NO CULTURAL, SOCIAL OR RELIGIOUS EX

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Subject: NO CULTURAL, SOCIAL OR RELIGIOUS EXCUSE FOR DENYING WOMEN EQUAL RIGHTS FOREIGN MINISTER OF FINLAND TELLS HUMAN RIGHTS

27 March 1996


                  Press Release
                  HR/CN/717




NO CULTURAL, SOCIAL OR RELIGIOUS EXCUSE FOR DENYING WOMEN EQUAL RIGHTS 
FOREIGN MINISTER OF FINLAND TELLS HUMAN RIGHTS
COMMISSION



Non-Governmental Oranizations Call for Vigorous Support of Economic 
Development in Poorer Countries

GENEVA, 26 March (UN Information Service) -- The Minister for Foreign 
Affairs of Finland called this afternoon for greater progress in protecting 
the rights
of women and girls, remarking that while the 1993 Vienna World Conference on 
Human Rights and the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women had
passed far-reaching measures, following up those steps was just as 
important.

No reasons -- whether cultural, social or religious -- could be used as 
excuses for denying women and girls equal rights, or for continuing harmful 
traditional
practices that violated human rights, said the Minister, Tarja Halonen. 
Finland regarded the promotion of the rights of women, children, minorities 
and
indigenous peoples as a priority.

In addition to hearing the Foreign Minister's address, the Commission 
continued its debate on questions of economic rights and development in the 
world's
poorer countries. A number of non-governmental organizations pleaded for 
greater development aid from international and bilateral sources. A
representative of the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies noted 
that the number of people living in absolute poverty, or denied the basic 
minimum
needs, was estimated at 1.5 billion -- mostly in the developing countries. 
In south Asian countries, 49 per cent of the population lived below the 
poverty line.
In India, despite the process of economic reform, the poverty ratio 
continued to remain static at 39 per cent, and there were high rates of 
infant mortality
and low life expectancy, the representative said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the World Federation of Democratic Youth said 
poor nations were facing mounting challenges that jeopardized their efforts 
to
develop. They were becoming more and more isolated and conflict between 
developing and developed countries was deepening. Such countries were
separated into two blocs, he maintained, one with economic rights, and one 
without.

The representative of Sri Lanka spoke, as did representatives of the 
following non-governmental organizations: International Federation of Social 




Workers; Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund; World Society of Victimology; World 
Federation of Democratic Youth; International Institute for Non-Aligned
Studies; World Peace Council; and International Association against Torture. 


India and Iraq spoke in exercise of the right of reply.

Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland

TARJA HALONEN, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, said her Government 
was concerned about reductions in the resources of the Centre for Human
Rights. Cutting funds for human rights activities was both tragic and 
short-sighted, and priority areas such as the human rights of women must not 
bear an
unfair share of the cuts.

Europe's recent socio-political changes had placed stresses on social and 
cultural structures, she said, and as often happened, women, children and
minorities suffered most from wrenching social transformation. Finland 
regarded the promotion of the rights of women, children, minorities and 
indigenous
peoples as a priority. The Vienna and Beijing World Conferences had 
reaffirmed that the rights of women and of girl children were integral parts 
of the
system of universal human rights.

She said the Beijing Conference had specified that the human rights of women 
included sexual and reproductive rights -- a specific mention of something
often unmentioned, and still unmentionable by some. For the first time, 
sexual rights had been explicitly referred to in a human rights document. 
The
Conference also had clearly stated that no reasons -- whether cultural, 
social or religious -- could be used as excuses for denying women and girls 
equal
rights, or for continuing harmful traditional practices that violated human 
rights. In Beijing, the girl child had been recognized as a full-fledged 
subject of
human rights.

Now it was important to make sure that follow-up to the Conference realized 
the high expectations raised in Beijing, she said. The human rights of the 
child
continued to be grossly violated, and such scandalous practices as child 
prostitution, child pornography and the outright sale of children, all on 
the rise,
must be battled vigorously.

