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United Nations - 10th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders

Five UN and regional human rights mechanisms and representatives launch a joint warning on the persistent challenges facing human rights defenders on the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights defenders

Further Information

GENEVA, BANJUL, STRASBOURG, WARSAW and WASHINGTON D.C. – Ten years after the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, defenders continue to pay a high price while advocating for and protecting human rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of a landmark instrument adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly in 1998. The Declaration has offered new possibilities for the support and protection of defenders and their activities, by articulating existing human rights in a way that makes them easier to apply to the reality of human rights defenders.

In 2000, the UN mandate on the situation of human rights defenders was established to support States in their implementation of the Declaration. It has contributed to the protection of thousands of human rights defenders throughout the world, given visibility to them and to the Declaration, and encouraged the development of networks and coalitions of human rights defenders. The mandate has also included a gender perspective in its work, and raised awareness about the situation of defenders most at risk and about violations committed against them.

In recent years, regional mechanisms have been established in Africa, Europe and the Americas to closely monitor the situation of human rights defenders and urge States to ensure an enabling environment for their work, in accordance with international and regional human rights obligations. They have significantly contributed to the implementation of the Declaration in their respective regions, by raising awareness on the work of defenders, designing protection frameworks and strategies, and promoting their human rights activities.

Despite all these achievements, in every region of the world, defenders – and often their beloved ones – continue to be subjected to threats, killings, disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, surveillance, administrative and judicial harassment, defamation, and more generally, stigmatization by State authorities and non-State actors.

They face illegitimate restrictions on the exercise of their rights to freedom of opinion and expression, access to information, access to funding, and freedoms of association -including registration-, peaceful assembly, and movement. A climate of impunity for violations committed against defenders prevails in numerous countries of the world.

Of particular concern for the signatories of this joint statement is the plight of defenders who, due to the sensitivity of their work, are most exposed to attacks and abuses. These include women defenders, defenders working on economic, social and cultural rights, on rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons, on rights of indigenous peoples and persons belonging to minorities, and fighting impunity for serious crimes and corruption, as well as youth defenders. They need specific and enhanced protection as well as targeted and deliberate efforts to make their working environment a safer, more enabling and accepting one.

The signatories of the joint statement call on Member or participating States of their respective organizations and other stakeholders to recognize the activities of human rights defenders as legitimate human rights work, ensure the removal of all obstacles, and take proactive measures to support such work.

They stress that the primary responsibility for the protection of human rights defenders lies with Governments, and that very often firm public stands in support of human rights defenders can transform a situation of vulnerability into one of empowerment for defenders.

The new decade ahead must be one in which the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders are made a reality worldwide.

Read key messages on Human Rights Defenders

In Aftermath of Georgia War, a More Stable Caucasus

For most observers, the brief war between Russia and Georgia last August only underscored the instability of the Caucasus region and the dangerous potential energy stored in its so-called frozen conflicts. Remarkably, though, the war's immediate impact has actually led to a relatively more stable regional status quo.

Dangerous Build-up

The wars of the early 1990s, in which newly independent Georgia and Azerbaijan lost control of their Soviet-era ethnic minority regions, became formative experiences for the two young nation-states. In both countries, the popular nationalist narrative continues to promote the "return" of the breakaway territories as a sine qua non of their existence.

The republics' post-Soviet economic recovery -- fueled in part by Western-sponsored Azerbaijani energy production exported via Georgian transit routes -- left them more confident about their ability to revise the status quo in their favor. The subsequent political transition in 2003, in which both countries replaced their Soviet-era leaders, reinforced the conviction.

In Georgia, the "revolutionary" government of Mikhail Saakashvili unseated the stability government of Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili moved to upgrade the Georgian military, raising its annual budget -- to $1 billion in 2007 -- and, with it, the pressure on both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev succeeded his dead father, Heydar Aliyev, as president in the best traditions of Middle Eastern politics. But even in the absence of a popular "color revolution," growing oil revenues have led to a more hard-line approach with regard to the Armenian-supported separatist province of Nagorno-Karabakh. As in Georgia, the military budget grew -- to close to $2 billion -- and for the past several years, hardly a week has passed without an Azerbaijani official threatening a new war over the province.

There have been several escalations in recent years in all three conflict areas, but things began to get increasingly out of hand in the first half of 2008.

Georgia repeatedly sent its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly over Abkhazia, eliciting flyovers and attacks by the Russian air force. There were also bombing campaigns in Abkhazia and increased mortar attacks and assassination attempts in South Ossetia.

In Karabakh, where -- unlike Ossetia or Abkhazia -- extensive trenches and minefields forming a de facto border separate the two opposing forces, the sides fought one of the deadliest skirmishes in years. Azerbaijani aircraft also began flying closer to the Line of Contact, apparently seeking to trigger an Armenian response.

By summer, conditions were ripe for escalation, and the smell of war was in the air.

What Changed in August

When Georgia launched its attack on South Ossetia on Aug. 7, few could have imagined the rapidity and intensity of the Russian response.

Speaking on the night of the attack, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said there was "no evidence" of Russian involvement, and that he expected Russia to help "restrain" the Ossetian side.

In Azerbaijan, a spokesman for the foreign ministry welcomed the Georgian operation, saying that it could chart a new course for "resolving" the Karabakh conflict as well. But once Russia responded to the Georgian operation with massive force, Azerbaijani officials and pundits became unusually silent.

In the West, the response was one of surprise and anger.

"This decision to invade Georgia was . . . simply stupid," the State Department's Caucasus manager, Matt Bryza, told RFE/RL-Georgia a week after the war.

Nevertheless, this "stupid" war helped restore Russia's image as the sole hegemon in the Caucasus.

In the past, Azerbaijan may have hoped for a "controlled" escalation in Karabakh as a form of political pressure against Armenia. But following the war in Georgia, the potential consequences of such an escalation, if exploited by Moscow, became rather apparent.

Days after returning from the Beijing Olympics, Azerbaijan's Aliyev traveled to Moscow, where he assured Russian leaders of his determination to resolve all conflicts by peaceful means. Soon after that, he sat down with the presidents of Russia and Armenia to sign a declaration pledging a political settlement to the Karabakh conflict.

On a visit to Armenia this fall, the State Department's Fried conceded to RFE/RL-Armenia that the "danger [of war in Karabakh] has somewhat receded because [of] the war in Georgia."

The New Status Quo

"Saakashvili should get a Nobel peace prize for bringing Armenia and Azerbaijan together," Georgian publisher Malkhaz Gulashvili wrote recently, with no small amount of sarcasm.

But the Georgian president is unlikely to be so honored, either abroad or in his own country. His gamble humiliated Georgia militarily and resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. With the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia now formally recognized by Russia, Georgia is left building new de facto borders around its two former provinces.

While that makes another war much less likely in the foreseeable future, there are less fortunate consequences of the new status quo as well. In the words of the Georgian president, "[T]he reputation that America has gained since the Cold War [has gone] to hell." As have efforts to build democratic systems, to a certain degree, leaving countries in the region more likely to favor the seemingly more effective -- and obviously more authoritarian -- Russian political model. Unless, that is, the United States or Europe offers new credible alternatives.

Emil Sanamyan is Washington editor and bureau chief for the Armenian Reporter.

Image: Map of the Caucasus (Wikimedia Commons image, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2).

URL: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=3121

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United Nations - 10th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders

Further Information

Georgian Church lays claims to Armenian monuments in Tbilisi and beyond

Ownership of six churches has been placed on the Armenian-Georgian agenda

In Aftermath of Georgia War, a More Stable Caucasus