William Korey examines the significant role played by nongovernmental organizations in the growth of the international human rights movement during the past 50 years. Korey is the author of numerous books on human rights law and history, including the recently published NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A "Curious Grapevine."
The phrase "human rights" rarely appeared in the media, textbooks or diplomatic discourse 50 years ago. Today, however, it occupies a critical place in the public arena. Much of the reason for this can be attributed to nongovernmental organizations or NGOs. Whether they are exhorting governments and the United Nations machinery or mobilizing support for their goals through the media and local grass-roots organizations, NGOs have been a major force in the human rights movement throughout the world over the last half century.
Much of the impetus for the NGO human rights movement was a result of World War II and the 50 million deaths that were its legacy. NGOs played a major role, particularly in urging the incorporation of human rights provisions into the charter for the then newly created United Nations.
Early proposals for the UN Charter had contained only a passing reference to human rights. The NGO community, both within the United States and internationally, led the drive to redress this. For example, the Pan-American Human Rights conference in Mexico City "consolidated Latin American determination to see human rights included in the charter," according to the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Institute in New York.
In the United States, three NGOs took the lead in advocating the inclusion of human rights provisions in the charter: the American Jewish Committee, the Federal (later National) Council of Churches, and the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace. In May 1945, after winning the support of a broad range of civic organizations, the spokesperson for the three persuaded U.S. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius of the importance of emphasizing human rights in the charter; without that, the new UN might suffer the same fate as the League of Nations and be rejected by the U.S. Senate.
Stettinius then persuaded U.S. allies to support the idea at the convention in San Francisco that was already drafting plans for the UN's creation. As a result, human rights became a central feature of the UN Charter. Seven of its provisions relate specifically to human rights, and one led to the creation of a UN Commission on Human Rights.
Drafting of the Universal Declaration
The first task of the Commission on Human Rights, under the exemplary leadership of former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After nearly two years' work, the Universal Declaration was formally adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948, a day now celebrated throughout the world as Human Rights Day.
The Declaration's 30 articles cover civil and political rights, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. Overall, they constitute an ambitious and far-reaching program for governments throughout the world, for they seek to place individual human freedom and well-being at the forefront of international activity.
René Cassin of France, a leading figure in drafting the Universal Declaration, called it "an authoritative interpretation of the UN Charter." To Burma's U Thant, UN secretary-general in the 1960s, the Declaration was "the Magna Carta of mankind."
One of the key figures in the commission's early years was Lebanon's Charles Malik, who credited NGOs with playing a strong role in helping to draft the Universal Declaration by acting as "unofficial advisers to the various delegations, supplying them with streams of ideas and suggestions." Cassin would later stress the crucial role NGOs had played in publicizing the Universal Declaration. They were, he said, "the first to make the principles of the Declaration widely known" through brochures, periodicals and articles, and at numerous conferences.
The NGOs' goal of a United Nations that would actively pursue actual human rights violations, however, met with considerable difficulty. As early as 1947, the UN Commission on Human Rights officially declared that it would not act on formal human rights complaints. Despite approving the Universal Declaration, many UN members, particularly those with totalitarian governments, were anxious to avoid scrutiny. Indeed, many nations with poor human rights records remain so to this day.
NGOs continued to pressure the commission to change its approach. But the power of the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes was such that it took two decades for the commission to agree to examine "gross violations" of human rights that show a "consistent pattern." Even then, the procedures it adopted limited effective action, and many cases of government-sponsored torture, disappearances and arbitrary killings were met with silence. NGOs that protested these violations were warned that they could lose their consultative status at the UN if they disclosed particulars at UN meetings.
The Upsurge in NGOs
Frustration with the UN led the International League for the Rights of Man (now the International League for Human Rights) to bypass it altogether and instead focus attention on human rights violations through published studies and the media. The League was thus one of the earliest NGOs to practice the "shaming" of totalitarian regimes, military dictatorships and even democratic societies.
One of the most effective human rights NGOs has been Amnesty International, which was formed in London in 1961. Its research department is unmatched in accumulating data on human rights violations. Paralleling the shaming technique, Amnesty began adopting victims of state repression as "prisoners of conscience." In 1974, Amnesty disclosed that 61 regimes engaged in torture, and its reports spelled out the horrors that were perpetrated. Revelations about military repression in Latin America were especially effective and resulted in the organization's being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.
