later: Mr. VALENCIA RODRIGUEZ
CONTENTS
Consideration of reports, comments and information submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention (continued)
Tenth periodic report of Algeria (continued)
Action by the General Assembly at its forty-seventh session:
(a) Annual report submitted by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under article 9, paragraph 2, of the Convention (General Assembly resolution 47/79)
(b) Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights (General Assembly resolution 47/111)
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS, COMMENTS AND INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION (agenda item 4) (continued)
Tenth periodic report of Algeria (CERD/C/209/Add.4) (continued)
1. Mr. SHAHI thanked the Algerian representative for the excellent report (CERD/C/209/Add.4) and the supplementary information he had given. The situation described in the report had doubtless changed greatly since the declaration of the state of emergency in Algeria in February 1992 and he hoped that the next periodic report would give full details of the consequences for civil and political rights, particularly the electoral system. He had welcomed the Algerian representative's statement about the "homogeneity" of the Algerian people, which had been asserted rather too strongly in paragraph 63 of the report. Few peoples could claim to be genuinely homogeneous.
2. He asked the Algerian representative whether certain professions were forbidden to join political parties in Algeria. He believed, for example, that judges were not allowed to join political parties, but what about Government employees? Membership of a political party might affect a Government employee's neutrality.
3. He would welcome more details about the new national commission for human rights which had replaced the ministry responsible for human rights. Who appointed the members of the new commission, did it have a statutory basis and how independent were its judgements? What role did it have besides the monitoring of respect for human rights?
4. According to paragraph 91 of the report, no political association could be based on "Behaviour contrary to Islamic morals and to the values of the revolution of 1 November 1954". Some members of the Committee had been concerned that the provision might affect the rights of Jews and Christians in Algeria. He would welcome more information about the concepts of "Islamic morals" and the "values of the revolution".
5. Mr. SHERIFIS said that he had earlier questioned the statement in paragraph 46 of the report about radio broadcasts in the Berber language because he had received allegations that those broadcasts could be heard only near the capital, Algiers. He fully accepted the Algerian representative's statement that the broadcasts could be heard over a wide area and that he had even been able to receive them in Geneva.
6. Mr. van BOVEN thanked the Algerian representative for his informative answers. In respect of the question he had raised at the preceding meeting, he was prepared to accept that the black population of Algeria was much lower than in neighbouring countries and that the figures he had quoted were perhaps out of date; for instance, the figures he had quoted about black university entrants dated from 1988. Nevertheless, the number of black Algerians in higher education still seemed very low.
7. He would welcome more information on the death penalty, although that question did not, strictly speaking, fall within the Committee's mandate. He had read a number of recent press reports stating that the death penalty had been imposed in Algeria.
8. He would also welcome further information about the teaching of the Berber language in Algeria. Were the courses referred to in paragraph 46 merely intended to assist study of the Berber culture or were they genuine language courses at a variety of levels?
9. Mr. BANTON said that, at the preceding meeting, the Algerian representative had stated that Berber was not yet considered a language in its own right in Algeria, although it was on the way to becoming one. He would welcome a clarification in the next periodic report of the criteria used by the Algerian authorities in defining a "language". It might be, for example, that the authors of the report had described the situation prevailing at the time of their own education and that things had improved since. He would also like to know how long Berber had been a written language, since communications sent to the Committee conflicted with the information given by the Algerian representative.
10. Mrs. SADIQ ALI said that, if Berber was taught at university level, it must surely be a language in its own right. In that case, why was it not taught at primary and secondary level, too? She would also like to know what religion the Berber people practised. Perhaps Algeria could provide information about the Berber community in a separate section of the next periodic report.
11. Mr. de GOUTTES asked whether any political organizations had actually been banned for behaviour contrary to Islamic morals and the values of the revolution of 1 November 1954, as referred to in paragraph 91 of the report.
12. Mr. YUTZIS asked what constituted behaviour "contrary to Islamic morals". Who defined such behaviour - the State, the administration, religious authorities or some combination of the three? Did the provision prohibit the founding of a political party based on a religion other than Islam?
13. Mr. Valencia Rodriguez took the Chair.
14. Mr. SEMICHI (Algeria) said that he would do his best to answer the Committee's additional questions. Mr. Shahi had asked whether any professions were banned from joining political parties: under article 9 of the Constitution, judges, members of the armed forces and police officers were not allowed to be active members or executive officers of political associations (CERD/C/209/Add.4, para. 91). In reply to other questions asked at the preceding meeting about the judiciary, he said that there were some 1,700 judges in Algeria, including 250 women at all levels right up to the Supreme Court. Judges had their own representative and disciplinary body, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, and they also had two trade unions.
