GENEVA (15 August 2004) The Second International Conference on the Right to Self-determination, the United Nations, and International Civil Society concluded in Geneva on August 6^th, 2004, with the unanimous adoption of a resolution calling for the establishment of an International Civil Society Tribunal.

Building on the work of the First International Conference on the Right to Self-Determination and the United Nations held in Geneva in 2000, which unanimously called upon the UN to establish an Office of the High Commissioner for Self-determination and a Self-determination Commission, the Second Conference was geared to respond to the UN’s failure to act in regard to the pressing issue of self-determination, which it viewed as at the heart of many of the world’s most pressing conflict situations.

Co-sponsored by the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM), an international NGO in consultative status with the UN, and the International Council for Human Rights (ICHR), the Conference attracted a full house of delegates, who packed the Zurich Room of the prestigious Forum Park Hotel to hear the Conference Roster of distinguished speakers, participate in the four Conference sessions, and draft and adopt the final Conference resolutions calling for the establishment of an International Civil Society Tribunal.

Conference speakers included prominent members of several governments, parliamentarians of the European Union, distinguished jurists and scholars.  NGO attendees from all corners of the globe and delivered interventions concerning the self-determination needs of a wide range of indigenous populations, minorities, and peoples, including African Americans, Canadian First Nations, Dalits of India, Gullah-Geechees, Irish Catholics, Kanaka Maoli, Kashmiris, Metis, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Saamis, Sikhs, etc.

Prominent guests included Judge Gerald S. Seniuk, Abdul Salten, former Pakistani Ambassador to India, and Wilton Littlechild of the Canadian Commission on First Nations / Metis Peoples and Justice from the UN Seminar of experts on Indigenous People and the Administration of Justice.

The plenary session was opened by an address and film on the desperate situation in Kashmir shown by Conference Moderator, Barrister Majid Tramboo, a member of the IHRAAM Directorate and Executive Director of the International Council for Human Rights (ICHR). 

IHRAAM Chair and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Y. N. Kly and member of the ICHR dircctorate  presented the Welcoming address.  He advised delegates that “This conference boldly proposes that the right to self-determination is essential to democratic development, despite the traditional monopoly of institutionalized power held by the dominant ethny in some multinational states.  It views the right to self-determination as a prerequisite to equal status integration either into or out of the nation state, and in both cases, into the global village.  Only international civil society or international organization can provide the impartiality required for dispute resolution between competing ethnies in multinational states..  At this present stage of human technological, social and educational development, international civil society must take back its world and begin to demand increased participation in international systemic decision-making.”

Lord Nazir Ahmed of the United Kingdom indicated the slippage in international understanding that this conference sought to redress by reminding delegates that there had once been a day when it was possible to make the statement, “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist…” Calling the proposed International Civil Tribunal “a noble ideal,” he suggested it might be instrumental in promoting new institutional structures in a reformed United Nations, whose Security Council, he stipulated, should not be expanded to include those nations who failed to respond to previous UN resolutions concerning human rights violations in their countries.  To the applause of delegates, he called for a condemnation of state terrorism.

Sinn Fein Vice-President, MP and MLA for West Tyrone, North Ireland, Pat Doherty, outlined how the British effort to guarantee a Protestant state in Northern Ireland—despite the overwhelming desire of the Irish people for national unity—has resulted in a failure to provide peace and equal status to the peoples concerned, thereby providing a significant instance where the denial of the right to self-determination has led to a permanent state of crisis.

Karen Parker, an international lawyer and Chief/Delegate for the International Educational Developmental/ Humanitarian Law Project, an NGO in Consultative Status with ECOSOC, pointed out that the right to self-determination, as enshrined in the UN Charter and the International Bill of Rights, is revolutionary, insofar as before that time, the world operated in a system where, in legal terms, “might makes right”. Since then, not only the exercise of  the right to self determination but also its further elaboration has been thwarted by governments, as the problematic of terrorism begins to haunts their debates.

Andre Frankovits, International Project Director of the Human Rights Council of Australia, whose paper, “Towards a Mechanism for the Realization of the Right to Self-determination”, had served as pre-conference reading for the First Conference, urged delegates to continue to pursue the resolutions of the First International Conference.  In evidence of the ability of international civil society to affect UN institutions, he cited in particular changes to World Bank policies, and the creation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Several speakers during the conference addressed the issue of Kashmir, and expressed grave concern for world peace because this problematic spurred conflict between two nuclear weapons-holding states. Indicative of the present ineffectiveness of the UN, Dr. G. N. Fai drew delegates attention to the fact that 23 resolutions on Kashmir had been adopted in the UN system, but this had not led to their implementation.  Nonetheless, peoples of all cultures flinch, when Kashmir’s right to self determination is denied.  Victoria Schofield addressed the difficulties surrounding not just the holding of a plebiscite in Kashmir, but discussions related to the pursuit of this goal.  Also speaking on behalf of Kashmir were Farooq Siddiqi,  Prof. Nazir Ahmad Shawl, Gohar Ayub Khan, Sheikh Tajama-ul Islam, and Abdul Satar.

