Human rights and measures to help the homeless among main concerns of Economic and Social Council; issues relating to drugs, women also on agenda.

Human rights and measures to help the homeless among main concerns of Economic and Social Council

A WIDE VARIETY of issues relating to human rights, including the right to adequate housing, was among the major issues discussed at the first regular session in 1987 of the Economic and Social Council (4-29 May, New York). The 54-member body adopted 63 resolutions and 46 decisions on such other matters as illicit drug traffic, the status of women, social development, crime control, disaster relief assistance, natural resources, racial discrimination, youth, the aging and the disabled.

World-wide efforts to promote the goals of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, being observed this year, were examined.

In one text, the Council expressed its deep concern that millions of people did not enjoy the right to adequate housing, and reiterated the need to take appropriate measures, at the national and international levels, to promote the right of all persons to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate housing.

States and international organizations concerned were called on to develop shelter strategies and settlement improvement programmes. The vote on that text was 53 in favour to none against, with 1 abstention (United States).

In a related action, Governments and all national and international institutions concerned were asked by the Council to adopt decisive steps to achieve the objectives and goals of the International Year for the Homeless. In assessing the results of the Year, the Secretary-General was to pay due attention to the social and human aspects of housing for the poor and disadvantaged and, in that connection, to the practical follow-up of the Year through the Commission for Human Settlements.

Particular situations relating to human rights in specific countries and areas were also discussed and acted on, among them issues concerning southern Africa.

Action to advance the status of women in general was recommended, and recommendations made for a third and fourth world conference on women's rights to be held not later than 1990 and in the year 2000. Consideration was to be given to proclaiming an International Year of the Family.

Within the framework of the United Nations system, the Secretary-General was asked to continue to bring into focus the implementation of the social aspects of the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990, adopted by the General Assembly in June 1986. The Council appealed for increased co-operation and assistance in establishing or improving the infrastructure necessary for sustained social development in Africa.

Disaster relief assistance to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan, Uganda, Vanuatu, El Salvador and Ecuador was approved. Seven resolutions were adopted on the recommendation of the Council's Committee on Natural Resources (see p. 70), including a text concerning progress in implementation of the Mar del Plata Action Plan, adopted at the 1977 United Nations Water Conference in Argentina. The Council also granted Category II consultative status to 33 non-governmental organizations and roster status to 20 others.

Council officers are: Eugeniusz Norowyta of Poland, President; and Abdel Halim Badwai of Egypt, Lloyd M. R. Barnett of Jamaica, Paul Laberge of Canada and Aneesuddin Ahmed of Pakistan, Vice-Presidents.

Apartheid, racism

Among texts concerned with the situation in southern Africa was one by which repression of the independent black trade union movement by the South African Government was condemned. The Council also demanded the immediate release of all trade unionists imprisoned for exercising their legitimate trade union rights.

In acting on the recommendation of its Commission on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) (see p. 60), the Council condemned TNCs that through covert and overt activities in South Africa and Namibia continued systematic and clandestine circumventing of laws and measures imposed by Governments of home countries of TNCs, as well as programmes of disinvestment designed so that TNCs would retain profitable economic links with South Africa. That text was adopted by a vote of 44 to 2 (United Kingdom, United States), with 6 abstentions.

Also condemned were the increased recruitment, financing, training, assembly, transit, use of and support to mercenaries to destabilize and overthrow certain African and Central American Governments and Governments in other developing States and to fight against national liberation movements. The vote on that resolution was 38 in favour to 11 against.

The Council also approved the appointment, as recommended by its Commission on Human Rights, of a Special Rapporteur to examine the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination. The vote was 40 to 12, with 2 abstentions.

The Council reaffirmed the importance of achieving the objectives of the Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1983-1993) and decided to pay particular attention to specific activities of the Programme of Action for the Second Decade directed towards the elimination of apartheid, "in view of the present explosive situation in southern Africa'.

The Secretary-General was asked to submit to the General Assembly a proposed plan of activities for the second half of the Second Decade, paying special attention to the situation of migrant workers and their families.

Human rights

More than 20 texts dealing with various aspects of human rights, many of them in the form of decisions, were approved by the Council at its first session of 1987.

A call by the Commission on Human Rights for withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea, made in connection with consideration of the human rights situation in that country, was endorsed by the Council. Approval was given to continued monitoring of situations relating to El Salvador, Chile, Iran and Afghanistan. Experts were to be dispatched to help the Governments of Guatemala and Haiti in the further restoration of human rights in those nations.

Approval was also given to continued investigations of torture, summary executions, the rights of minorities and religious intolerance. The large number of summary or arbitrary executions which continued to take place in various parts of the world was condemned. The Council made an urgent appeal for effective action to combat and eliminate such executions, including extra-legal executions.

In a text on measures to secure the implementation and enjoyment by youth of human rights, particularly the rights to life, education and work, the Council called on States, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and United Nations bodies to continue to give priority to formulating and implementing such measures, with a view to resolving the problem of youth unemployment. The vote was 48 to 1 (United States), with 1 abstention (Haiti).

