Twelve years ago, she found herself at the helm of a popular movement for democracy and human rights. A decade ago, she led her persecuted party in parliamentary elections that were neither free, nor fair; yet they still won 80 percent of the seats. Her victory has never been recognised by the government of Burma, but her hold on the hearts of the people in Burma has never been broken. . . . She has seen her supporters beaten, tortured and killed, yet she has never responded to hatred and violence in kind. All she has ever asked for is peaceful dialogue.. . No one has done more than she to teach us that the desire for liberty is universal. [In accepting her Nobel Peace Prize, her son] said she would . . . accept such an honor only in the name of all the people of Burma. I imagine she would say the same thing today . . . that for all she has suffered . . . nothing compares to what the Burmese people . . . have endured: years of tyranny and poverty in a land of such inherent promise. . . .

This medal stands for our determination to help them see a better day. The [Burmese people's] only weapons . . . are words, reason and the example of this . . . brave woman. Let us add our voices to their peaceful arsenal.

2) PEACE WITH DIGNITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD Bishop Rayappu Joseph

Mannar bishop, Rt Rev. Dr Rayappu Joseph, has urged foreign governments to strengthen the Norway effort to end the long-running civil war in Sri Lanka which has claimed at least 60,000 lives. Norway is attempting to find a way to bring the two warring parties to the negotiating table. "Only foreign powers can meaningfully bring about a negotiated settlement of this long drawn war between the parties of the divide in this our same country. Pressure must come on both from outside," the bishop said. He cautioned against "blindly giving foreign aid to Sri Lanka devoid of any peace element". "Assistance coming from outside to both the parties for war must stop so that sanity will prevail and settlement reached through civilised means," the bishop said. "This carnage must completely stop. Peace with dignity is more important than food."

The embargo imposed by the government in the north of the country in a bid to smoke out the rebels has caused untold suffering for civilians who bear the brunt of restrictions on all daily necessities. According to some people who crossed over some weeks ago, lack of medication contributes to unnecessary deaths from several diseases, including malaria, "there is no escape from malaria." Food rations given by the government are nowhere near enough, the displaced people said, adding: "We would cook rice, drink the starched water on one day and the rice the following day. This is how we managed to survive." Church workers hold that food is used mercilessly as a weapon by both warring parties. The army uses food to draw the civilians towards its areas of control while the rebels use it to recruit and train youths."

In a press release dated 3 November, Sri Lanka's Catholic National Commission for Justice, Peace and Human Development said: "At a time when the intensification of the conflict is causing grave concern, it is consoling to observe that LTTE has consented to re-launch the peace dialogue. We call upon both sides to reciprocate magnanimously, search for prospects for de-escalation of the war and create conditions of normalcy in the war-torn areas as early as possible." 

3) UNHCR IN SOUTH ASIA: The NGOs Found the UNHCR Reluctant to Cooperate on Issues of Protection and Rehabilitation, a comment from Tapan Bose.

Though none of the South Asia states are signatories to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, the UNHCR has offices in almost all the countries of South Asia. The offices of the UNHCR in South Asia only deal with 'Convention' refugees who constitute a small fraction of the total number of refugees and internally displaced persons. The bulk of asylum seekers and displaced persons in South Asia are dependent on local NGOs and other voluntary/charitable organisations
for protection and relief. But despite the complementary role played by the UNHCR and NGOs in the region, the two have failed to develop a good working relationship. In fact, until recently there was little formal or informal dialogue between the two. The NGOs found the UNHCR reluctant to cooperate on issues of protection and rehabilitation but more willing to enlist their support in the delivery of food, housing and health services. 

The major cause of friction between the UNHCR and the NGOs in South Asia is the bureaucratic approach of the UNHCR towards 'refugee determination' process. UNHCR largely continues to apply the sixties (cold war) definition of refugees and follows the 'individual status determination' procedure developed during that period to asylum seekers in the nineties. As a result about 60 percent of South Asian asylum seekers get rejected. UNHCR 'status' determination procedure has proved patently inadequate in responding to the South Asia ground reality of masses of people being evicted by ethnic violence and the failure of governments to protect the basic rights of the people. The NGOs of the region are unhappy with the large-scale rejection of people who need protection. It has been pointed out several times to UNHCR that as the countries of South Asia are not signatories to the 1951 Convention and as they do not have a national refugee policy, UNHCR's 'refugee certificate' is the only form of 'protection' that an asylum seeker in South Asia has. By rejecting the bulk of asylum seekers, the UNHCR is putting them at a great risk in these countries. All attempts to make the 'determination process' more responsive to the realities of the region and to make the appeal process transparent, have been rebuffed.

The functioning of UNHCR offices in the region show a tendency to be 'close' to the governments of the states in general and 'friendly' to the bureaucrats in particular. Bangladeshi, Indian and Sri Lankan NGOs have complained that the UNHCR is averse to any attempt to democratise the refugee camp management system. Also UNHCR has failed to integrate women who make up the majority of the refugees, into policy making and management systems for relief and rehabilitation

4) TORTURE: AMNESTY REPORT ON CHILDREN

Amnesty International released a new report today documenting the torture and mistreatment of children in more than 50 countries, noting that the true scale of the abuse is much higher than can be documented due to a reluctance of children to come forward. 

5) A HUMAN RIGHTS DAY PRAYER by Bruce Van Voorhis

On this Sunday, International Human Rights Day, we remember that we all have been created by you, that we all are your children. To deny our rights as human beings is to deny the humanity with which you have blessed us. To violate human rights is to violate your creation. We thus pray, Lord, for an end to practices that negate life. We pray instead that the lives you have created-all of us-will be affirmed and that we will be able to lead our lives fully with all of our rights as human beings respected. 

On this Sunday, International Human Rights Day, we also pray for those in Asia and around the world whose human rights are denied, for those who live with the uncertainty of being tortured again and again, for people of different faiths who are persecuted and who cannot practice the religion of their choice, for journalists who are censored and who cannot practice their profession without government interference and for children denied of rights due to poverty, exploitation and slavery.

Please note that the Human Rights Messages by the Religious Personnel and the Asian Human  Rights Commission are found in the AHRC web site:www.ahrchk.net 

6) DEBT RELIEF: UK To Cancel Debts Owed By 41 Nations

The United Kingdom will immediately forgive all debt payments from the world's 20 poorest countries, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said Saturday. Interest payments from another 21 countries will be put into a trust fund until those countries become eligible for debt relief, he said. The relief package was announced during a Jubilee 2000 "Drop the Debt" rally in London's Trafalgar Square. "From today, all debt payments received by us will be held in trust for poverty relief, paid when poverty reduction plans are agreed and backdated to this day," Brown said The announcement was welcomed by debt relief advocates, according to the Financial Times.

7) Human Rights Abuses Impede Economic Development

Human Rights Watch says human rights abuses hurt economic development. The organization issued several recommendations for international institutions to improve the situation, including a proposal that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund promote the creation of national bodies to enforce human rights as part of loan agreements (Reuters/ABCNews.com, 7 Dec). "The current system to regulate global commerce leaves little or no room for human rights and other social values," the report says, arguing that a world increasingly affected by globalization "is generating human rights problems of global dimension."