The State of the World's Human Rights

Americas

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 60 years on

If human rights are today at the heart of the UN project, it is in large part thanks to the efforts of Latin American countries. Human rights ranked low in the list of priorities for the major post-war powers involved in drafting the UN Charter, including the USA. However, in 1945, just before the San Francisco UN founding meeting, the Inter- American Conference met in Mexico City and decided to seek the
inclusion of a transnational declaration of rights in the UN Charter which eventually led to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In May 1948, several months before the adoption of the UDHR, the Inter-American Conference adopted the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the world’s first general human rights instrument.

This crucial contribution to international human rights has been overshadowed in the intervening years by the military rule which dominated much of the region. From the 1960s to the mid-1980s many Latin American countries endured years of military government characterized by widespread and systematic human rights violations.  Some violations, such as enforced disappearances, became emblematic of both the regimes and of Amnesty International’s campaigning focus in the region during those years.

The end of military rule and the return to civilian, constitutionally elected governments have seen an end to the pattern of widespread and systematic enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture of political opponents. However, the hopes that a new era of respect for human rights had arrived have in many cases proved unfounded.

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2007 under review ‘War on terror’

Six years into the so-called “war on terror”, the USA continued to hold hundreds of people in indefinite military detention without charge or trial in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, in addition to the thousands held in Iraq.

In July, President George W. Bush gave the green light for the CIA’s programme of secret detention and interrogation to continue. One in a long list of unlawful policies adopted by the administration as part of the “war on terror”, the President’s re-authorization of this programme was a clear rejection of the principles underlying the UDHR. Indeed, President Bush issued his executive order a year after two UN treaty- monitoring bodies told the US government in no uncertain terms that secret detention violates the USA’s international obligations.

For those seeking justice for the detainees in Guantánamo, attention during 2007 focused on the US Supreme Court in what was seen as a crucial moment for human rights. In February, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that provisions of the Military Commissions Act stripping the courts of the jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions applied to all detainees held in Guantánamo. An appeal against this ruling was initially dismissed by the Supreme Court. However, in June the Supreme Court took the historically unusual step of vacating its earlier order. On 5 December it heard oral arguments with the government arguing that, even if the detainees did have the right to habeas corpus (which it claims they do
not), the limited judicial review to which they have access was an “adequate substitute”.

Habeas corpus – the right to have a judge rule on the lawfulness of one’s detention – is a fundamental principle of the rule of law. Detainees in US custody who have been denied recourse to this procedure have been subjected to enforced disappearance, secret detention and transfer, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and unfair trial procedures. Sixty years after
the UDHR, such policies and practices are an affront to the world it envisaged. The Supreme Court is due to rule on the habeas corpus issue by mid-2008.

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Justice and impunity

In April, a federal court of appeals in Buenos Aires, Argentina, ruled that pardons granted to former military ruler Jorge Videla and former Admiral Emilio Massera in 1989 for crimes under international law were unconstitutional and therefore null and void.

In September, the Chilean Supreme Court of Justice delivered a historic decision when it approved the extradition of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses in Peru.

However, in November the Chilean Supreme Court acquitted a retired colonel of the enforced disappearance of three people in 1973 on the basis that the statute of limitations had expired. This judgment flouted international human rights standards and was a setback for all those seeking justice and redress for crimes committed under the military government of former President Augusto Pinochet. The Supreme Court of Panama also ruled that enforced disappearances committed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by state agents were covered by the statute of limitations.

Amnesty laws remained in place in Chile and Uruguay for crimes committed during the military governments of the 1970s and 1980s. However, in Uruguay the appeals court confirmed in September the trial and detention of former President Juan Maria Bordaberry (1971- 1976) as co-author of 10 homicides. In December, former President General Gregorio Alvarez (1981-1985) was arrested and charged as
co-author of the enforced disappearances of more than 30 people.

In Mexico a federal judge concluded in July that the massacre of students in Tlatelolco square in 1968 constituted a crime of genocide, but that there was insufficient evidence against former President Luis Echeverría to continue the prosecution. Human rights violations committed by agents of the state
continued to be poorly investigated in most countries. In Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Jamaica, for example, human rights violations committed by law enforcement officials were rarely, if ever, prosecuted.

