United Nations Commission on Human Rights - 55th Session
Geneva, 22 March - 30 April 1999

ICFTU BRIEFING NOTE

This document constitutes an appendix to ICFTU Circular 12(1999), sent in January 1999 to all ICFTU-affiliated organisations around the world, all International Trade Secretariats (ITS) and other interested organisations. It is designed as a lobbying instrument for the international free trade union movement, aimed at promoting and supporting the movement’s concerns on trade union and other human rights during the 55^th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). As is the case each year, the ICFTU will participate in the work of the Commission, and its representatives will intervene in the debate pertaining to the defence and promotion of trade union and other fundamental human rights. This document aims at assisting ICFTU affiliated and friendly organisations in lobbying their national governments, which prepare their position on the different UNCHR agenda items long before leaving for Geneva.

The provisional agenda of the 55^th Session (1999) of the 55^th Session is enclosed as Appendix I. The composition of the Commission for 1999 is attached as Appendix II. (Please note that the term of membership of each country expires on 31 December of the year indicated in brackets).

Immediately after being convened, the Commission will hear two reports from the High Commissioner for Human Rights: the first one on the situation of human rights in Colombia (in so stressing the relevance and gravity of this country’s situation) and the second one on the follow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights (Comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in Vienna in June 1993).

As is customary, the Commission will have before it several reports submitted by the Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives and Independent Experts appointed to investigate the situation of Hhuman Rrights in several countries where gross violations have occurred. These reports will be considered under different agenda items, particularly under Item 9, which deals with the question of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world. Reports are expected ion the following country situations: Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Lebanon and western Bekaa, Burma (Myanmar), Nigeria, Iraq, Sudan, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Kosovo), Iran, Burundi, and East Timor.

Under Item 19, concerning advisory services and technical co-operation in the field of human rights, the Commission will deal with reports on the following countries: Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia and Guatemala.

It is also expected that the Commission will examine the human rights situation in some countries, Chad in particular, under the confidential 1503 procedure.

In its intervention, the ICFTU will draw the attention of the Commission to the grave trade union rights situation, especially in China, South Korea, Burma, Pakistan, Belarus, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo, Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Colombia, Guatemala, and Ecuador.

The ICFTU will express its concern over the worsening situation of human and trade union rights in China. A day after releasing labour activist Liu Nianchun from prison (December 21 1998), two more dissidents, Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai, were sentenced to 13 and 11 years respectively for attempting to start the country’s first opposition party and calling for trade union freedom (it’s worth recalling that Liu Niachun was had been sent to jail for three years without trial for signing a petition calling for labour rights in May 1995).

Another dissident, Xu Wangpin, was sentenced at the end of 1998 to three years in a Sichuan labour camp for "disturbing the social order". Xu, a former factory worker, had already served eight years in jail for trying to organize an independent trade union during the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

Last November, the ICFTU as put togetherissued a report on "Torture and ill-treatment of detained trade union rights and labour activists and their relatives", based on China’s reply to an ICFTU complaint at the ILO; it which describeds the standard procedure for dealing with independent trade union activists: arrest and sentence without any legal basis, then torture and denial of medical care in forced labour camps.

The US, EU and other countries agreed last year on a policy of "soft diplomacy", dropping any criticism of China in exchange for some commitments by the Chinese Government on human rights. China subsequently signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on Oct 5, 1998, but has offered no commitment to ratify it. China had earlier taken an identical course of action in respect to the International Covenant on Cultural, Economic and Social Rights (ICESCR). We understand that China intends to ratify the ICESCR, eventually, but with reservations concerning, especially, art. 8, which guarantees trade union rights, including the right to strike. While both the ICCPR and the ICESCR The treaty was supposed to guarantee freedom of expression and association, China has not only failed but not only hasn’t it taken to take any steps to make it them legally binding, – as shown by these latest detentions – it has also mocked the international community with new and increasing numbers of detainees. arrests and sentences imposed on human rights’ and independent trade union activists. Several organisations, including certain ICFTU affiliates and major human rights’ NGOs are now calling for revived efforts to table a resolution on China next March at the Commission. The ICFTU will strongly support any such initiative.