15. Mr. Shahi had asked about the activities of the national commission on human rights (Observatoire national des droits de l'homme). The commission was under the direct authority of the President and its administrative and financial autonomy were guaranteed. Its task was to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, to take action of all kinds to combat human rights violations and to promote information about human rights. It submitted an annual report on the human rights situation to the President of the Republic and the President of the National People's Assembly, which was made public two months afterwards. He had further information which he would pass on to Mr. Shahi.
16. Several members had asked what was meant by the terms "Islamic morals" and "the values of the revolution of 1 November 1954" referred to in the context of article 5 of the Algerian Constitution. Islamic morals were comparable to the morals of major monotheistic religions such as the Judeo-Christian religion in the sense that they were based on universal human values and extolled the virtues of charity, fraternity and solidarity. The values of the revolution of 1 November 1954, on the other hand, were values unique to Algeria; they were based on the principles that Algeria should be a republic, that its national language should be Arabic and its national religion Islam and that its territory should be one and indivisible. All political parties and all sectors of society in Algeria subscribed to those values.
17. Mr. Yutzis had asked whether there was not a certain contradiction between adherence to the values of Islam and the functioning of political parties, such as the Christian Democrat party: in fact, no such contradiction existed. The Christian Democrats were free to operate within the context of Christian ideals, while at the same time working to bring about progress in Algerian society in the same way as other political parties. Those political parties which espoused Islamic ideals were as open-minded as any other and their faith was in no way an obstacle to them in their pursuit of modern and progressive objectives.
18. He thanked Mr. Sherifis for clarifying certain allegations that had been made with regard to the reception of radio broadcasts. In fact, it was easy to pick up Algerian broadcasts even in Geneva, which was at a far greater distance than the regions of Algeria which had claimed not to be able to receive them. Such allegations did not warrant serious consideration.
19. Mr. van Boven had asked about numbers of black Algerian students: he would need time to consult his authorities in order to produce the necessary figures. A further question had been raised in respect of censuses. He pointed out that a census, if scientifically conducted, was not simply a matter of counting heads; it included a number of specific questions, the answers to which had to be analysed. While the initial results could provide a global population figure, considerable time, effort and expenditure were needed to obtain an accurate picture. Even in the most advanced countries, it was often four or five years before conclusions could be drawn from the data obtained.
20. Mr. van Boven had also referred to Berber minority groups. Although he had replied to that question earlier, he would return to the subject, since the question was a very important one and he would not like it to be misunderstood. The term "Berber" derived from the Latin and denoted peoples who were "barbarian" or "foreign" in the sense that they were outside the boundaries of the Roman Empire. The term "Berber" did not form part of Algerian culture and tradition and was not used in Algeria.
21. However, there did exist in Algeria ethnic populations which claimed to be descended from tribes of great antiquity outside the mainstream of the civilizations of the Mediterranean region. They fell into three main groups, corresponding to three different regions of Algeria: the Amazigh group was to be found chiefly in the Kabylia region. They comprised in total more than half the entire population and participated fully and on a basis of equality in Algerian life: they could thus hardly be regarded as minorities, and were in no sense marginalized. Within a common cultural framework, the flourishing of specific regional cultures was encouraged.
22. It had been asked why the Amazigh language currently being taught at the University of Tizi-Ouzou, mentioned in paragraph 46 of the report, could not also be taught in primary and secondary schools. The University was carrying out research into the origins and structure of the Amazigh language, as a preparation for teaching it on a wider basis at a later stage. The point had not yet been reached when it would be possible to teach such languages in schools.
23. It had also been asked whether any political parties had been banned because their programmes did not conform with Islamic morals or with the values of the revolution of 1 November 1954. There were currently 67 political parties in Algeria and over 20,000 associations of various kinds, which had full freedom to pursue their activities. Only one political party, the PPA, which had been active during the war of liberation and which had fomented internal dissensions and civil strife, resulting in the fragmentation of the liberation movement, had had its application for recognition rejected by the Ministry of the Interior when it had sought to re-establish itself following independence. That decision by the Ministry of the Interior had subsequently been upheld by the Supreme Court.
24. Mr. GARVALOV said he was grateful to the Algerian representative for his explanation that, in Algeria, "Islamic morals" meant essentially the same as the morals of the Judeo-Christian religion and were in effect basic human values. Had other values been implied, article 5 of the Algerian Constitution might have been seen as in contradiction with the provisions of the Convention.
25. The CHAIRMAN said that the Committee had now concluded the first part of its consideration of the report of Algeria (CERD/C/209/Add.4). He thanked the representative of Algeria for his cooperation and for his comprehensive replies to questions raised by members of the Committee.
