Human Rights in the Commonwealth of Independent States:
Recognized by All, Observed by Few
Yuri Kovalenko, Izvestiya (News), 1993
The fall of totalitarian communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, as well as the end of the cold war and confrontation with the West, seemed to be a visible sign of an inevitable victory of democracy and of one of its basic principles - human rights. However, this did not happen despite all expectations.
Today human rights are violated in many countries with the same impunity as before. The international community was unable to prevent this in Yugoslavia, Somali and in many other countries.
This was announced by the international conference Human Rights at the Dawn of the 21st Century that was held by the European Council in Strasbourg. This was the final event of the preparation for the international UN conference on human rights that will take place in Vienna in June 1993. The Strasbourg conference gathered representatives from over eighty countries including thirteen republics of the former Soviet Union (except Georgia and Tajikistan). Two countries that had been invited were absent: China and Cuba. There was a large number of non-governmental organizations including those from Russia: Center for Prison Reforms and the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights.
In her presentation the Secretary General of the European Council Catherine Laliumlier admitted the lack of real progress in the sphere of human rights protection and noted that these rights were threatened by war, violence, famine, poverty, unfair distribution of income, aggressive totalitarian regimes, and intolerance. She stressed that at the end of our century a new dangerous concept was taking shape, the so-called "right of a nation", in the name of which the rights of other nations are trampled.
When I spoke to Peter Leprecht, director of the human rights department of the European Council, he pointed out that the evolution of the concept of human rights is continuing. Today we want these rights to be universal and to combining civil, political, economic social and cultural rights. A person can only be free when he or she is protected from both repression and poverty. He stressed that western countries have achieved more in the area of political democracy, than in social democracy.
And what is the situation in the republics of the disintegrated Soviet Union? Speaking about the most acute problems facing these countries Temuraz Ramishvili, head of department of international humanitarian cooperation and human rights of the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed to the backwardness of the legislative system. A reform of the judiciary system has started, but only on a pilot level. But without serious court defense we cannot speak about a successful protection of human rights. Besides, the government should assist our law protection organizations which cannot exist solely on donations from international funds.
Mr. Ramishvili expressed his concern about a return to pre-perestroika times in a number of these republics: in Uzbekistan dissidents are arrested and human rights are gravely violated in Turkmenistan and Georgia, the sites of unending military conflicts.
It was stressed at the Strasbourg conference that the protection of human rights is the duty of each state and its national institutes. UN, in turn, should increase it effectiveness and assume the role of an "international watchdog" in this area. The proposal of the leading presenter of the conference, President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, to establish a new position - special UN commissioner on human rights, was supported by representatives of many countries.
In countries which are in the process of transferring from a totalitarian regime to democracy an essential role can be played by non-governmental organizations and international controls in the sphere of human rights protection in collaboration with national institutes. Russia is currently working in close cooperation with the European Council, which is reviewing its draft laws, to speed up the process of the country's democratization.
Special attention at the Strasbourg conference was devoted to the issue of interrelation among democracy, development and human rights. Those who live in poverty have to rights. What does such a person care about the freedom of speech if he is deprived of the basic means of subsistence?
Says Ernest Ametistov, a justice of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court: " The international community has to clearly understand that in post-communist countries the future of human rights depends on the outcome of economic reform. If it fails, none of the results achieved in the sphere of law enforcement will save the situation. That is why at the World Human Rights Conference in Vienna I proposed to discuss the question of the impact of international cooperation on the course of economic reform in post-socialist countries. Only programs directed toward real assistance to reforms and to privatization, e.g., to the creation of the economic basis of freedom, should be funded.
I will try to summarize the results of the Strasbourg conference on a more optimistic note, at least in regard to the situation in Russia. Never before in the history of this country have there been such freedoms and legal guarantees as today. Ernest Ametistov elaborated: "If a Russian is arrested or placed in a madhouse this does not mean that he will definitely get out, but today he has a much greater chance to get out than ever before".
STRASBOURG
