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Appendix C
Organization of a Human Rights Committee
Over the years, as the activities of the Committee on Human
Rights have become better known, and particularly following the
symposium, the committee has received requests for help, advice,
and cooperation from other scientific societies, human rights groups,
individual activists, and academies of science abroad.
The committee has been pleased to receive these requests. Al-
though it does not establish formal links with other groups, it has
been anxious to cooperate with them and to help them create com-
mittees of their own.
Many of the questions from organizations interested in human
rights, or in the case of a particular colleague, have been about how
to organize a human rights committee, be it international, national
or institutional, and what kinds of action could and should be taken
on a specific issue or in behalf of a particular individual. To help
answer such questions for readers of this report, some of the issues
and actions to be considered in the development of a human rights
committee are presented here.
I. THE MANDATE OR TERMS Ol? RE1?ERENCE
A mandate cannot be decided upon until many of the issues listed
here and others are considered. A mandate must be narrow enough
to be manageable and broad enough to allow for some flexibility in
the scope of the committee's work.
It should be a formal, written statement that can then be used
to introduce the work of the committee and to resolve discussion
86
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c, (
over whether specific issues or actions fall within the purview of the
committee. (Most human rights groups use the United Nations Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights as the basis for their activities.)
The mandate should probably be reviewed and, if necessary, revised
at least every three years.
Considerations in developing a focus for a committee's work
include whether work will be done on individual cases and/or selected
human rights issues or both. Section ~ presents information on these
two options. Section lI looks at comrn~ttee functions. Section IIT
identifies specific actions that can be taken. Section {V discusses
briefly how the work can be funded.
Individual Cases
Indiviclual cases involve a focus on human rights protection the
identification of victims and efforts to end the repression to which
these individuals are subjected. There are many types of repression
against individuals. A small committee cannot undertake all of the
cases that come to its attention no matter how reprehensible. Human
rights groups often choose to focus on cases of colleagues.
The committee has always taken the position that once it un-
dertakes a case, it will persevere until the case is resolved. Cases
undertaken cannot be selected in an arbitrary manner. Decisions
must be made from the outset as to which cases and what types of
repression will be the focus of a particular group. The importance of
maintaining a good geographic and political balance and impartiality
cannot be stressed enough.
Types of Cases
What population group or groups will be considered-men,
women, children? Will the scope be worldwide or limited to a specific
geographic region or regions? Will the committee select its cases by
profession, religion, ethnic group, or other category?
Types of Repression
Individuals are often subjected to repression for religious, polit-
ical, or racial reasons. The more serious types of repression include
the following.
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oo
Detention Torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
punishment often occurs when individuals are being held in deten-
tion, usually unacknowledged detention. Trnmediate intervention,
within 24 to 48 hours, is essential. Some individuals are held in
indefinite detention, without trial, for years. Appeals must continue
to be made for the prisoner to be brought to trial or released uncon-
ditionally.
Imprisonment Appeals for those who have been sentenced to prison
terms are usually made in behalf of prisoners of conscience. (Amnesty
International described prisoners of conscience as "men and women
detained anywhere for their beliefs, color, sex, ethnic origin, lan-
guage, or religion." They cannot have used or advocated violence.)
In addition to immediate and unconditional release, appeals also of-
ten raise issues about the prisoner's conditions of confinement and
state of health and whether access to lawyers, physicians, and family
members is allowed.
Disappearance Amnesty International considers that a person has
~disappeared" when there are grounds to believe that that person has
been taken into custody by the authorities or with their connivance;
the authorities deny that the person is in their custody or the custody
of their agent; and there are reasonable grounds to disbelieve the
denial. {rnmediate intervention by a committee can help save the
life of the person who has disappeared. Often, however, such cases
come to the attention of a committee when the person is presumed
dead, but whose body has never been found. In such cases, appeals
are based on requests that an investigation into the disappearance be
undertaken and that those believed responsible be brought to justice.
Internal Exile Individuals banished to internal exile are generally
restricted to the town or village to which they are sent and are
required to report regularly to the local police. Visits from family
members and friends are often restricted. Action can take the form
of appeals for release from exile, family visits, and permission to
receive letters, books, food, and clothing parcels.
Forced Exile Some inclividuals are forcibly exiled from their coun-
tries; others leave of their own volition, but are not permitted to
return. Action generally involves efforts to gain permission for the
exiled individuals to return to their country and their careers.
Torture Torture is defined and discussed in considerable detail on
pages 21-28. Efforts in behalf of individuals who have been subjected
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on
to torture can include strong denunciations of the government in-
volved and appeals that the torture victim be examined and treated
by an independent physician. Support can also be extended to ex-
amination, treatment, and rehabilitation of the torture survivor.
