| JOHANNESBURG--Mary
Robinson, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for
Human rights told a nongovernmental organization
(NGO) seminar Sunday that she finds it "incredible" that
human rights language was, as of Sunday morning,
not included in the final document of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) meeting
in Johannesburg.
But
she said she told a small, Sunday morning audience
in the National Recreation and Exhibition Center,
that she still held out hope for WSSD commitment
on human rights.
Robinson
told a workshop on "Making
the Links Between Human Rights, Environment
and Sustainable development, "I,
like many of you here, find it incredible
that human rights as yet has no reference."
Language committing governments to respect
for human rights appears in several paragraphs
of the draft of the plan of implementation
of the summit, but it is in brackets,
meaning that the governments have yet
to decide on the final phrasing, or if
any reference at all will be made to
human rights in connection with sustainable
development.
"But I live in hope, and there
are some days to go, " she said. "And,
here in south Africa, I learned to be
patient," she said, referring to
the UN conference on racism in Durban
last September in which language was
debated and settled upon in the last
days and minutes.
Robinson
said that human rights advocacy had
come a long way from when it was
considered by some as "narrow, finger
pointing and unhelpful."
Instead,
she said human rights activism has
become "a valuable tool on the
side of development countries and developing
peoples."
She said
human rights, environment protection
and sustainable development can be described
as three sides of a triangle, and "each
side is linked to, and mutually supports
the others."
To a strong round applause Robinson
suggested precisely what language she
would like to see in the final document.
She quoted the report that a group of
experts, summoned by her office, had
produced earlier this year:
"Respect
for human rights is broadly accepted
as a precondition for sustainable
development, that environmental protection
constitutes a pre-condition for the effective
enjoyment of human rights protection,
and that human rights and the environment
are interdependent and inter-related.
These features are now broadly reflected
in national and international practices
and developments... poverty is at the
center of a number of human rights violations
and is at the same time a major obstacle
to achieving sustainable development
and environmental protection."
The workshops
chairman Folabi Olagbaju of Amnesty
International said that the
language in brackets, represented "progress" since
the first preparatory meetings for the
WSSD, and that since the Earth Summit
in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, "There
has been a global movement that human
rights should be included in sustainable
development."
Even
if human rights advocates do not get
their language, he said, "We
here have participated in meaningful
and significant discussions."
"We have opened eyes here," he
said.
Robinson
said of the potential final document, "No
matter how poor it is we still have
to be very strong post
Johannesburg."
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