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This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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15 MARCH 1996
News Service 56\96



1996 UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
CALLS ON THE COMMISSION TO TAKE ACTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS IN CHINA, COLOMBIA, INDONESIA AND EAST TIMOR,
NIGERIA AND TURKEY.


      Amnesty International challenges the Commission to act
to stop human rights violations. ~There is no shortage of
information. Year after year, the Commission is confronted
with well-attested information from its own Special
Rapporteurs and Working Groups, treaty bodies, governments
and from non-governmental organizations. Yet the Commission
still fails to take effective action,~ the human rights
organization said.

      ~Amnesty International refuses to give up on the
Commission, which remains the international community~s main
human rights body charged with the protection of human
rights.~ Amnesty International said today. ~We call on the
Commission to respond immediately to the flagrant violations
of human rights in China, Colombia, Indonesia and East Timor,
Nigeria and Turkey. The suffering of the victim demands
nothing less.~

      ~Governments, whose votes are weighted in favour of
political and economic considerations, have ignored
widespread imprisonment of people brave enough to exercise
their fundamental freedoms. They have remained silent in the
face of endemic torture and ill-treatment of detainees by
security forces, and extrajudicial and mass executions, ~
Amnesty International said.

      The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions has voiced his concerns about violations
of the right to life in China; in 1993, the Committee against
Torture reported patterns of torture in China and the Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention has concluded that people in
China have been arbitrarily detained in violation of
international human rights standards.

      ~Rather than again abdicating  its responsibility
through ~motions to take no action~, the Commission must
examine China~s human rights record, adopt a resolution, and
call on the Chinese Government to ratify and respect human
rights treaties and  allow the UN human rights protection
experts access to the country,~ Amnesty International said.

      ~This year the Commission has a responsibility to take
action on the human rights situation in Colombia. It should
follow the recommendations of its own experts,~ the human
rights organization said.

      The  Special Rapporteur on torture and the Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions,
after visiting  Colombia in 1994, recommended the appointment
of a special rapporteur, unless the situation improved
radically. These special rapporteurs agree, in their reports
to the Commission this year, that there has been no
improvement in the human

rights situation. Amnesty International joins these experts
in calling for the appointment of  a special rapporteur.

      The Commission itself adopted a resolution on East
Timor  in 1993 which included a set of concrete
recommendations to the Indonesian Government. Reports on
Indonesia indicate that the human rights violations that take
place in East Timor are a reflection of a pattern of
violations throughout Indonesia.

      The  government~s failure to implement most of the
recommendations in the Commission~s  resolution was met only
by statements from the Chairman of the Commission during its
last two sessions. This year, Amnesty International
challenges the Commission to examine whether the government
has fully implemented the recommendations made in the
resolution and Chairman~s statements and to take effective
action.

      The executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni
prisoners are a dramatic example of the long-lasting and
widespread pattern of disregard for human rights in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Government is now particularly targeting human
rights defenders.

      Following the public outcry over the Ken Saro-Wiwa
case, the international community was finally moved to act.
In December 1995 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution
on Nigeria and invited the Commission to give urgent
attention to the situation in this country. Amnesty
International calls for the appointment of a special
rapporteur to monitor the situation and to report to the 1996
UN General Assembly.

      In Turkey violations of fundamental human rights has
been a serious problem for many years. The Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances declared in 1994 that
it had received more allegations of ~disappearances~ from
Turkey than from any other country for that year. The
Committee against Torture reported in 1993 that torture was
systemic in Turkey.

      ~The Turkish Government has given publicity to a series
of cosmetic legal changes which have produced almost no
improvement of the situation,~ according to Amnesty
International. ~The Commission should, as a minimum, urge
Turkey to take immediate steps to address systematic
violations of human rights.~

      ~Inaction by the Commission must stop. The Commission
must send a clear message to all states that no country, big
or small, can avoid international scrutiny,~ said Amnesty
International.

      Finally, Amnesty International urges the Commission to
take decisive action on the draft of the Declaration on Human
Rights Defenders. Progress in the Commission~s Working Group,
which  is drafting the declaration, has been blocked by Cuba,
Nigeria, Iran and China;  they have used the consensus rule
as a veto power. These countries are more interested in
protecting governments against the threat of human rights
defenders than in protecting the rights of citizens and of
those who work for them.



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