Human rights issues get `sanitized' in Geneva

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Geneva

In Salle XVII, eight languages are simultaneously spoken, or rather translated. Yet here in the main conference room in the Palais des Nations, where the Commission on Human Rights meets every year, the situation is hushed and orderly. Even the voice of the speaker can barely be heard. Most people tune in to one of the channels of the eight simultaneous translations through the earphone provided.

Each year, the round hall with wooden panel walls takes center stage on human rights issues. At the podium sits the chairs of the 61st session, which this year is headed by Makarim Wibisono, Indonesia's permanent ambassador to the United Nations offices in Geneva. He normally opens and closes the meeting each day, but in between, the meetings may be chaired by one of his deputies.

On the floor, the desks are arranged in half circles, and delegates sit in areas designated by countries organized alphabetically. On one side, there is a gallery for NGO representatives. It's free seating here, and some NGO activists have been forced to stand. A smaller section adjacent is the press gallery. Although only few or none of the 16 seats reserved for journalists are occupied at most times, the light-blue uniformed security officer politely turns away any NGO activists who try to sit in the press section.

Delegates and NGO observers may troop in and out of the conference room even as the meeting is under way, others may speak in hushed tones, and still others take advantage of the wireless Internet connection inside the hall to browse, check e- mails, or send instructions to their staff outside.

The atmosphere inside the hall is orderly, and the discussions, mostly conducted with the help of interpreters, are cordial and proper.

"I thank the distinguished representative from Georgia. I now invite the distinguished representative from Hungary," is a typical remark Makarim would make during the day while chairing a meeting.

"I thank Mr. President/Chairman..," is the opening line almost every speaker uses. In the first days, they would congratulate Mr. Makarim for his appointment, and also congratulate Indonesia for the democratic elections it held last year.

All this week, virtually all speakers used their precious limited allotted time to express condolences and pay tribute to Pope John Paul II before moving on to make a statement.

Such cordiality and diplomatic niceties are observed, though perhaps not as strictly, by NGO activists, many of whom during a normal working day are known to be vocal and often loud in order to be heard, and certainly informal.

The situation here is very diplomatique.

The atmosphere in Salle XVII and the adjacent halls where delegates meet and talk is a far cry from the very brutal and barbaric nature of the issues they discuss: killings, mutilation, suppression, discrimination, torture; you name it, they are all here.

To say that the 61st Session discusses 1,001 issues is an understatement: There are literally thousands of issues to be brought up in the six weeks between March 14 and April 22 that the session is being held. The commission annually receives 17,000 reports of human rights violations from all parts of the world.

The explosion of issues can be explained in part by the growing presence of NGOs. While states are represented by their respective governments, the commission has accommodated the NGOs by allocating them time to speak of their issues and concerns. Perhaps more important to them, the session affords them rare space and time to lobby and network, not only with fellow NGO activists, but also with delegates from other countries.

It is, however, the official delegates rather than the NGOs that control the agenda of the session. The 53 members of the Commission on Human Rights are also the ones who have the power to initiate, draft, debate and vote on resolutions.

At the end of the day, every one knows that this is still a diplomatic affair, where protocol and ethics must be observed, and cordiality must always be extended. For the unfamiliar, the Geneva Convention takes on a completely different meaning here.

"It's the only time in the year that I wear a suit," confesses Choirul Anam, a member of the Human Rights Working Group that is coordinating the non-governmental organizations in Indonesia at this session.

"We have to play by the rules," Rafendy Jamin, Choirul's colleague, concedes. "Or else, we will be barred from taking part in the future."

Making his 14th consecutive appearance in Geneva this year, Rafendy says his organization and affiliates are using their combined 12 entitlements to take the floor in plenary meetings to speak for three minutes at a time. Rafendy and his colleagues also actively distribute written statements, and have organized many side meetings during the six weeks to try to get their message across.

The cordiality does not necessarily shield the brutal reality of the issues they discuss in Geneva. And the resolutions do have an impact sometimes on the observation of human rights throughout the world, albeit indirectly.

The final two weeks of the session beginning on Monday will be used to discuss, debate and pass various resolutions. While these resolutions are non-binding on the states concerned, they still put tremendous pressure on states to comply or at least cooperate.

Most important of these resolutions is the appointment of special rapporteurs and representatives to look into particular issues in one or more countries, or what many delegate fear most, to look specifically into their country's records.

This year, 21 countries are under the commission's spotlight: Colombia, Sudan including Darfur, Iraq, occupied Palestine, occupied Syrian Golan, Cuba, North Korea, Belarus, Myanmar, Cyprus, Cambodia, Somalia, Burundi, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal and East Timor.

Indonesia had been a target country for much of the 1990s. Today, Indonesia is no longer one, but that does not mean Indonesia is spared from the wrath of the commission. Indonesia is still mentioned in some thematic reports such as on freedom of expression and on human rights defenders.

Rafendy says the whole Geneva exercise may have sanitized the issues because of protocol necessity, but a lot of good does come out of this process. At least as far as the NGOs are concerned, this is the place to build support and solidarity to add external pressure on states, in his case the Indonesian government, to comply with international norms and to meet their human rights obligations.

He recalled the establishment of the National Commission on Human Rights by then president Soeharto in 1993 as an example of the result of pressure that came out Geneva. There have been other measures taken since then, partly though not wholly, in response to international pressure, like the appointment of special rapporteurs in Geneva.

"Sometimes it takes outside pressure to force the government to change," Rafendy says.