Human rights seminar hosted by Yemen Times More than politics needed to bring justice to Yemen [Archives:2002/19/Reportage]

Efforts of some governments in the democracy-emerging world to convince the international community that they are striving to enforce human rights only to please the superpowers are senseless, he said.
Protecting human rights and human dignity should be the essence of governance at these countries since the basis of a strong countries is man.
The editor-in-chief pointed out that we should not copy Western concept of human rights. We should rather take the best and leave the rest, as some Western countries topped by the United States are using a double standard policy with regard to human rights, as is the case with its support to Israel.
Minister in attendance
This was followed by a speech by Dr. Wahibe Fari Minister of Human Rights and General Secretary of the SNCHR. The Minister gave a statement explaining the role of her committee to defend human rights and spread awareness of its true meaning.
She agreed on comments made by some participants, saying that there are many violations which are all inconsistent with constitution and the established law.
But, still there is a political will to protect human rights and to fulfill Yemens commitments made to the international community, she said.
But human rights with its different aspects cannot be achieved overnight. We would like to adopt an institutionalized concept for human rights in Yemen, she added.
The first day included a working paper on the role of the parliament in promoting the understanding of human rights in all its forms presented by Mr. Mohamed Naji Allaw, Member of Parliament and chairman of Activists NGO which defends human rights and liberties in Yemen.
He said, We in Yemen are still mixing between the duties of the different state bodies. We really have a problem with regard to human rights.
The second day, Monday April 29, was rich with working papers including one by Sanaa University Academician Dr. Mohamed Abdulmalik al-Mutawakkil on Islams vision on Human Rights.
He said the wrong idea that human rights were first adopted by the West is wrong. All divine religions advocate human rights and protect human dignity. He also discussed in his paper the issue of human rights and the West as well as the inter-civilizations dialogue.
Ali Saif Hassen, noted the workshop would not be restricted to political rights only and added that there are two kinds of rights: rights that are free of charge, and rights that need resources.
Political rights include the citizens right to free expression, accountability, and new rulers. He suggested the government in Yemen, however, restricts some of these rights. And he added that the Ministry of Information should be shut down since it appears that it has no role than to prosecute journalists and prevent freedom of expression.
The conference was told that a certain amount of government revenues are needed for supporting human rights.
Jaralah Omar said he thinks the government is a violator of rights because it prevents citizens from speaking out in support of Palestine. Though the government claims to be a human rights advocate who is then a violator, he said, noting that if there is real freedom in the Arab world, average Arabs would have the ability to speak of their resentment of the biased US stance towards Israel.
In my opinion there should be a rather an extensive debate on this issue and not a workshop for some intellectuals, Omar said, adding that there are many areas of human right that should be tackled.
Ahmed al-Kibsi, requested that the civil society organizations empower the Ministry of Human Rights.
Regarding the political rights, we want to stand by the Minister of Human Rights, he said. He also demanded the opposition politicians not to rely on the US Embassy if there is a small problem related to human rights, It is a shame to do that, he said.
Sultan al-Atwani commented on the role of mass media, saying that the state-run media only serve the policy of the ruling party, while the independent media is in a very bad situation and can not help anymore.
Human rights in Yemen are lacking, and freedom of expression is also very limited, he said, noting that in police stations many people are inhumanely tortured. What some policemen commit against citizens are in some cases even more graver to the crimes of Israeli prime minister of Arial Sharon, he said, adding that we should pay great attention to how we can protect and consolidate human rights.
Mohammed al-Khiwani said that even journalists are not excused from human right violations. For instance, a journalist was detained by the secret police only on the basis of a rumor.
The secret police even did not notify us that he was in custody, he said. The Minister of Human Rights should probe into the cases of violation of human rights of women at prisons reported by many newspapers. Otherwise, the Minister of Human Rights will fail to carry out her mission, he added.
Al-Khiwani also demanded from the workshop to include within its recommendations a demand to Saudi Arabia to release some Saudi clerics it is holding in prisons.
Ahmed Nassir al-Hamati, deputy minister of information for TV sector, said the simplest concept of human rights is dignity, however, whats happening now is that this concept has been victimized by the current international conditions.
Nowadays, the resistance movements in the Arab world have been branded as terrorists by some countries. It seems that the right to live in dignity has turned to be a form of terrorism. The United States has to review its policies towards the Arab and Islamic world because its interests in the Islamic world is much important to that of its interests in Israel.
Also, Jamal Aldin al-Ademi, presented a working paper on legal awareness for the citizens, saying that we should correct the wrong concept that human rights are pertinent to political rights. There should be a legal awareness that enable citizens to defend themselves.
Huriya Mashhur also presented a paper on the social dimensions of human rights and means of spreading them.
Introducing the real meaning of human rights and the role of media was the paper of Mr. Ahmed al-Dhahbani.
Also, the Human Rights Information & Training Center (HRITC) presented a paper on the role of human rights organizations in spreading awareness of human rights.
The two-day seminar included a field visit to the headquarters of the SNCHR where the Minster of Human Rights, Dr. Wahibe Fari gave a detailed description of the committees duties and procedures.
The seminar concluded by reading out the recommendations of the seminar.
The event was organized By the Yemen Times in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung under the auspices of the Supreme National Committee for Human Rights (SNCHR).
Seminar resolutions:
We, the participants in the seminar Human Rights: More than Politics:
1-Stress that there could be no economic or political development in the country unless its citizen are free and given all rights. Hence, human rights should be given attention in order to push for development.
2-Compliment the political leadership for its role in encouraging the human rights-defending, democratic transition in the country, and for its decision to form the Supreme National Committee for Human Rights. We support the committees administration, including the Minister of Human Rights, to continue its positive steps to increase awareness on social, educational, medical, and political human rights, plus other human rights.
3-Stress the importance of continuing this path that promotes human rights culture and principles through various public and private means to consolidate the countrys commitment to continue in the direction of democracy.
4-Emphasize the importance to set up a long-term plan to spread awareness among governmental cadres about the rights of the citizen when dealing with any governmental body.
5-Call upon the government to approve the special budgets allocated for the awareness campaigns on the different human rights agreements signed by our government; agreements that include budgets to provide technical assistance to set up local programs to train locals on how to spread awareness on those international agreements and declarations dealing with human rights among the public.
6-Stress on the need to have the human rights and liberties committees in the Parliament and Shoura Council more effective by first, spreading awareness of the importance of human rights and its different branches, and second, by making them more effective in defending human rights, each within its framework.
7-Bring attention to the human rights violations by police and interrogation forces against citizens in prisons and elsewhere, signaling the importance of training policemen and security officials so as to respect human rights and spread awareness among them to reduce those violations. If needed, we request that special monitoring bodies be present in prisons and other security offices to report on any human rights violations.
8-Emphasize on the importance of having judges and attorney generals, and other legislative members aware of human rights to reduce injustice cases, blackmail, and threats against defendants and others in courts and elsewhere.
9-Call upon the government to include educational material on human rights to be taught in primary and secondary classes and to be part of the basic curriculum.
10-Stress the need for more human rights educational and cultural material to be broadcast on TV and radio to spread awareness among the public, especially illiterate families and people in rural areas.
11-Realize the need to establish a network linking all NGOs in the country whose work falls in the scope of human rights. This network is needed to launch more effective large-scale campaigns in promotion of human rights in all its forms.


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