International exposure has its limitations, however, for there are some regimes too brutal to be shamed. The answer to this problem, the NGO community believed, was international mechanisms that would act upon the information they provided.
While the NGOs continued to advocate the creation of such mechanisms, the Helsinki Final Act was adopted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European neutral and nonaligned nations, and the Warsaw Pact on August 1, 1975. One of the key events in the evolution of the international human rights system, the Helsinki Accords demanded that its signatories adhere to "human rights and fundamental freedoms" (principle 7). Follow-up fora in Belgrade, Madrid and Vienna allowed the airing of ideas that would challenge Soviet totalitarian rule and ultimately contribute to the collapse of the Communist empire.
In May 1976, the Moscow Helsinki Group was formed by Yuri Orlov. This group was enormously important in preparing detailed documents on Soviet human rights violations that the West would use at various Helsinki meetings and in its international broadcasts to Eastern Europe.
Another NGO oriented to the Helsinki process was Poland's Committee of Workers Defense (KOR). Established in September 1976, the committee became the framework from which the Solidarity movement emerged. The Polish initiative was followed by the creation of Charter 77, headed by Vaclav Havel, in January 1977.
Another NGO of great importance to Eastern Europe was Helsinki Watch, formed the following year. Director Jeri Laber traveled frequently to Prague and Warsaw, met with Helsinki activists, and served as a conduit for information about them, which was then effectively publicized in the West. When Vaclav Havel paid his first visit to the United States after the Prague revolution, he insisted upon visiting the headquarters of Helsinki Watch in New York, where he said: "Perhaps without you our revolution would not be."
Like their counterparts in Eastern Europe, activists in Africa and Asia, struggling to free their countries from colonial domination, took heart from the message of the Universal Declaration.
So too, did the legions of human rights defenders and the hundreds of NGOs across the globe that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa. Indeed, the role that the United Nations played alongside human rights organizations in the struggle to end apartheid is one of the best examples of the force the international community can bring to bear in defense of fundamental human rights.
South African President Nelson Mandela acknowledged as much when he addressed the UN General Assembly in September 1998: "For those who had to fight for their emancipation, such as ourselves, who, with your help, had to free ourselves from the criminal apartheid system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the vindication of the justice of our cause."
Support from the United States
The growth and power of the NGO movement and its involvement in human rights was reflected in U.S. policies as well. In his inaugural speech in January 1977, President Jimmy Carter stressed that the country's "commitment to human rights must be absolute." Acting on the basis of congressional legislation, Carter went on to establish a bureau of human rights within the State Department and to issue the first country reports on human rights conditions throughout the world. The first reports, in 1977, covered only countries receiving U.S. aid, then numbering 82; the reports for 1997 covered 184 countries.
Carter also encouraged frequent dialogue between the U.S. government and human rights organizations. Such access helped bring the administration critical information that could be used to pressure governments in Latin America and the Soviet orbit.
This emphasis on human rights "saved thousands and thousands of lives," according to Argentine newspaper editor Jacobo Timerman. An active critic of the Argentine military's "dirty war," his release from house arrest owed much to the pressure NGOs like B'nai B'rith, as well as the U.S. government, were able to exert.
The Carter administration also worked to support the right of NGOs to participate more fully in the United Nations. Their combined efforts began to pay dividends in 1980, when the Commission on Human Rights voted to create a Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. This was followed two years later by the creation of a Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary and Extrajudicial Killings. Another special rapporteur was created to investigate incidents of government-backed torture in 1985.
Soon, special rapporteurs were also established for religious intolerance, racism and violence against women, as well as to investigate particularly notorious abuser regimes like Iran, Iraq, Burma, Cuba and Sudan. These landmark developments stemmed largely from NGO initiatives. Nongovernmental organizations also played an important role in making these procedures more effective, furnishing working groups and special rapporteurs the information they needed -- information governments often refused to provide. In fact, even some members of the Commission on Human Rights continue to deny special rapporteurs permission to visit their countries, an act of defiance the United Nations remains powerless to overturn.
