Raising the Bar on Human Rights

"I know one cannot eat human rights but they must be seen to be as important as the availability of the food we eat or the air we breathe, and as beneficial for human life." - Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon

"Most countries have signed and ratified them," Mr McKinnon said at the closing session of the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum in Malta on Monday, 21 November 2005. "But there are about 18 members that have not, and in my view that is exactly 18 too many."

The Secretary-General noted that signature and ratification of the conventions would represent a clear indication of a country's commitment in the 21st century to shared human rights principles.

"I think it is possible to see a day where ratifying the two international conventions on political and socio-economic rights becomes the minimum standard for becoming a full Commonwealth member."

Mr McKinnon stated that a core aspect of the Commonwealth vision is the need to raise awareness about fundamental human rights. We are all born with rights, he said, but we are not all born equally aware of those rights or equally able to access or articulate them.

According to the Secretary-General, finding ways to be clear about the nature and limits of rights of the executive, legislature, judiciary, and individuals is important.

"We have all witnessed in recent times an upswing in an appalling violation of human rights, that being indiscriminate and murderous targeting of innocent people: terrorism."

Mr McKinnon said Commonwealth members have rightly condemned these acts in the strongest manner, and that the Commonwealth Secretariat continues to assist members in practical ways to respond, through model counter-terrorism laws and training of law enforcement officials.

He, however, cautioned: "We have also been careful to build into such materials and training an acknowledgement that there is a risk, in taking counter-terrorism measures, of eroding the very values that one is supposedly defending."

The Secretary-General stated the Secretariat has kept in mind the four focal streams of its human rights work. Those four being: to strengthen the legal protection of human rights at the national level; to set up and strengthen national and international human rights institutions; to mainstream human rights into all aspects of the Secretariat's work; and to drive home a strong and bold message that fundamental human rights are just that -- fundamental and indivisible.

He stressed that the Commonwealth cannot claim global leadership until its own house is fully in order.

"The Harare Declaration of 1991 and the Singapore Declaration two decades earlier gave us collectively a Commonwealth roadmap. Our common strategic goals included, and still do, the protection and promotion of democracy, fundamental human rights, and equality for all citizens ... Yet there are still Commonwealth members today that have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination -- the international instrument that converts our strongly held Commonwealth principle into broader international law. It's almost unbelievable, and we can take no satisfaction from that, let alone claim to moral leadership globally ...

"I have been strongly encouraging those members which have not yet signed these two conventions [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights] to review their positions. I have also been encouraging some to use the technical assistance we can provide to help the ratification and implementation process, since in some cases it is a matter of insufficient capacity, rather than any policy or political constraint."

Mr McKinnon said ratification of the two international covenants, and several other conventions -- such as on the elimination of racial discrimination; discrimination against women; the rights of the child; and maybe even the statute of the International Criminal Court -- could become part of the human rights yardstick against which full Commonwealth membership is measured.

"Frankly, without such commitments in place, the weight and significance of the Singapore and Harare Declarations risk being called into question," the Secretary-General added.

Key Links:

• Human Rights Section
• Commonwealth Human Rights Forum - Address by the Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon