UN Human Rights Council Postpones Discussion of 'Secret Detentions' Report

VOA.News 09/03/2010

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak, is speaking out. He says government officials in the United States and elsewhere who ordered secret detentions of terror suspects should face prosecution

The U.N. Human Rights council has postponed discussion of a highly critical report on the secret detention of terror suspects in dozens of countries. One of the report's authors tells VOA that government officials in the United States and elsewhere who ordered secret detentions of terror suspects should face prosecution and imprisonment.

The 222-page report names dozens of countries involved in the practice of detaining people or taking advantage of their detention by other countries to elicit information from them. The suspects were held in secret, without access to lawyers or the International Red Cross, and were subjected to interrogation techniques that in many cases, the authors say, amount to torture.

The report's strong criticisms have angered many of the countries on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council who said they are untrue. Others, including the Muslim and African members, say the experts had no mandate to write the report and that it should not be considered by the HRC. Some Western countries, including the United States and Britain, disagree with the report's findings, but are willing for the discussion to go forward.

The council was supposed to hear the final report this week, but instead agreed to postpone it until June.

But one of the study's authors, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak, is speaking out. He says government officials in the United States and elsewhere who ordered secret detentions of terror suspects should face prosecution. "Every individual case of an enforced disappearance and torture should be a crime under domestic law, with proper sanctions. And proper sanctions doesn't mean a fine; it means imprisonment for similar to other major crimes like homicide," he said.

Nowak adds that people who have been secretly detained should be entitled to compensation. "For me, providing reparations to the victims is certainly as important as the criminal investigations and bringing the main perpetrators to justice," he said.

The study on the use of secret detention was written by Nowak and Martin Scheinin, who is the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism. They were joined by representatives of the U.N. Working Groups on Arbitrary Detention, and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

In the study, the United States and the administration of former President George W. Bush received some of the harshest criticism for the use of secret detention after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The main focus [of the report] is on the United States of America, because they have developed a very sophisticated program of extraordinary rendition flights where persons have been kidnapped who were suspected of terrorism and flown around the world to different countries for the purpose of keeping them in secret places, for getting information about future terrorist attacks," Nowak said.

John Bolton was President Bush's Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 through 2006. He said the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were an act of war on the United States and, therefore, Washington was entitled to respond in self-defense.

"People say [that] we are torturing these 'poor terrorists' we have picked up. It implies we are putting them on the rack, we are pulling out their fingernails, we are using cattle prods -- none of that is true. None of that has any basis in fact. This is all a question of whether we can out-psyche the terrorists, using techniques that were analyzed by highly-competent lawyers, and which were used in a very limited number of cases and which, by all accounts, did produce useful information," he said.

Shortly after taking office the Obama administration adopted measures intended to treat prisoners more humanely and transparently. The authors of the U.N. report have cautiously welcomed those commitments.

Human rights groups say the report will not lead to prosecutions, but that it will shine a light on illegal practices governments try to keep hidden. They say exposing that can lead to change.

After talking with PM, UN rights envoy cites human rights progress

Phnom Penh Post 20/01/2010

THE UN’s human rights envoy to Cambodia said progress had been made on human rights issues in the Kingdom, following talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“We discussed a wide range of human rights issues. We have been making progress on freedom of expression and the NGO law, land evictions and the cooperation between civil society and the government,” Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, told reporters after the meeting.

“I will not go into individual specific allegations of human rights violations. We are looking at the total picture of the human rights situation in Cambodia.”

Subedi arrived in Cambodia on Monday for a 12-day visit to examine the functioning of the National Assembly and judiciary, and probe the current human rights situation in the Kingdom, according to a statement released by the UN on Friday. The visit, Subedi’s second, comes following a similar mission in June.

Subedi said that though there are a number of human rights issues that remain a concern in Cambodia, his discussion with the prime minister was cordial.

He described as positive the government’s stated goal of strengthening the country’s human rights mechanisms, ultimately leading to the establishment of an independent Human Rights Commission to monitor human rights issues throughout the country.

Subedi and Hun Sen also both approved of the idea of an election to select a civil society representative who could liaise directly with the government over issues of concern, said Om Yentieng, head of the government’s Human Rights Committee.

“The two sides have opened their hearts in a dialogue about the development of the human rights situation, and Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed with Subedi’s idea of calling on the NGOs in Cambodia to elect their representative in order to facilitate dialogue with the government,” he said.

He added: “I think that Subedi is in a transitional period and wants to get some ideas from Hun Sen in order for the UN to help support Cambodia on human rights issues.”

Oxfarm: $200 billion is needed every year to succeed in reducing green house gases in developing world

Negotiators from 192 nations are in Copenhagen trying to hammer out a global warming treaty that balances the economic concerns of rich nations with the demands of developing countries, who say they would suffer most from a warmer planet.

$200 billion is needed every year, said Oxfam to succeed in reducing green house gases in developing world

One NGO says putting more money on the table could mean the difference between success and failure at the climate change conference in Copenhagen.

Hugh Cole, a climate change advisor for Oxfam International, says there are three key components for a strong and fair climate change deal in Copenhagen.

“First, it has to be fair. That means it has to acknowledge historical responsibility. The second is it must be ambitious. It has to be ambitious enough to limit global warming. The third key element—whatever is agreed upon here in Copenhagen must be binding,” he says.

On Thursday, American billionaire financier George Soros proposed an alternative scheme for helping poor countries pay for the changes needed to adapt to climate change.