Speakers from groups presently engaged in  the exercise of  various types of self-determination took the floor, one after another.  Queen Quet, Head of the Gullah-Geechee Nation illustrated the paradoxical situation faced by Gullah/Geechees who  were victimized by forced assimilation, saying “All the things that they told us not to do, the US now wants  to come and see us do.” Lydia Ragnhild Nystad, Vice President of the Saami Parliament in Norway, pointing out how Saami resistance to a water development project had served as a catalyst towards exercise of their right to self-determination, regretfully informed delegates of the retrogression of the 2003 Norwegian bill, The Finmark Act.  In a passionate and moving address, James Craven (Omahkohkiaayo I’poyi), official spokes person of the Blackfoot Nation and Chair of the Economics Department of Clark University,  advised the Conference that what is presently going on with the Blackfoot people—in legal terms—is genocide.  Shirley Wolfe-Keller, Chief of the Muscogwan First Nation, pointed out that self-determination negotiations were not true negotiations, insofar as the government drives them, and then decides when they end.  It was pointed out by a Sikh participant that when Sikhs sought secession for the Province of Khalistan , India, 30,000 Sikhs were killed by the Indian government in the space of two days in the Golden Temple.  Prof. Ramon Nenadich spoke on behalf of the Puerto Rican people, while Rudy and Diana James addressed the situation of the Kuiu-Kwan in Alaska.

In the context of CURE’s efforts, as an organization of European-Americans in support of reparations for African-Americans, Director Ida Hakim asserted that people must take responsibility for crimes committed in their name and for their profit.

In support of action by international civil society, Former MP for the German state of Hessen and Member of the European Parliament, Frank Schwalba-Hoth, recalled the influence of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on the War in Vietnam. Professor Nazir Ahmad Shawl referred to the role of civil society in the adoption of the Land Mines Treaty. Venerable Dalit activist, Dr Henry Thiagaraj, Director of the Dalit Liberation Education Trust, pointed out that UNESCO and UNDP have acknowledged the need to integrate human rights with sustainable development.

In preparation for the deliberations of the workshops and preparation of the Conference resolutions, Dr. Y. N. Kly reminded delegates of a longstanding principle of customary law adage:  that “ no one should  be the judge in his own case”..  If applied to the multinational state in relation to its historical national components, this legal principle would require that states not serve as sole adjudicators of which human rights should be exercised by their internal nations or minorities or how such rights should be exercised.

Yet, in face of the failure of the UN to establish an international mechanism as proposed by the First International Conference on the Right to Self-determination and the United Nations, there presently exists no such mechanism, anywhere in the international system, which can provide a “Good Office” for dedicated peace finding, adjudication and negotiations. The absence of such a mechanism is what the present conference is convened to address.

After discussions, lectures and interventions presented under the Conference themes, as well as the reports received from the Conference workshops, the following resolution was debated and unanimously passed by the Conference:

Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan, President of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, delivered the closing address, summarizing the discussions and efforts of the Conference. Commenting on the Conference resolution, he stated:  “This is an important and formidable decision. I believe that this will address the most important conflicts in the world.”

In closing the Conference, IHRAAM Chair, Dr. Y. N. Kly, and Barrister Majid Tramboo , Director of ICHR announced the names of members of the Task Force who will further pursue implementation of the Conference Resolution to establish an International Civil Society Tribunal.  They are:   Dr. Hans Koechler, Dr. Richard Falk, Dr Yussuf Kly, Barrister Majid Tramboo, Karen Parker, Ramon Nenadich, Queen Quet, and James Craven.

The Conference resolutions have been formally submitted to the UN Secretary-General, to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to the Chair of the UN Working Group on Minorities by ICHR Director Barrister Majid Tramboo and IHRAAM Chair, Dr. Y. N. Kly.

This press release is issued by Mrs. Diana Kly, Communications Director, IHRAAM.  For further information, please contact Mrs. Diana Kly at 1-250-758-0449 (e-mail: ihraam@usa.net).  More information on IHRAAM is available at http://www.ihraam.org.