Use of violence in promoting human rights was a highly disputed issue in the drafting of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders in 1998, said Jan Helgesen, one of the key persons in this process. Helgesen spoke at the HRH conference 13 October. (22-OCT-04)
The reference to peaceful means are made in Article 5 and 12 of the Declaration.
Mr Helgesen, Associate Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, spoke at the HRH Anniversary conference “Activists under Attack. Defending the Right to be a Human Rights Defender” 13 October about the drafting of the Declaration.
Other issues of conflict were the right to observe trials, the question of obligations versus rights, and access to financial sources.
The Declaration
Elaboration of the Declaration on human rights defenders began in 1984 and ended with the adoption of the text by the General Assembly in 1998, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A collective effort by a number of human rights non-governmental organizations and some State delegations helped to ensure that the final result was a strong, very useful and pragmatic text.
Addressed to everyone
Perhaps most importantly, the Declaration is addressed not just to States and to human rights defenders, but to everyone. It tells us that we all have a role to fulfil as human rights defenders and emphasizes that there is a global human rights movement that involves us all. The Declaration’s full name is the “Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” – with this longer title is frequently abbreviated to “The Declaration on human rights defenders”.
Read the Declaration
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