Statements

BERNARD A.B. GOONETILLEKE (Sri Lanka) said the Declaration on the Right to 
Development pointed out that this right was inalienable. Developing
countries felt that effective international cooperation should be enhanced, 
as emphasized by the Declaration, by the Vienna World Conference and by 
other
world summits, to make the right to development a reality. It was far from 
being so now. Equitable economic relations and a favourable economic
environment were prerequisites to lasting progress. Sound development policy 




 - 3 - Press Release HR/CN/717 27 March 1996

at the national level also was necessary, as was better functioning of the 
Bretton Woods system. It was regrettable that the working group on the right 
to
development could not reach consensus at its last session. Serious efforts 
should be made to re-initiate its work in an open and transparent 
atmosphere,
using an integrated approach.

ELLEN MOURAVIEFF-APOSTOL, of the International Federation of Social Workers, 
said human rights instruments had put great stress on human dignity, a
theme regularly taken up by United Nations summits and world conferences. 
Poor people were often referred to as "the poor" in a depersonalizing 
manner.
Article 25 of the Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights 
had affirmed that extreme poverty and social exclusion constituted a
violation of human dignity and that urgent steps were necessary to achieve a 
better knowledge of extreme poverty and its causes. Two years later, the 
1995
World Summit for Social Development affirmed in Article 9 of the Copenhagen 
Declaration that social development needed to be enhanced. Little of those
good words and intentions had been matched by actions. The Organization 
called upon governments to re-examine priorities and to assert the 
importance
of human dignity in deed and words.

NEIL A.F. POPOVIC, of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, said he wished to 
address the question of human rights and the environment. The report of
the Secretary-General on the subject included some insightful comments. 
However, despite its encouraging findings, the report was notable for the 
small
number of opinions it contained. The request for comments had not been 
widely distributed, it seemed, and that had limited participation. The 
Sierra Club
urged the Commission to request the Secretary-General to continue to work on 
this topic for one more year.

Turning to country-specific situations, he said that in Nigeria, Burma and 
other countries, oil and gas conglomerates violated, in their pursuit of 
profits, the
human rights of people closely tied to the environment. The subject of toxic 
waste and human rights also deserved vigorous continued attention by the
Special Rapporteur.

SYED NAZIR GILANI, of the World Society of Victimology, said that one of the 
main suggestions made by non-governmental organizations to the working
group on the right to development was that "every individual had the right 
to be placed in the best possible conditions for the full realization of his 
human
potential, which entailed the duty of the State to organize society in a 
manner conducive to that realization.... The State had the primary role and
responsibility to implement the right to development in both its individual 
and collective dimensions". But although those ideals formed the operational
edifice of the contractual behaviour between the State and the human person, 
recent press reports confirmed that they vanished in the case of the 
disputed
State of Jammu and Kashmir. To realize the right to development, the 
contractual behaviour of a State with the human person and the international 




 - 4 - Press Release HR/CN/717 27 March 1996

community, under the treaties, conventions and other agreements reached, 
needed to be encouraged and monitored.

ABDELBAGI GEBRIEL, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said poor 
nations were facing mounting challenges that jeopardized their efforts to
develop; they were becoming more and more isolated. In effect, they were 
losing control, and the international economic system was wresting from 
poorer
countries their control over the lives of citizens. The conflict between 
developing and developed countries was deepening; they were separated into 
two
blocs, one with economic rights, and one without. Sanctions, particularly 
economic ones, inflicted on developing countries were too severe. They 
amounted
to massive violations of human rights. The Organization would hold a seminar 
on meeting the goals of the Copenhagen Social Summit, and encouraged
other non-governmental organizations and delegations to attend.