The decision of the Commission on Human Rights to create a voluntary fund for advisory services and technical assistance in the field of human rights was endorsed. Continuing work related to the right to development, a draft convention on the rights of the child, and a draft declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms.

A consolidated report on national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights was transmitted to the forty-second General Assembly for its consideration, with a view to its early dissemination as a United Nations handbook.

Status of women

After reviewing the work of its Commission on the Status of Women (see UN Chronicle, May 1987, No. 2), the Council decided to recommend that a world conference to review and appraise progress achieved in the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the year 2000 be held during the decade of the 1990s-- at a date to be determined by the General Assembly not later than 1990--and that a similar world conference be held in the year 2000.

The Commission's terms of reference would be expanded to include monitoring and promoting the implementation of the objectives of equality, development and peace for the advancement of women, and the function of assessing progress made at the national, subregional, regional, sectoral and global levels. The question of whether Commission membership would be increased would be considered in 1988.

The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, the Council stated, should accord particular attention to the elaboration of special methodologies promoting broad-based approaches for programmes and projects on women and development and to the evaluation of their effects. Greater co-operation in the form of joint activities between the Institute and the regional commissions should take place.

The General Assembly, the Council recommended, should observe in 1987 the tenth anniversary of the operational activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Member States were urged to contribute to the Fund at the November 1987 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities.

The Council recommended that the General Assembly in 1987 not act on a recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women the studies be conducted on the status of women under Islamic law. The Committee should be asked to review that decision, taking into account the views expressed by delegations at the Council's 1987 first regular session.

Drugs

Measures to combat drug traffic and abuse were considered in connection with preparations for the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, held in Vienna from 17 to 26 June (see p. 6). The Council established an intergovernmental expert group to review progress achieved in the elaboration of the proposed international convention to combat drug trafficking. The Secretary-General was asked to distribute a revised draft to States by 1 November for their examination.

Stressing the importance of close co-ordination between the drug control units of the United Nations, the Council asked the Secretary-General to provide adequate financial information about current and future drug control activities so that the Commission on Narcotic Drugs could make recommendations on priorities.

Governments were urged to ensure that preventive information in the field of drug abuse and illicit trafficking did not involve elements that would evoke curiosity or the desire to experiment with narcotic drugs, but rather clearly indicated the harmful consequences of drug abuse. Governments were asked to ensure that such information did not contain details that might facilitate access to illicit drugs.

Social development

In a text on the world social situation, the Council reaffirmed that each country had the sovereign right freely to determine and implement appropriate policies for social development. The importance of establishing a new international economic order for the achievement of social progress was stressed. Rapid socio-economic progress of developing countries required substantially enhanced multilateral and bilateral financial support and advanced technological assistance to national development efforts, the Council stipulated in a text adopted by a vote of 39 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 12 abstentions.

The Council, in another text, invited appropriate organizations of the United Nations system to incorporate the social dimension of development in their country programmes.

The Council called on States to promote co-operation to ensure scientific and technological progress for the welfare of their peoples, and of all humankind, and their social and economic development, and to contribute towards eliminating economic backwardness and grave social problems in the world. State were urged to make every effort to utilize scientific and technological achievements for promoting peaceful social and economic development, and to prevent their misuse to the detriment of peoples.

The Council decided to observe in 1989 the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development. Among measures recommended for possible action at the national level was the proclamation of 11 December 1989 as Social Progress and Development Day.

Other action

The Council recommended that the General Assembly invite States to make their views known concerning the possible proclamation of an International Year of the Family. The Secretary-General was asked to undertake discussions within the framework of the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination on the family-related activities of the other organizations in the United Nations system.

The provisional agenda for the 1990 Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders was approved. It included substantive items on: crime prevention and criminal justice in the context of development --realities and perspectives of international co-operation; criminal justice policies in relation to problems of imprisonment, other penal sanctions and alternative measures; effective action against organized crime and terrorist criminal activities; prevention of delinquency, juvenile justice and the protection of the young--policy approaches and directions; and United Nations norms and guidelines in crime prevention and criminal justice--implementation and priorities for further standard setting.

The Council considered that an adequate follow-up to the International Youth Year (1985) should take place in order to maintain the momentum achieved during its preparation and observance; and expressed the importance of freedom of association, expression, movement and religion, as well as of economic, social and cultural rights, for the full development of young people in every aspect of society and for their active participation in efforts to ensure economic development, social justice and human rights.

In connection with a mid-point review of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1992), the Secretary-General was urged to assist in convening a meeting of experts in Sweden to evaluate progress made so far, so that priority areas could be identified and effective international action continued to translate into practice the concepts of full participation and equalization of opportunities for disabled persons.

Consideration continued regarding the establishment in Malta of an Institute on Aging, on the understanding that it would fulfil training needs of developing countries.

Photo: Reaching for a better life.