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Date: June 5, 2009
Document id: ALRC-COS-11-011-2009
Speaker: Gail Davidson
HRC section: Item 2: General Debate
A Joint Oral Statement to the 11th Session of the Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization with general consultative status and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), a non-government organization with special consultative status
ASIA: The need for investigations into violations of human rights
The High Commissioner observed in her statement, that the Human Rights Council is the leading venue within the UN “to safeguard the fundamental rights of men and women in all countries and to respond systematically and effectively to violations of these rights regardless of where they occur.”
In the case of gross violations of human rights, including significant occurrences of torture, forced disappearance and extra-judicial killings, an effective response by the Council must include ensuring investigations of the cause(s) of these violations. Concerning extra-judicial killings, such investigations must fulfill the requirements of the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions. The principles establish that, in order to ensure remedies, investigations must be independent, thorough, prompt, transparent and accountable.
Such investigations characteristically do not occur when there are allegations of state involvement, as reported time and time again by mandate holders. This failure fosters impunity, encouraging further abuses. Recent examples of this are outlined in the report of Special Rapporteur Philip Alston in reference to killings in several countries, including Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Recognizing this, the High Commissioner has called for an independent international inquiry into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. LRWC and ALRC urge the Human Rights Council to create the means to itself provide prompt, competent investigations as one of the Council’s primary response mechanisms. In the absence of independent investigations, all other responses are ineffective. Experience proves that States engaged in perpetrating gross, widespread violations have neither the will nor ability to investigate and prosecute these crimes.
Webcast video: http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/eleventh/hrc090605am-eng.rm?start=01:31:59&end=01:33:50
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About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia.
Posted on 2009-06-09
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