USIA - Human Rights Watch: Some Abusive Officials Held Accountable (96-12-04)

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: SOME ABUSIVE OFFICIALS HELD ACCOUNTABLE

(Adds world powers defer rights for economic profit) (390)

But in its "World Report 1997," released in anticipation of Human Rights Day on December 10, Human Rights Watch also concluded that the world powers repeatedly deferred the immediate promotion of human rights "in the name of often-dubious long-term strategies."

Kenneth Roth, the Human Rights Watch executive director, told a news conference in Washington December 4 that this was the "most disturbing trend" noted in the survey, especially in circumstances placing "economic profit before principle."

"Until human rights become an integral and immediate part of the quest for peace, trade and democracy," Roth said, "the world will remain plagued with the intolerance, repression and violence that underlie many of today's crises."

The 383-page report, which is critical of human rights practices carried out around the globe, reviews developments in 74 countries from December 1995 through November 1996. It also analyses responses in particular cases by the United States, Japan, the European Union, the United Nations and the World Bank.

On a more positive note, the report said South Africa's National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation spent the past year revealing abuses committed by the apartheid government; India reinstated investigation into the killing of more than 1,000 people in the 1992-93 Bombay riots; Guatemala purged abusive members of the army and the police; and two former presidents of South Korea were convicted of mutiny, treason and corruption.

The Human Rights Watch report also said that countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific have joined supporters in Europe in calling for creation of a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC).

Noting that opposition to the proposal exists from the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the organization said however it believes the ICC "could provide a bulwark for international security by dissuading would- be tyrants from resorting to the violent abuse that underlies many of today's armed conflicts and humanitarian emergencies."

For additional information, visit the Human Rights Watch website at: http://www.hrw.org

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