Medical Neglect in Prison Medical neglect often occurs through
incompetence, as an effort to punish the prisoner, or because of
shortages of skilled medical practitioners. Committee actions can in-
clude appeals that medical assistance be provided, that independent
medical professionals be permitted to examine the prisoner, and that
prison conditions be improved.
Abuses of Academic Freedom Abuses of academic freedom can in-
clude such issues as revocation of academic degrees, lack of academic
autonomy, restrictions on academic curriculum for ideological and
political reasons, selection of university administrators on the basis
of political allegiance rather than academic and professional quaTifi-
cations, and hiring, firing, and awarding of academic scholarships on
political grounds. This is a difficult area in which to become involved
because often it is not possible to ascertain, with a reasonable degree
of certainty, which cases involve actual abuses.
Selected Human Rights Issues
Human rights issues are many and varied and overlapping. Many
are subject to dispute about whether they are human rights issues or
economic, social, development, or health issues, for example. When
the focus of a committee's work is Issue oriented rather than case
oriented, the objective tends to be more toward human rights pro-
motion, rather than human rights protection.
Presented here are examples of some of the issues that, in the
minds of many scholars, have human rights components:
. torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or pun-
ishment of prisoners,
subjects,
psychiatric abuse for political purposes
death penalty,
prison conditions,
unethical medical or scientific experimentation on human
,,
restrictions on freedom of movement,
restrictions on civil and political rights,
restrictions on social, economic, and cultural rights,
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ye
right to a fair and expedient trial,
~ mutilation as punishment.
Some of these issues are discussed in more detail in the report section
of this book.
II. THE FUNCTIONS
Committee Structure
The most important traits of those involved with committee
work are a strong commitment to human rights, impartiality and
evenhandedness, a willingness to speak out wherever and whenever
abuses occur, ability to work within an institutional framework, and
an understanding that the victim's well-being must always be the
foremost consideration.
Committee Members
Size A committee of between 7 and 14 members seems reasonable.
Composition Members with medical, legal, civil, political, and in-
ternational backgrounds (Asia, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Eu-
rope, and USSR), as well as women and minorities, should be in-
cluded. Individuals who carry personal prestige can help open doors
and give more weight to a committee's actions than individuals who
are unknown. Members serve on a voluntary basis.
Communication At {east two meetings should be held per year.
Other options include newsletters, newsclips, teleconferences, and
annual reports, among others.
Committee Staff Staff should have good knowledge of geography
and political science. They can be salaried, volunteer, student in-
terns, or a combination. Continuity is what is important.
Volunteer Network Members of the organization can be invited to
support the committee's work by writing inquiries and appeals in
behalf of colleagues who are victims of repression. (The Committee
on Human Rights has established such a network of "correspondents"
by inviting newly elected members of the academy, NAE, and IOM
each year to actively support the committee's work. They are asked
to return a postcard and are then sent information several times a
year about cases that require urgent attention and are asked to write
appeals.)
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~1
Information Gathering
Information is available from a wide variety of sources: publica-
tions (newspapers, journals, human rights bulletins), human rights
organizations, on-site research visits, high-level delegations to coun-
tries and their embassies, personal contacts in repressive countries,
and government organizations at home and abroad.
III. ACTIONS
Actions taken are generally linked to international human rights
law, regional instruments, and the offending government's laws and
constitution. Various actions may be taken.
Private requests can be made for information on cases or
issues (letter, telephone, telegram, in person) from representatives of
governments involved, lawyers, professional associations, and human
rights groups, among others.
~ Private appeals are appropriate to the government involved.
(For a checklist of possible courses of action and examples of mode}
communications, see Guide to International Human Rights Practice,
Hurst Hannum, editor, International Human rights Law Group, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1984, pp. 288-294.)
~ Letters of support may be written to victims and their fa~ni-
lies.
Private requests may be made to others to support the com-
mittee's efforts on particular cases or issues. Contacts include pro-
fessional colleagues, members of Congress, government officials, and
individuals with influence on or knowledge of the governments in
focus, among others.
~ Private or public missions of inquiry may be initiated. (For
specific guidelines on conducting such missions of inquiry, see ~Fact-
Finding by International Nongovernmental Human Rights Organiza-
tions," by David Weissbro~t and James McCarthy, Virginia Journal
of International Law, Vol. 22, No. 1, Fall 1981.)
~ Complaints and communications to intergovernmental orga-
nizations may be made.
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~ Reports, press releases, conferences, proceedings, and state-
ments can be sent to the press. Interviews with the press, congres-
sional testimony, and speaking engagements are effective ways of
· ~
Increasing awareness.
IV. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Ideally, the committee would receive its operating funds from its
sponsoring organization. However, if this is not possible, to protect
the independence of the committee, its funds should come from
contributions from organization members, private foundations, or
donations from impartial individuals.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
rights issues
