Srđan
Dizdarević new Vice President
of the International Helsinki Federation
The regular Annual General Meeting of the International
Helsinki Federation, which gathers 42 members of the OSCE
countries, was held in Moscow from 11 to 14 November. The
topic of discussion was the state of human rights in Chechnya,
where the most serious violations of human rights and freedoms
were recorded. The participants in the debate pointed at the
unacceptable suffering of civilians, caused primarily by
actions undertaken by the Army of the Russian Federation, and
police and secret services based in Moscow, but also by the
acts of the rebels. Numerous people were reported to have been
missing, or murdered and tortured. Pursuant to the Final
Helsinki Act, signed in 1975, it was stated that the issue of
human rights in Chechnya could not be treated as an internal
issue of the Russian Federation. The situation in Chechnya
calls for larger involvement of the OSCE and all of its
members.
The General Meeting of the International Helsinki
Federation condemned the non-democratic regime in Byelorussia,
and the frequent cases of violations of human rights in the
country by the President Lukashenko’s regime. It was
particularly emphasised that the recent parliamentary
elections in the country, and the referendum on extension of
the presidential mandate, were non-democratic and in
contravention of international standards for fair and proper
elections.
In the case of Ukraine too, it was stated that the
first round of presidential elections was conducted in
unreliable and non-democratic manner.
The assembly sharply condemned the persecution of the
human rights activist in Uzbekistan and the deprivation of the
people of the right to association, the consequence of which
was that the existing human rights non-governmental
organisations have been practically outlawed.
During the debate, it was stressed that racism,
xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, including
anti-Islamic feelings in some of the West European countries,
have been mounting.
The attitude of the USA towards the International
Criminal Tribunal was condemned, as well as the pressure
exerted on some countries to accept the bilateral agreements
with the USA on non-extradition of their citizens to this
Tribunal.
The General Meeting has also elected the new management
of the International Helsinki Federation for the next two
years. The new President is Ulrich Fischer from Germany, and
Vice President is Srđan Dizdarević, the founder and
President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In the explanation of the proposal for
Dizdarević as candidate for this position it was said, among
else, that “he is a consistent and principled champion of
human rights, who has bravely been opposing the violations of
human rights in his country in the previous period,
irrespective of whether the violations have been perpetrated
by the domestic nationalistic authorities or the international
community”.
A
five-member Executive Committee was also elected, comprising
the representatives from Norway, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania
and the USA.
No:
07-11/2004
Sarajevo, 15 November 2004
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