VI Other News
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419100900209 |
| Date | 01 June 1991 |
| Published date | 01 June 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
NQHR 2 /1991
solve the continent's severe economic difficulties, which make a mockery
of all human rights. Years of IMF-propagated medicines
are
partly
responsible for the present unrest in African countries. However, France's
decision to stop propping up undemocratic regimes may have been partly
responsible as well: this change in policy, announced at the Franco-African
summit held at La Baule, June 1990, meant the end for Hissene Habre's
regime in Chad, which was refused French military back-up and swept away
by a rebel force a few months later. The Chadian example illustrates
another aspect of Africa's dilemma's: on the one hand dependence on
Western countries may provided necessary support for the process of
democratization, while on the
other
hand it may consolidate African
dependenceon outside forces,leaving the evolution towards democracy and
the rule of law in a vulnerable state. What is certain, however, is that
despite the slow beginnings of the African Commission on Human and
People's Rights, political and civil liberties will remain on African govern-
ment agenda's for some time. Meanwhile, the promotion of human rights
is primarily a responsibility of national NGO's (April 1991).
VI OTHER NEWS
ASeminar on Refugees and Displaced Persons in New Host Countries-
Budapest, 28
April-
4May 1991
Between 28 April and 4 May 1991, the Hungarian Government hosted an
international seminar in Budapest.
The
meeting ("Seminar on Refugees
and Displaced Persons in New
Host
Countries") was jointly organized by
the Hungarian Parliament's
Human
Rights Committee, the Hungarian
Government, the Centre for Refugee Studies of Toronto's York University
and the Netherlands Institute of
Human
Rights of the Universityof Utrecht
(SIM), in cooperation with the
Van
Asbeck Centre for Human Rights
Studies of the University of Leiden.
The
seminar was a good example for designing national refugee and
immigration policy in light of decade-long international experiences and
expertise. Hungary, as the first East/Central European country which have
had to face since 1988 the challenge of mass exoduses into her territory,
• Geza Tessenyi
196
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