One of the more thankless tasks that the old UN Human Rights Commission set its experts was to report on specific country situations. These reports typically take years of work to prepare and are invariably torn to shreds by the countries in question and their allies while the reporters are subject to personal abuse. In this Second Session of the new Human Rights Council the existing mandate holders were asked to report. The countries in the spotlight were Somalia, Cuba, the occupied Palestinian Territories, Cambodia, Haiti, North Korea, Burundi, DR Congo, Myanmar, the Sudan and Belarus. One of these reports will suffice to give you the flavour.

The International Humanist & Ethical Union

* Considering that humanism is a positive life stance constituting the foundation of a coherent system of ethical values:

* Noting that international law protects the rights of people to adopt and to maintain their religion or belief (French: conviction)(e.g. Art. 9 European Convention on Human Rights, Art. 18 International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights):

One of the main goals of the International Humanist & Ethical Union is the attempt to establish an honest and peaceful world.

Whereas in 1990 we were hopeful to reach this goal within a shorter period than expected, the developments in 1991 (Gulf War) and 1992 (Chaos in the Commonwealth of Independent States and in the Balkans) are cause for great concern.

1. The Congress notes with deep satisfaction the transformations that are going on in the Soviet Union under the leadership of secretary-general Gorbachev.

2. We support the struggle of humanistic forces in the USSR fighting for democratisation of Soviet society, for freedom of expression, for strict adherence to legality and human rights, for freedom of conscience and emigration. The vital interest of the peoples of the Soviet Union lies in a firm and constant development in the humanistic direction.

We regret with deep dismay that the Soviet government has not permitted Andrei Sakharov the right to travel to the United States in order to receive the "International Humanist Award" during the Tenth World Congress of the International Humanist & Ethical Union meeting in Buffalo, New York.

Mr Sakharov is an outstanding humanist and a strong defender of human rights arousing the conscience of all of humankind.

Whereas the International Humanist & Ethical Union fully supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and

Whereas this Declaration guarantees the right of every individual freely to choose his or her place of residence, and

Whereas Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Ms Bonner, are now deprived of this right and are in internal exile at Gorky in the USSR, and

Whereas the USSR is a signer both of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the clauses of the Helsinki agreements dealing with Human Rights,

To: the government of the USSR, c/o Mr Leonid Breznez,
and to the government of the USA, c/o President Ronald Reagan

We, the 8th Congress of the International Humanist & Ethical Union, are convinced that you try to maintain peace for the benefit of your people. You seem to want to achieve this goal by means of a continually growing armament and you accuse each other of an advantage in armament. You attempt to explain to the world that your armament is always the inevitable result of arrears and that the armament of the other party is an attempt to expand an already enormous advantage.

The IHEU has consistently opposed violations of human rights in the world wherever they occur, whether it be Chile, South Africa, Argentina, Cambodia, the German Democratic Republic, Uganda, the USSR, or elsewhere. Indeed, scarcely a nation exists where some violation of human rights does not occur.

The IHEU condemns the contempt of humanist values no matter in which country it occurs.

The IHEU deeply regrets that a number of governments, in which even signers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are included, substitute the rights of man for their own will - and keep refusing investigations especially regarding their opponents (examples: Chile, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Spain, etc.).