In South Korea there are still hundreds of trade unionists languishing in jails charged with a range of offences. Most of them for supposed are facing criminal charges es while they have been legitimately for carrying out conducting legitimate union activities. The ICFTU, together with the International Trade Secretariats, has marked December 10, 1998, the 50^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, by delivering a letter of protest addressed to the President of Korea to the Korean Embassy in Geneva a letter of protest addressed to the President of Korea, condemning oppression and injustice.

In 1998 alone, the first year in office for President Kim, 500 trade unionists have been arrested. The ICFTU will call on Korea to release all detained trade unionists and to promote and observe the democratic process and workers’ rights, including the right of all workers to freedom of association. It will however duly acknowledge that the Government has on 6 January 1999 finally recognised the Korean Teachers’ Union (Chonyohyop), a long-standing ICFTU, ILO and TUAC-OECD demand.

The ICFTU will point out to the Commission how 1998 has been a crucial year in the denunciation of the Burma’s (Myanmar) human rights record.situation. In August the ILO issued a 400-page report by its a Special Commission of Inquiry on the use of forced labour in Burma. The ILO Commission concluded unequivocally that there was widespread and systematic use of forced labour in this country, with threats to the life and security, and extrajudicial punishment of those unwilling to comply. The report followed the complaint lodged under Art. 26 of the ILO Constitution at the 1996 International Labour Conference by trade union delegates from 25 countries at the 1996 International Labour Conference, who mandated the ICFTU to represent them during the proceedings.

The ILO conclusions are appalling qualify the regime’s abuses as crimes against humanity., and tThe ICFTU will urge the UN Commission to call again on Burma’s military junta to resign and hand over power to a democratic, civilian-led government, in line with ILO report’s recommendations, while at the same time urging foreign companies to divest from the country as long as the army remains in power.

Pakistan, where trade union rights continued to be violated throughout 1998 has seen the year ending on a sour note: on December 22, 1998, the Pakistani President promulgated a decree Presidential Ordinance depriving Wapda - Pakistan’s water and energy authority’s workers of their fundamental rights concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining. The suspension of the trade union rights at Wapda, which involves affects more than 130,000 employees, has put the company in the hands under the direct control of the armed forces, threatening the very existence of the Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union and the trade union movement in general in the country. Earlier in the year, violations of elementary trade union and other human rights continued at a construction project building a huge hydro-electric power facility on the Indus river in 1996, the Ghazi Barotha Hydro Power Project. The project is being constructed by a consortium of companies, of which the Italian multinational Impreglio is the major partner. Violations included mass arrests and physical abuse of workers by both management and security forces. Union leaders’ relatives were also detained and sometime tortured.

The ICFTU will take a stand on the situation in Belarus, where – through the introduction of several decrees – the governmental authorities have de facto blocked the activities of independent trade unions, while trade union registration procedures remain arbitrary, complex and expensive. In November, two trade unionists were arrested during a demonstration organized by independent unions, and several SPB (Free Trade Union of Belarus) members were threatened with dismissal at a major automobile plant in the country.

The ICFTU will strongly protest against the nationalisation of trade union assets by the Croatian government in January 1998, in breach of the ratified ILO Convention N°n. 87. The Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia has also reported numerous examples of direct prohibition of worker unionisation in different enterprises, while it was not uncommon to hear high-up governmental officials in publicly meetings appealing to workers not to trust trade unionists.

 The ICFTU will support the appeal from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for saving to save the independent media in Serbia. The Serbian Government has introduced a new Information Law, which makes it easier to prosecute media that do not toe the party line. By the end of 1998, 5 newspapers and at least 4 radio stations have been closed by the authorities, while over 400 journalists have been put out of work. Mention will be made also of the continuing violations of human and workers’ rights in Kosovo, where workers have been kidnapped from their workplaces and remain a target of terrorist attacks.

 Regarding Djibouti, the ICFTU will point out the deteriorating trade union situation in the country. Several hundred health workers were physically assaulted and transferred to a detention center during a demonstration in March ’98, while all year the government has pursued anti-union repression and interference in trade union affairs, in contravention of international labour standards. Other public workers have been threatened with the same similar measures, while a heavy toll has been paid particularly by leaders of the teachers’ union, dismissed and removed from the civil service after taking strike action.

