Opinion - News Analysis   

For human rights protection, a new beginning

Jorge E. Taiana

ON MAY 9, Argentina (along with India and 45 other countries) was elected by the U.N. General Assembly as one of the member states to the Human Rights Council, the new United Nations body that will replace the Commission on Human Rights established in 1947. Argentina is grateful to all those states which, bearing in mind our tragic history of gross and systematic violations of human rights, valued our present record and our commitments in this field today.

This election implies a deep responsibility towards all persons, organisations, and governments that expect this body to be a guarantee for a major enforcement of human rights around the world. This new body will be permanent and directly subsidiary to the General Assembly, which will enable it to deeply analyse human rights violations in any and all countries. The Council's work shall be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity, and constructive international dialogue; and it shall have to report in time to all bodies and agencies that, like the Security Council, may prevent or stop gross and systematic violations.

This new Council must transcend incidental political debates and become a stable, central, and permanent element of international relations. In the past, Argentine society suffered the politicisation and selectivity of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which privileged the bipolar balance of power existing at that time instead of the defence of fundamental and permanent human rights, such as the right to life.

Despite thousands of reports received at the Commission during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983), the government of my country was never condemned, and the indifference of the majority of U.N. member states forced the creation of a special working group to publicly expose the gross and systematic violations which were taking place in Argentina. We have learnt from our own history, and ever since the return to democracy we have assumed a position based on principles in the defence and promotion of human rights. We have ratified the great majority of the regional and universal treaties on human rights and, as very few countries in the world, we have granted constitutional hierarchy to these human rights instruments. Argentina permanently cooperates with international monitoring bodies and participates in every forum with the goal of improving existing standards in this field worldwide.

Since the beginning of the debate on the reform of the United Nations system, President Nestor Kirchner's government has strongly supported the strengthening of human rights within the U.N. in order to place this issue on the same footing as other relevant issues such as development and the maintenance of peace and international security. This position is not just a choice but an obligation for all states in the light of the importance that human rights have today for peace, development, and democratic stability. We must highlight and reinforce the true importance of the contribution made by the Commission to the development of international human rights law through several decades, by developing standards and treaties.

At this first stage of the Council, we must ensure that procedural matters do no displace substantive issues and obtain a prompt approval of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Forced Disappearances, as well as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Human Rights Council offers the international community the opportunity to guarantee an efficient and effective international protection system. The achievement of this objective constitutes an obligation of all states which have assumed the responsibility to be a part of this early stage, bearing always in mind that respecting the principle of negotiation must not imply the negotiation of principles.

Thirty years after the military coup that disrupted the institutions and the fundamental rights of the people of my country, Argentina commits itself to making a sound contribution so that the United Nations Human Rights Council may meet the demands of the 21 Century regarding this issue essential for the survival of our nations.

(The author is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina.)

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