Speech by Lung-chu Chen

STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Under Agenda Item 17 (b)
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights: Human Rights Defenders
57th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

April 18, 2001

Thank you, Mme. Chairperson,

My name is Lung-chu Chen and I am a long-time board member of the International League for Human Rights. We welcome the General Assembly "Human Rights Defenders'" Resolution of 1998, and the follow-up appointment of Ms. Hina Jilani as Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders. The Defenders Resolution reinforces existing protection of civil and political rights and liberties for freedom of speech and association. The League finds that it is at this basic level that the rights of defenders are most often violated through state action or inaction, involving attacks on defenders ranging from murder, imprisonment, fines, disbarment and failure to register an organization's legal status.

· Tragically, some prominent defenders have paid with their lives. More than two years ago on 15 March 1999, Northern Ireland attorney Rosemary Nelson was killed when a loyalist bomb exploded under her car. We welcome the serious attention to the case by the Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judiciary, who has called for an independent investigation of Ms. Nelson's murder, noting the "chilling effect on the independence and security of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland". His call must be backed by this Commission and the international community at large.

· Other defenders have been imprisoned for their activism. For example, Elena Urlaeva from the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, has been forced to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment after being arrested on her way to a protest action. This week, Saad Eddin Ibrahim and 27 other defendants who protested fraud in parliamentary elections are being tried for alleged "issuing false statements about Egypt's internal situation, accepting foreign money without government approval and embezzling funds" and face life imprisonment.

· Still others have been expelled from the state-controlled bar for outspoken criticism of human rights violations. In March 1999, Aslan Ismailov, one of Azerbaijan's most prominent independent attorneys, affiliated with the League, was arbitrarily stripped of his right to practice criminal law after making critical comments about the suppression of the Azerbaijani bar. The League views his expulsion from the Collegium of Lawyers, the country's only recognized bar association, as politically motivated and rejects the contention that he has violated any local procedures for obtaining credentials. Mr. Ismailov's appeals to the courts had been rejected and despite promises by a new Justice Minister to resolve the case, no action has been made.

· Frequently defenders are prosecuted for their work and face crippling fines. For example, Mr.Kamal el Batal, a director of a Lebanese human rights group, has been subject to such prosecution and fines.

The most effective strategy for the mandate of protecting human rights defenders is to make frequent and forceful public statements on individual cases, published on the UN's websites and disseminated to the media, coupled with private written inquiries from the Special Representative's office and interventions in personal meetings.

In that regard we welcome the Special Representative's statement regarding a judge's suspension of the newly-elected leadership of the Tunisian League for Human Rights for their monitoring and contesting of elections.
Belarus has also cracked down on human rights activists who wish to monitor presidential elections this fall. Recent Presidential Decree No. 8 prohibits foreign aid for NGOs involved in election monitoring and other democracy programs. Decree No.8 follows more than a year of raids on human rights and law offices, detentions and beatings of defenders, expulsion from the bar of prominent lawyers and failure to register human rights groups.
We bring to your attention the consistent pattern of a number of governments in violating the principles of the Defenders' Declaration and related international treaty obligations, and call on the Special Representative and the members of the Commission to condemn these practices publicly and intervene to protect human rights defenders around the world.
Thank you.

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