GOVIND NARAIN SRIVASTAVA, of the International Institute for Non-Aligned 
Studies, said that as the next century approached and mankind celebrated the
astounding advances in science and technology that successive generations 
had achieved, a question increasingly demanding urgent attention was
whether the path of development adopted by countries needed to be reformed 
to address the growing problem of poverty and destitution. The number of
people living in absolute poverty, or denied the basic minimum needs, was 
estimated at 1.5 billion -- mostly in the developing countries. In south 
Asian
countries, 49 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line.

In an age of global interlinkages, poverty could not be tackled in isolation 
by different countries, he said. Nor did it lend itself to any single global
prescription. Country-specific programmes had to be developed, but the 
international community could play a major role in assisting the process by 
calling
upon governments to at least ensure that all segments of their populations 
had equal opportunity to benefit from whatever programmes were initiated. 
The
Institute for Non-Aligned Studies urged the international community, among 
other things, to mobilize all actors in the developmental process, starting 
with
community organizations of poor people.

REFAQAT ALI KHAN, of the World Peace Council, said development implied 
progress towards a higher standard of living and an increase in the ability 
of
individuals to control their own lives. However, in many cases, development 
also wreaked havoc on the environment and was gravely damaging the planet.
Inevitably, development led to conflict in which powerful groups usurped the 
rights of weaker ones, as when infrastructure and heavy industry upset 
social
balances and caused environmental degradation and the usurpation of 
agricultural land. The world community must monitor the performance of 
States and
industries in carrying out development, since the process knew no national 
boundaries. Access to the fruits of scientific and technological advancement
should be made available to all, and the problems of the heavy foreign debt 
burdens of poor countries and of rapidly growing populations must be faced.



 - 5 - Press Release HR/CN/717 27 March 1996

ROGER WAREHAM, of the International Association against Torture, said the 
Copenhagen Alternative Declaration spoke of the necessity of placing people
at the centre of the development process. It also said that social 
development could only be achieved if all human rights of all individuals 
and peoples were
fulfilled. In three General Assembly resolutions, the international 
community had made it resoundingly clear that it did not approve of the 
attempts of the
United States, through its embargo, to force its narrow national agenda upon 
the sovereign State of Cuba.

It was that "big stick" mentality and arrogance which was an obstacle to the 
right to development, he continued. Reports indicated that the Security 
Council
sanctions against Libya arising out of the Lockerbie incident were creating 
tremendous hardships for the people of that country and were certainly
obstructing its right to development. The Commission could not take serious 
steps to secure the right to development until it established clearly and
unequivocally that all of its members were subject to the same standard of 
scrutiny.

Right of Reply

ARUNDHATI GHOSE (India) said it was with a sense of sorrow, rather than 
anger, that she took the floor in response to a statement made this morning 
by
Pakistan. The Indian delegation had so far been extremely restrained in 
responding to unprovoked and gratuitous attacks, but her delegation's 
patience
could wear thin. The issue between India and Pakistan was not a human rights 
issue -- it was quite simply Pakistan's request for Indian territory. The 
only
human rights dimension related to that issue was Pakistan's sponsorship of 
cross-border terrorism, and the hiring of mercenaries to achieve that end, 
which
resulted in gross violations of the human rights of India's citizens. Jammu 
and Kashmir was and would always remain an integral part of India. 
Questioning
the irreversible fact of its accession to India was to question the 
formation of Pakistan itself.

MOHAMMED SALMAN (Iraq) said the Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth 
Affairs of the United Kingdom had this morning referred to the fact that 
Iraq
was not cooperating with the Special Rapporteur. Iraq had hoped he would be 
objective in his appraisal. Iraq had indeed cooperated with the Special
Rapporteur and anticipated continuing to do so. But the Special Rapporteur 
had gone beyond his mandate and involved himself in certain political acts
during his mission. His report had ignored the official point of view and 
given a political character to his mission, something which had not been 
within his
mandate. Iraq had responded to all the claims in the Special Rapporteur's 
report. The Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United 
Kingdom
should be encouraged to set aside political considerations.

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