Appendix B: Assessing the Implementation of International Human Rights Obligations of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

April 1, 2011 - 06:11

Section I: Key International Human Rights Obligations Relevant to SCO Practices
Section II: Human Rights Records of SCO Member States: Concluding Observations of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies

Introduction

Each of the six member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has individually ratified or signed core international human rights treaties, committing themselves to obligations for national implementation of human rights under international law. These treaties include, among others, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)¹; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT); and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). With the exception of Uzbekistan, each of the SCO member states has also ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

As parties to these important instruments, each SCO member state must undergo regular periodic assessment of its progress implementing treaty-based human rights obligations. These assessments are conducted by treaty body committees comprised of independent human rights experts. Moreover, as members of the UN, each SCO member state is subject to the state-driven Universal Periodic Review process under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council, which includes assessment of each state’s overall human rights situation.

Disturbingly, a look at the observations and conclusions drawn by the various human rights assessment bodies and mechanisms reveals systematic and wide-ranging human rights abuses in all six SCO member states. Specifically, the concluding observations and recommendations of independent treaty body committees reveal stark patterns of abuses common to all SCO member states, including the use of politically-motivated judicial and administrative procedures lacking minimum due process requirements, such as the right of accused individuals to legal representation; systematic arbitrary arrests and detentions; the practice of torture and other unlawful treatment to extract confessions or gather evidence in criminal investigations, and the forced extradition of individuals to states likely to inflict such treatment upon the individuals’ return; the practice of enforced or involuntary disappearances; and the occurrence of summary and arbitrary executions without minimum due process requirements. Moreover, international monitors have linked a disproportionate occurrence of human rights abuses in SCO member states to what appears to be a systematic targeting of disadvantaged groups, including rural and ethnic groups.

In Section I below, HRIC has compiled a list of key international human rights obligations relevant to SCO practices, including obligations that individual SCO member states have specifically committed themselves to upholding as a matter of international law.

Section II is a collection of observations, conclusions, and recommendations from various international human rights implementation monitoring mechanisms, suggesting the nature and scope of human rights concerns within each of the six individual SCO member states. Specifically, these observations, conclusions, and recommendations reflect a troubling lack of compliance with the human rights obligations most closely implicated by SCO practices, as outlined in Section I.

Section I: Key International Human Rights Obligations Relevant to SCO Practices

Liberty and Security of the Person
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)	Art. 2	“Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.”
	Art. 3	“No State Party shall expel, return (‘refouler’) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
	Art. 10	“Each State Party shall ensure that education and information regarding the prohibition against torture are fully included in the training of law enforcement personnel, civil or military, medical personnel, public officials and other persons who may be involved in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment.”
	Art. 16	“Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article I, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)	Art. 5	“States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: . . . “(b) The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution . . . .”
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)	Art. 7	“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
	Art. 9	“Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.”
1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol (UN Refugee Convention)	Art. 33	“No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
Due Process and Access to Justice
CAT	Art. 11	“Each State Party shall keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing any cases of torture.”
ICERD	Art. 5	“States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: “(a) The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice . . . .”
ICCPR	Art. 9	“Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him. “Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody, but release may be subject to guarantees to appear for trial, at any other stage of the judicial proceedings, and, should occasion arise, for execution of the judgment. “Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.”
	Art. 13	“An alien lawfully in the territory of a State Party to the present Covenant may be expelled therefrom only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law and shall, except where compelling reasons of national security otherwise require, be allowed to submit the reasons against his expulsion and to have his case reviewed by, and be represented for the purpose before, the competent authority or a person or persons especially designated by the competent authority.”
	Art. 14	“All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. . . . “Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. “In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality: (a) To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him; (b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing; (c) To be tried without undue delay; (d) To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it; (e) To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him; (f) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court; (g) Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt. . . . “Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law. . . .”
	Art. 26	“All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
UN Refugee Convention	Art. 16	“A refugee shall have free access to the courts of law on the territory of all Contracting States.”
Freedom of Opinion and Expression
ICERD	Art. 5	States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: . . . “(d) Other civil rights, in particular: . . . (viii) The right to freedom of opinion and expression . . . .”
ICCPR	Art. 19	“Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”* * While limitations imposed on the right to freedom of expression in order to combat incitement – including advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred – are contemplated pursuant to ICCPR Arts. 19(3)² and 20(2)³, such limitations must be necessary and proportional.
Freedom of Religion
ICERD	Art. 5	“States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: . . . “(d) Other civil rights, in particular: . . . (vii) The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion . . . .”
ICCPR	Art. 18	“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. “No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. . . .”
ICCPR	Art. 27	“In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.”
Freedom of Association
ICERD	Art. 5	“States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: . . . “(d) Other civil rights, in particular: . . . (ix) The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association . . . .”
ICCPR	Art. 21	“The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized.”
ICCPR	Art. 22	“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
Privacy
ICCPR	Art. 17	“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. “Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
Self-Determination
ICCPR; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights	Art. 1	“All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

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Endnotes

1. Although it has not yet ratified the ICCPR, the People’s Republic of China (China) became a signatory to that treaty on October 5, 1998. As a signatory, China is obliged as a matter of international law to “refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of [the] treaty.” Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Art. 18. ^

2. Restrictions on freedom of expression are permissible if they are provided by law and necessary “for respect of the rights or reputations of others,” or “for the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.” ICCPR Art. 19(3). ^

3. “Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.” ICCPR Art. 20(2). ^