26. Mr. Semichi (Algeria) withdrew.
ACTION BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS FORTY-SEVENTH SESSION (agenda item 2):
(a) ANNUAL REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION UNDER ARTICLE 9, PARAGRAPH 2, OF THE CONVENTION (continued) (General Assembly resolution 47/79);
(b) EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, INCLUDING REPORTING OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS (continued) (General Assembly resolution 47/111)
27. Mr. BANTON, referring to the Secretariat paper of 19 February 1993 containing a summary of action taken by the General Assembly at its forty-seventh session on the annual report of the Committee and the effective functioning of United Nations human rights instruments and effective functioning of bodies established pursuant to such instruments, said that he had three questions to raise with regard to a resource centre: first, whether the proposal for such a centre had been analysed; secondly, whether there had been any consultation with the library of the Centre for Human Rights; and, thirdly, whether some partial funding arrangement could be made if complete funding could not be found. He understood that there had been some further discussion of the proposal since the fourth meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, but the idea might be given additional momentum if the Committee were to support it.
28. His own suggestion would be that the Centre for Human Rights should decide to establish a resource centre, even if certain questions remained about where it was to be located. Having reached a decision in principle, the Centre might then write to Member States of the United Nations inviting them to supply the new centre with copies of the annual reports of human rights institutions in those States. The problem of costs could be solved if States could arrange for such institutions to send copies automatically to the resource centre.
29. The volume of material thus collected would soon increase and could not be kept in the resource centre indefinitely: at some stage, it would need to be put on microfilm and stored in the library. There would thus be need for a common database, available both to the library and to the resource centre. There had been some dispute about the nature of that database: he stressed that it should be common only to the extent that staff in the resource centre should know what was available in the library and staff in the library should be aware what was available in the resource centre.
30. He hoped that the resource centre could also obtain a complete set of reports from non-governmental organizations bearing on human rights matters. It might also obtain material on State legislation. The Centre for Human Rights had already collected a mass of information from States with a view to preparing a global compilation of legislation against racial discrimination: that material ought not be dispersed, but archived in such a way as to make it readily accessible.
31. The members of the Committee might also have occasion to refer to the constitutions of countries: the texts of constitutions could easily be kept on a computer record so that they could be called up when required.
32. The Centre for Human Rights had understood that, in setting up such a resource centre, it would need advice from professional librarians. He pointed out, however, that professional librarians were equipped to deal with means, but not with ends. It was for the members of the Committee to decide what documentation they would need so that the librarians could be instructed accordingly. He hoped that the Centre would shortly be writing to members of all human rights treaty bodies, asking them to decide what material they wished to be stored in the resource centre.
33. Lastly, he suggested that, whenever new members were elected to treaty bodies, arrangements should be made for them to be given a conducted tour of both the library and the resource centre and informed what assistance was available to them in making use of the material they contained.
34. If those proposals met with the Committee's approval, he suggested that they should be incorporated in its report in order to reinforce the recommendations made in that connection in the report of the fourth meeting of persons chairing human rights treaty bodies (A/47/628).
35. Mr. van BOVEN said that the issues raised by Mr. Banton on sources and types of information were crucial to the Committee's work. From a practical point of view, the Committee should probably think in terms of achieving its objective in three stages. The first related to country files. United Nations material had already been provided, could be expanded by information from specialized agencies and even from regional organizations such as the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe and could be easily accessible by means of modern technology. There was no reason why such files could not be made available from the beginning of the Committee's next session, at least as far as additional United Nations material was concerned.
36. The second stage, which would depend on available resources and expertise, would relate to the resource centre, where thematic materials, materials from non-governmental organizations and State legislation, for example, could be stored and made available. The third stage would involve the establishment of a proper database.
37. It was particularly important that the Committee should set a time-limit for the achievement of those targets and, to start with, it should formally request that country files should be made available as from the beginning of its August 1993 session. The other issues mentioned by Mr. Banton could be referred to in the Committee's report.
38. Mr. GARVALOV said that the paper under consideration included many new points that would have to be incorporated into the Committee's methods of work. It also gave the Committee an opportunity to look at its work from a broader point of view. Although the Committee's mandate was determined by the Convention, the suggestion that treaty bodies might become involved in early-warning activities and preventive diplomacy, particularly in cases of massive human rights violations, was a new departure which would enable the Committee to realign its own thinking in terms of recent developments in the world and to become more effective.
39. The question of the universality of the treaty system and that of the primitive working conditions of the Centre for Human Rights had also been discussed by the General Assembly, as had the fact that only 1 per cent of the United Nations budget was devoted to human rights. He had seen many changes in the Organization's priorities over the years, but had yet to see human rights figure among them. Since massive human rights violations were now leading to clashes, conflicts and even outright war, it was time for human rights to be placed, if not at the top, then high on the United Nations list of priorities, and for its budget to be amended accordingly.
