Column*
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| DOI | 10.1177/092405199701500201 |
| Author | Peter R. Baehr |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Column'
Human rights have more and more become an instrument
of
foreign policy. The British
weekly The Economist surprised many of its readers, when it recently advocated making
human rights a target
of
foreign policy as well: 'Pressure for human rights discomfits
oppressors, encourages their victims and, in the long run, makes the world safer. Apply
it.' (The Economist, 12 April 1997)
Unfortunately, however, most governments in the world do not share that view. A quite
contrary position is often adopted, even by governments that should know better. Policies
toward China and the former Yugoslavia are cases in point.
Recently, the fifteen States that make up the European Union, found themselves unable
to agree on a common position in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
criticizing China's human rights record, as they had done in previous years. This year,
France, Germany, Italy and Spain refused to support a draft proposed by the Dutch
presidency
of
the EU. Trade relations with China weighed more heavily for these
governments than human rights considerations. It was left to the Danes and the Dutch,
supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, to make the effort, which
predictably failed, as a majority
of
the members
of
the Commission, as in previous years,
blocked consideration
of
the issue.
In the former Yugoslavia, our editorial colleague, Manfred Nowak, saw himself forced
to give up his position as UN expert on missing persons. His task was to investigate the
whereabouts
of
thousands of individuals who had disappeared. This involved the
excavation
of
mass graves and exhumation and identification
of
the remains
of
slain
victims. He had taken up this admittedly not very attractive assignment, because he
honestly believed that he was serving the cause of human rights by doing so. The reason
for Nowak to resign was the lack of support by the UN and the governments concerned,
including the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the United States. The fact that he saw
no further way
of
carrying out his task, is a bad sign indeed.
These facts should be cause, not for desperation, but for anger and action. Anger that
many governments show themselves unwilling to see to it that the standards are enforced
to which they so often pay lipservice. Action, not to give up putting pressure on such
governments, but to try even harder. In its preambule, the Universal Declaration
of
Human
Rights, whose fiftieth birthday will be celebrated next year, is called a 'common standard
of
achievement for all peoples and all nations'. Governments should be continuously
reminded that they should apply that standard in their foreign policy as well. This is an
obligation owed not only to the victims
of
human rights violations and their relatives, but
to humanity as a whole.
Peter R. Baehr
Views expressed in this editorial column are
of
a strictly personal nature and are not necessarily shared by
the other editors.
Netherlands Quarterly
of
Human Rights, Vol. 15/2, 141, 1997. 141
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