 In Zimbabwe, on November 27, 1998, President Mugabe used powers under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to amend the Labour Relations Act, outlawing strikes and threatening to suspend unions which break the rule defy the law and to jail organisers for up to three years. In 1998, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions organised several strikes that won large support from the population, concerned about the deepening economic and institutional crisis. On 20^th January this year, the ZCTU Deputy Secretary General was beaten unconscious by unknown assailants²².

 The ICFTU will raise its concern regarding the Swaziland situation, which culminated on November 18, 1998, with the imprisonment of Jan Sithole, General Secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), without charges at the time of arrest.

As the organiser of several demonstrations and other forms of actions demanding putting forward economic demands and the restoration of democracy in the kingdom, the SFTU has long been a target of the regime and its leaders have been imprisoned on several occasions and have been the targets of assassination attempts.

 We will make sure to also report the arrest and beating of Théophile Sonny-Colé, General Secretary of the Union Syndicale des Travailleurs de Centrafrique (USTC) on Saturday, 9 January, in Bangui, Central African Republic. Sonny-Colé was severely injured and illegally detained by members of the Presidential Guard, after denouncing the plot to nullify the legislative elections that in December had given the victory to the opposition parties.

 The ICFTU will urge action in Colombia against the silencing of social protest through inhuman forms of repression. Almost 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in recent years in this country, without any concrete action by the government. We will remember with deep sadness, among many others, the assassination of Jorge Ortega, Vice President of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), on 20 October 1998, despite repeated requests for protection after his name had appeared on the list of those threatened with death. The ICFTU will provide an updated list of trade union leaders threatened with death and will urge the outlining of a programme of effective measures for the protection of trade unionists and human rights activists. It will also call the Commission’s attention to a new ILO Commission of Inquiry, this time on the situation of trade union rights in Colombia, expected to be formally established, in accordance with art. 26 of the ILO Constitution, by the ILO Governing Body at its March 1999 session.

 We will also strongly deplore the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ecuador. On September 14, 1998, the Government unveiled a package of economic measures that were firmly denounced by the trade unions for the heavy toll they placed on workers. After declaring the national strike for October 1^st and participating in a TV programme critical of the Government on September 30, 1998, Jose Chavez Chavez, General Secretary of the Confederacion Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres (CEOSL), received open threats from the Minister for Internal Affairs and the Police. Mr. Chavez had already been attacked on September 4^th by uniformed men prior to a trade union rally, but of course the police have never responded to his complaints. Other disappearances and arrests have taken place among trade unionists in this country, and the ICFTU will demand a thorough and impartial investigation of all the incidents.

 The second anniversary of the signature of the peace accords in Guatemala (signed in December 1996) is unfortunately is coinciding with growing violations of workers’ rights in the country. Several trade unionists have been physically eliminated (the last one, Robinson Morales Canales, leader of the Zacapa Municipality Workers’ Union, on January 12, 1999) and the Government is trying to impede collective bargaining and unionisation campaigns promoted by the established organizationsunions. Besides intimidation and retaliation towards trade unions in the private sector, the ICFTU will also point out the legislative decrees which strictly limit, to the point of nullifying, place severe restrictions on the right of State employees to strike.

 The ICFTU will also call the Commission’s attention to the steady deterioration of the human rights situation in Mexico. Trade union rights’ violations strongly increased in 1998, including a number of arrests, and at least 3 teachers’ unionists murdered last year. 5 teachers’ leaders are actually detainedat the time of writing. Main other sectors affected are banking, metalworkers, textiles and journalists; Mexico ranks 2^nd in the world in terms of the number of journalists killed, immediately after Colombia.

 The Commission will consider as a matter of high priority the situation of occupied Palestine, which will come up twice, under Item 5 as "the right of people to self-determination" and under Item 8, as a question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories. The ICFTU will again call on all parties concerned to fully implement the provisions of the Oslo and Wye Plantation Peace Accords.