Cole says finance indeed is the key that could unlock the whole deal.

EU Earmarks $3.6 Billion in Aid for Developing Countries

VOA News European Union is earmarking nearly $3.6 billion yearly in short-term aid for developing countries to adapt to climate change. At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders also agreed to cut their carbon emissions by 30 percent - if other developed countries followed suit.

The agreement on short-term climate funding was reached after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels. EU aid for developing countries will total about $7.2 billion between 2010-2012, with Britain, Germany and France contributing the lion's share. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency until January, announced the sum at a press conference.

"We of course are very pleased and satisfied that we [had] contributions from all member countries and that we also now show leadership in taking our fair share of the fast-start money that we know is important to get the global agreement in place and we of course now urge other developed parts of the world to make that same contribution so this will add up," said Mr. Reinfeld.

The EU aid may help boost negotiations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen. The United Nations is urging industrialized nations to contribute about $30 billion in short-term climate aid to poor nations. Overall, the EU estimates about $150 billion in assistance will be needed by 2020. The money would help developing nations invest in things like coastal protection and renewable energy to help deal with climate change. Reinfeldt said Europe would contribute what he described as its "fair share."

No nation is completely free of human rights violations, said UN High Commission for Human Right Navi Pillay

VOA News UN Calls for End to Discrimination on Human Rights Day

The United Nations says intolerance, prejudice and discrimination lie at the heart of human rights violations. To mark this year's Human Rights Day, the United Nations is calling on governments and people around the world to live up to the international laws and standards that exist to protect the human rights.

No nation is completely free of human rights violations, said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay

Among the principle victims, the United Nations cites women and girls who are discriminated against, in varying degrees, in all societies.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay admits sometimes she, too, has been guilty of discriminating against others.

"And, really in my own life, in my adult life, I must confess that - and my young children pointed it out to me - they said 'Mommy you are being racist,'" Pillay said.

Pillay says, growing up in South Africa, during the era of apartheid, conditioned blacks and other minority groups to view all white people as oppressors.

"I myself, growing as a child and as a young adult really suffered the inferiority complex. You really think that, because of your color, you are ugly and no good," Pillay said. "And, you have no sense of self-confidence."

Half of World's Refugees Live in Cities

VOA News: UN refugee agency reports half of the world's 10.5 million refugees and nearly 20 million of internally displaced people and returnees are living in cities

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, left, next to Jose Riera, right, HCR Secretary, opens a two-day United Nations conference trying to boost support for Iraqis who have fled violence in their country

Mayors from some 20 cities around the world are attending a two-day meeting hosted by the United Nations refugee agency to address the problems faced by millions of refugees, internally displaced people and returnees who are living in cities and towns around the world. Representatives of national governments and international organizations are seeking ways to help the urban refugees and to ease the growing strains on the cities.

The U.N. refugee agency reports half of the world's 10.5 million refugees are living in cities and towns. They are joined by nearly twice that number of internally displaced people and returnees.

It says the perception that most refugees live in sprawling tented camps is no longer true. It says the growing phenomenon of urban refugees poses many new problems and challenges for both the refugees and the cities that host them.

UNHCR Senior Policy Advisor Jose Riera tells VOA this is why the agency is reaching out for the first time to mayors.

Australia tells Copenhagen Summit what it wants

News Com Au AUSTRALIA has told the Copenhagen summit it's time for "bold action'' on climate change.

"We want a success at Copenhagen, in fact we want a resounding success," Ms Hand said last night, to applause from the floor.

"We're committed to bold action, we're committed to a strong outcome."

"All governments have a responsibility to combat the threat of climate change."

The call to arms comes despite uncertainty about action at home, after the Liberal Opposition killed off the emissions trading scheme and elected Tony Abbott who's expressed doubts about climate science.

And the Copenhagen speech was made on behalf of some of the world's biggest economies.

Australia was speaking to the conference for the Umbrella Group, an informal arrangement of developed countries who are not from the European Union. The group includes the US, Japan and the Russian Federation.

Ms Hand, a senior Federal Government bureaucrat, said the Umbrella Group recognised the science that greenhouse gas emissions should halve by 2050 to limit global warming to two degrees.

The group's countries were ready to make that vision a reality by playing their full, fair part in a deal, she said.

"Copenhagen cannot be a business as usual outcome," Ms Hand said.

"All governments have a responsibility to combat the threat of climate change."

Greenpeace greets world leaders with age-old lesson

News Com Au IGNORE the science, go nuclear, think about working families - Australians have voiced their concerns about climate change and want their Prime Minister to listen up.

After two weeks of calling for comment, www.news.com.au has pulled together its Open Letter to Kevin Rudd from the People of Australia from hundreds of suggestions as to what we really want out of the two-week Copenhagen climate change summit which opens tonight in Denmark.

See the final draft of the Letter to Copenhagen from the People of Australia

There's even a request for some Copenhagen cheese among the final 50 selected, which are on their way to his office and will hopefully give the Prime Minister some food for thought in Copenhagen.

See the Greenpeace billboards - the World Leaders

Greenpeace have also planned a special message for Mr Rudd, giving him a shock preview of how he'll look in 2020 at Copenhagen International Airport.

It's commissioned a series of billboards featuring the world's leaders apologising in 2020 for their inaction on climate change in 2009.

Mr Rudd joins an aged US President Barack Obama, Germany's Angela Merkel and Brtain's Gordon Brown, looking mournful and claiming: "I'm sorry. We could have stopped catastrophic climate chage ... we didn't."