European Greens adopt Index of Human Rights

I am delighted to find today that the European Green Parties, meeting in Helsinki, 5-7th May 2006
have adopted a resolution on the Index of Human Rights in the UN. The text is below.


Synopsis



Regrettably, abuses of human rights takes place on a routine basis in many regimes around the world, including those that like to describe themselves as "democratic". The United Nations and some NGOs publish reports of these activities, but their details are available only to scholars and specialists. This enables abuses to continue, and allows political leaders to describe certain states as "evil", when there may be other states with whom they have good relations who have worse records. By ranking all states according to their performance, an Index of Human Rights published annually by the UN would exert a steady upward pressure on governments' human rights performance. The full background to this proposal can be found here: http://www.greenhealth.org.uk/Index%20of%20Governance.htm


Motion on Index of Human Rights in the UN


Whereas all governments currently have their human rights record (relating to use of torture, political imprisonment and other human rights matters) continuously assessed by the UN, we ask the European Green Party to press for these records to be published annually by the UN Human Rights Council, ranked and ordered in such a way that the spectrum of all governments' human rights performance, ranging from best to worst, will be easily apparent to any interested observer.


Any government concerned at its standing in this UN Index of Human Rights will be offered assistance in improving their performance by the UN Human Rights Council. A specified number of governments with the poorest record of human rights as measured on this Index will have their performance subject to legal investigation in a competent international court.



This initiative has arisen from within the Green Party in England and Wales, modelled on the Index of Human Rights which was published in the Observer newspaper in the mid 1990s. It has so far gained support from six small Human Rights NGOs.

We very much hope that it will in due course be adopted by the Global Greens.

It is a new concept, that is slowly spreading into consciousness, and it will take several years before it is actually adopted by the UN. It will have a modest effect in improving human rights practices worldwide.



For further information on the Campaign for a Human Rights Index in the UN (CHRIUN) , please take a look here : http://www.greenhealth.org.uk/Index%20of%20Governance.htm