 Under Item 6, Mr. Glèlè-Ahanhanzo (Benin) will present his report on the question of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination. The Commission, following the resolution recently adopted by the UN General Assembly (doc. A/53/623) will have before it a preliminary analytical study on the objectives of the World Conference against Racism. The UN Secretary-General has officially designated Mary Robinson (High Commissioner for Human Rights) as Secretary-General for the Conference, and she will carry out consultations aimed at determining the date and venue of the Conference, on which she will report at the Commission.

 Item 7 will deal with the right to development. After two subsequent working groups composed of various experts in the period 1993-1997, the Commission last year appointed an independent expert in the field (Mr. Arjun Sengupta, India), who will present his first report at the next session.

 A number of issues relating to economic, social and cultural rights will be examined under Item 10. Of particular interest should be the first report of Mr. R. Figueredo (Venezuela) on the effects of foreign debt on the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, which focus on the negative effects of foreign debt, the policies adopted to face it in developing countries, and the measures taken by governments, the private sector and the international financial institutions to alleviate such effects. The Commission will also examine the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes; the right to food; the right to education in connection with the Commission’s effort to impart higher visibility to economic rights; the issue of human rights and extreme poverty, and, in particular, about effects of structural adjustment policies on the full enjoyment of human rights.

 Under Item 11, the Commission will consider several thematic reports. The Secretary-General will report on human rights and terrorism and on arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Mr. N. Rodley (UK), whose mandate has been extended for three years, will report on torture, while two working groups will deal with arbitrary detention and enforced or involuntary disappearances.

Under the same item (sub-item c), the Commission will hear the report of Mr. A. Hussain (India) on freedom of opinion and expression. The ICFTU, following a report recently published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), will strongly denounce the fifty killings of journalists all over the world during 1998 and will note with concern that most any of these crimes go unpunished.

Of significant importance should also be the revised version of the principles and guidelines on the right to reparation for victims of (gross) violations of human rights, elaborated by Mr. van Boven (the Netherlands) and which should subsequently be adopted by the General Assembly.

 Item 12 will focus on the integration of the human rights of women and a gender perspective, with a report by Ms. R. Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) on violence against women.

 With regards to Item 13, rights of the child, the special representative, Mr. Olara Otunnu (Côte d’Ivoire), will present his report on the impact of armed conflict on children.

 Under the same item, the Commission will receive the replies of different States concerning the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour and the report by Ms. O. Calcetas-Santos on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

It should be noted that on all the previous matters, working groups will meet between the end of January and the beginning of February 1999.

The ICFTU will intervene in the debate to strongly condemn the involvement of children in armed conflicts, and to call for their rehabilitation and education. Our representatives will also promote our new "Charter Against Child Labour", launched in Elsinore (Denmark) during the ICFTU Executive Board in November 1998. The Charter is designed to serve as a mobilization tool for governments, consumers, employers, trade unions and NGOs to eradicate a scourge that affects 250 million children world-wide.

Under Item 14, the Commission will examine the report of the Secretary General on the status of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, as well as the report of the working group mandated to elaborate recommendations to strengthen the promotion, protection and implementation of the human rights of migrants, which will meet from February 8-12, 1999. As at the date of this circular, the Convention has been ratified or acceded to by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Uganda, and has been signed by Chile and Bangladesh, while . it needs a minimum of 20 ratifications in order to enter into force. The ICFTU actively promotes ratification of the Convention and has joined the Steering Committee of an international NGO coalition working on the subject.

 Among the remaining items, it is worth mentioning the progresses made after the adoption of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, launched on 10 December 1994 (Item 15); the consideration of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, after its adoption by the General Assembly on 9 December 1998; the report of the Secretary General on Guidelines for the regulation of computerized personal data files; and, lastly, the reports on the effective functioning of human rights mechanisms (Item 18) and on the rationalization of the work of the Commission (Item 20).

 Further information on these issues can be obtained either from the ICFTU Dept. of Trade Union Rights, in Brussels, or from the ICFTU Geneva Office (see top of document).

Link to Provisional Agenda

Link to Membership

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
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For more information please contact: ICFTU Department of Trade Union Rights
Tel. 32.2.224.02.03 Fax: 32.2.224.02.97 E-mail: turights@icftu.org