Another aspect of the international human rights system, the various human rights covenants and conventions, also owes much to NGOs. The two most important of these are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, These have the force of international treaties and were originally conceived to give legally binding status to the Universal Declaration.
The Covenent on Civil and Political Rights came into force in 1976, although it was not ratified by the United States until early in the Clinton administration. A key feature of the covenant is that parties to it must report on their compliance to the Human Rights Committee, a body composed of experts elected by the ratifying states. During the last two decades, the committee has taken on considerable authority and become a major vehicle for NGO input. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, in particular, has provided the committee with essential documentation, along with advice concerning specific violations by contracting states.
Several other UN human rights conventions pressed by NGOs have also come into force. These include the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1981), the Convention Against Torture (1987), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990). Like the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, these conventions include an implementing body to which NGOs provide essential material aimed at bringing about compliance with treaty provisions.
The World Conference on Human Rights
One of the most important milestones in advancing human rights through the United Nations system occurred at the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna, Austria, in June 1993. Here, as previously, NGOs played a crucial role, organizing an effective worldwide campaign to ensure their participation. At the same time, they won the active support of the Clinton administration, then in its first months. In fact, the U.S. delegation at Vienna included members of the American NGO community as well as government officials, just as U.S. delegations to other international fora have done for several years.
Working together and with like-minded delegations from other nations, the NGOs and governments were able to achieve a number of major breakthroughs at Vienna, including winning unanimous endorsement for the creation of a UN high commissioner for human rights and a declaration reaffirming the universal nature of human rights. The office of the high commissioner, now held by Mary Robinson, is charged with promoting human rights within the UN system as well as defending rights in the international arena.
The emergence of a whole new generation of NGOs from Asia, Latin America and Africa at the Vienna Conference, a process that had been building for several years, marked a new factor in the international human rights system; fully 3,000 NGOs would be registered by the time the conference convened. Particularly notable was the preparatory meeting in Bangkok, at which Asian NGOs adopted a declaration insisting that international human rights standards be fulfilled and calling for a high commissioner for human rights.
The Vienna Conference also focused international attention on women's rights and their integral place in human rights in general. Its strong support for women's rights laid the groundwork for the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the acknowledgment that women's groups are gaining throughout the world today.
For years, the horrendous character of 20th century abuses had prompted NGOs, especially Human Rights Watch, to emphasize the need for accountability with respect to both justice and historical truth. By the time of the Vienna Conference, the war in Bosnia had convinced many that a new mechanism was needed to hold perpetrators accountable for the most egregious human rights abuses, such as genocide and crimes against humanity.
Thus, the UN Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1993. In support of this, Human Rights Watch provided the tribunal with documentation that its chief prosecutor, South Africa's Richard Goldstone, considered "invaluable." Another NGO, Physicians for Human Rights, was lauded by the tribunal for its assistance in the forensic examination of exhumed bodies. European NGOs extended crucial psychological and welfare assistance for witnesses. The following year, the UN created a similar tribunal for Rwanda, with its operating arm in Arusha, Tanzania. Although the U.S. government and the NGO community have had their share of disagreements over the years, both sides have attached great importance to the work of the two tribunals and the principles of human rights accountability. Indeed, the United States has supplied the lion's share of the funds to sustain them.
The Global NGO Movement
As the 20th century ends, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations in every aspect of human rights has grown extraordinarily. Today there are human rights activists and organizations in virtually every country of the world. Some are risking their lives and livelihoods for the sake of free speech, democracy, and religious and racial tolerance. Others are speaking out against torture, arbitrary imprisonment and contemporary forms of slavery. Still others are working to influence international financial institutions, promote development, limit child labor, ban landmines and eliminate trafficking in women and girls.
The world is still far from eliminating even the grossest human rights violations, and the principles detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are far from being realized in much of the world. But the strength and vigor of the international human rights movement yields at least the hope that the next century will result in greater progress. And one should always be mindful of the victories already won, not least in the corners of the human mind.
In 1948, when the Universal Declaration was adopted, vast numbers of people believed in autocratic ideologies, colonialism was still prevalent, racism endemic and sexism barely challenged. That all these evils are now questioned by increasing numbers of people around the world is testimony to how far we all have come.
Issues of
Democracy
USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, October
1998