40. It was encouraging that the work of the Human Rights Committee had been discussed extensively by the General Assembly and that it had been commended on its decision to adopt concluding comments on States reports reflecting the views of the Committee as a whole. A new element, however, was the suggestion that the Committee should draft comments on article 27 of the Covenant dealing with the rights of minorities. The problem was that comments were being requested on an international instrument which was already in force and had been ratified by many States parties. Article 27 had always been a difficult area in discussions on the rights of minorities and delegations either based themselves on it or avoided it completely, depending on their positions. If the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination decided to hold its own discussion of article 27 of the Covenant, it should bear in mind that some instruments relating to European regional organizations went beyond the provisions of article 27. There was nothing wrong in trying to update wording to keep abreast of world events, but, as the Committee had seen during its discussion of the resolution adopted by the Commission on Human Rights on measures to combat contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (E/CN.4/1993/L.20/Rev.1), even the Commission had difficulty ensuring that the wording it used was consistent with that of earlier resolutions.
41. He had also been glad to see that a number of delegations in the General Assembly had pointed out that information from non-governmental organizations greatly facilitated the work of treaty bodies. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had already clearly stated its position on that issue.
42. The question of States parties which did not submit their periodic reports on time had also been discussed. As a remedy, such countries might be asked to supply additional information within a period of six months. According to article 9 of the Convention and rule 65 of the rules of procedure, the Committee was entitled to formulate such a request, which would make the reporting State more aware of its obligations.
43. At a time when much pressure was being placed on United Nations treaty bodies and on the international community as a whole, progress might be made if States parties and the General Assembly were to look into ways of updating the Convention. It had already been pointed out in an earlier discussion that the Convention was based on concepts which had been very relevant at the time when it had been drafted more than 25 years previously, but it had been overtaken by new concepts which needed to be considered as soon as possible.
44. Mr. DIACONU, referring to the paper under consideration, said that the idea of establishing an international human rights court with compulsory jurisdiction was rather unrealistic in view of the problems involved in setting up an international court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in the former Yugoslavia. Even the establishment of a court to try human rights violations would be virtually impossible at the present time. The Committee should therefore try to identify the recommendations and ideas which would be useful to its own work.
45. There was clearly some merit in drafting comments on articles of the Convention, as the Human Rights Committee was doing, but, in order to do so, the Committee would have to review its working methods and discuss each of the articles of the Convention at length to arrive at a general interpretation. Such an exercise would be useful, but he doubted whether he personally could take on a commitment of that kind.
46. A resource centre which would be available to the members of the Committee would be a valuable asset, but it would have to be as complete as possible and provide all the necessary information. It must not become a repository for outdated documents, but must contain all the latest reports and information dating back only two or three years, so that the current situation in each country would be immediately apparent. Care should also be taken to ensure that the documentation was complete, particularly in the sense that any communication to States parties was accompanied by the relevant reply. In addition, country files should not be kept in a library where they would be generally available.
47. Mr. Garvalov's idea of requesting States parties to provide additional information within a given time-limit was a good one, but it should not become the general rule; additional information should be requested only if needed.
48. Mr. RECHETOV said that, in the last line of the fourth paragraph of section (b) of the paper under consideration, newly independent States should be referred to as "successors" to the obligations arising from human rights instruments, rather than as "inheriting" those obligations.
49. In the past, States had fallen into two groups with respect to the Convention: they had either ratified or acceded to it or they had decided not to do so. The latter were generally democratic countries which had made their decision on the basis of legal reservations in respect of certain articles. A third group had, however, recently emerged, namely, States which had come into existence as a result of the collapse of certain countries; in some of those States, the human rights situation, and inter-ethnic relations in particular, needed careful monitoring. Only five of the former Soviet republics and two of the Baltic States had become parties to the Convention, while the States of Central Asia and the three trans-Caucasian republics, two vast areas with enormous populations, had not. The Committee needed to examine the reasons why countries in that third group had not ratified or acceded to the Convention. A number of the newly formed States had not made declarations under article 14 of the Convention, and that gave rise to a serious problem in view of the economic and political conditions in those States. The Commission on Human Rights was currently preparing a draft resolution which appealed to those States to fulfil their obligations under the international human rights instruments. The Committee might consider adopting a similar resolution making particular reference to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
50. Mr. de GOUTTES thanked Mr. Banton for drawing attention to the proposed resource centre. He fully endorsed the idea of establishing such a centre, which would greatly facilitate the Committee's work. As the situation currently stood, the documentation provided by the Secretariat and by non-governmental organizations was useful, but not adequate. The centre would serve to centralize all the information, thus enabling the Secretariat to prepare a complete set of documents to accompany each country report. The centre would also serve as a repository for documentation collected by members of the Committee, who often received human rights documents from national and regional bodies.