Ethnic cleansing, humanitarian problems addressed by subcommission.

• Position: United Nation Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities

Governments and others involved in practices of forced displacement population transfer and "ethnic cleansing" should do everything possible to immediately end them, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has declared, in affirming the "right of persons to remain in peace in their own homes, on their own lands and in their own countries".

The Subcommission asked for a comprehensive report by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights dimensions of population transfer, including "implantation" of settlers and settlements. Calling forced eviction a "gross violation" of a broad range of human fights, it requested Governments to provide restitution or compensation where it occurred.

A Special Rapporteur was needed to look into the human rights implications of UN action, including humanitarian assistance, in addressing international humanitarian problems and in the promotion and protection of human rights, the Subcommission decided.

At its forty-seventh session ( 31 July-25 August, Geneva), the 26-member Subcommission adopted more than 60 resolutions, decisions and statements. The principal subsidiary body of the UN Commission on Human Rights, it faces a growing catalogue of issues engendered by changing conceptions in the promotion of human rights and by new patterns in their violation.

The violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in different parts of the world, including in the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Rwanda, Burundi and Iraq, was also the subject of Subcommission action. Considered as well during the session were: human rights violations in Iran; the role played by some printed or audiovisual media in inciting genocidal hatred; human rights situations in Colombia and Guatemala; and Turkey's initiatives regarding freedom of information.

During closed meetings, the Subcommission also discussed communications from individuals or groups claiming that their lights had been violated by Governments.

`All are equal'

In a closing statement, Chairman loan Maxim of Romania said that wherever in the world the Subcommission looked, there were roughly the same problems: poverty; armed conflict inter-ethnic conflict; discrimination and intolerance; injustice; inequality; and oppression.

"The obstacles which prevent the enjoyment of human rights are many and varied", he said, "and it seems difficult for some human beings to accept that all persons are born free and equal and that people should...