Corruption, inefficiency and lack of clear political will to bring those responsible for human rights violations to account characterized justice systems in many parts of the region. In addition the use of military and police courts to try personnel who commit human rights violations remained a serious concern. In Colombia, for example, many of the more than 200 killings by the security forces reported in 2007
were referred to the military justice system where the military’s assertion that the victims were killed in combat was usually accepted and the cases closed without further scrutiny. In Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission found that military personnel were responsible for committing serious abuses against a number of civilians while participating in policing operations. Despite the consistent failure of military courts to ensure justice in human rights cases, the Commission failed to recommend that such cases be tried in civilian courts.

In the context of US conduct in the “war on terror”, a lack of accountability for human rights violations remains a serious problem, particularly at higher levels in the chain of command.

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Asia-Pacific

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 60 years on

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Ongoing conflicts and the growing violence perpetrated by armed groups have continued to generate grave abuses across the region, undermining the security of millions. In addition to refugee populations denied a durable solution, hundreds of thousands remain internally displaced by conflict. Meanwhile in many countries security forces have enjoyed impunity for decades for human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-
treatment perpetrated in the name of “national security”. Political instability and the reassertion of military authority – often via the imposition of states of emergency – have undermined institutions crucial for the protection of human rights, or stalled their reform, in several countries. In this anniversary year of the UDHR, the prospect of an effective remedy for victims of human rights violations in many countries remains illusory.

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Armed conflict and political repression

Keen to present itself as an ally in the “war on terror”, an already fragile Pakistan was plunged into political chaos in November when General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended Pakistan’s Constitution. His actions followed challenges by the Supreme Court to his presidential candidacy while being the Army Chief of Staff. Around 50 judges were removed from the higher judiciary. The subsequent crackdown led to severe curbs on freedom of expression and movement, with the arbitrary detention of thousands of lawyers, journalists and human rights activists. Elections were set for January 2008 and former Prime
Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif returned from exile at the end of the year to put themselves forward as candidates. From the beginning, the process was marred by violence, culminating in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December.

Increasing violence, insecurity and political repression, including restrictions on freedom of expression, were widespread elsewhere in the region. Human rights defenders and others attempting to peacefully safeguard their rights were vulnerable to a wide range of abuses. Abductions and enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment plagued the region and, in many cases, were carried out with impunity.

In August, large-scale protests began in Myanmar against the government’s economic and political policies. At least 31 people, and likely more than 100, were killed in the subsequent crackdown by the authorities, and a similar number were thought to be the victims of enforced disappearance. Although the initial response
from the international community was robust, by the end of the year, it had waned.Political prisoners continued to be arrested and sentenced at year end, despite government assurances to the UN and their claims of a return to "normalcy".

Enforced disappearances, unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and torture continued to be a feature of the ongoing and escalating conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the armed opposition group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Armed attacks on civilians were perpetrated by both sides. The LTTE engaged in
indiscriminate attacks on civilians.Enforced disappearances appeared to remain part of the government’s counter-insurgency strategy and were often reportedly carried out by security forces or by armed groups acting with their complicity. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced from their homelands, particularly in the north, as conflict continued. As hostilities intensified the space for dissent was increasingly restricted, and journalists, particularly those associated with the Tamil media, were attacked, abducted and killed. Despite compelling evidence, the authorities failed to effectively investigate or prosecute those responsible for unlawful killings.

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Europe and Central Asia

2007 under review: Security and human rights

One of the most striking cases in point is that of renditions. Evidence emerged during 2007 that finally placed the complicity of European states in the US-led programme of secret and unlawful detentions beyond dispute. It also proved governments had been complicit in transferring people to foreign countries outside the rule of law, in enforced disappearances, and in the torture and other ill-treatment of those subjected to these renditions and secret detentions.

The gaps in legislation which facilitated foreign and European national intelligences’ unlawful conduct, and shielded them from accountability, have also been clearly identified – but the signature response of states has continued to be silence and inaction.

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Preface

PART 1 Regional overviews
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe-Central Asia
Middle East-North Africa

PART 2
(Revision per country)

PART 3 Selected international and regional human rights treaties
International human rights treaties
Regional human rights treaties

PART 4 Contact Amnesty International

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Amnesty  International  publications

Index