Maputo — Government and NGO representatives from the five Portuguese speaking African countries gathered in Maputo on Monday for a three day workshop on "Enhancing National Capacities for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights".
The workshop, organised by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, together with the Mozambican government, is supposed to discuss such matters as national plans of action on human rights, and promoting ratification of relevant UN conventions and reporting to the UN treaty bodies.
An introductory UN release said the workshop aimed at "establishing a network of responsible government officials and civil society organisations working in the field of human rights".
For Mozambique, the UN document says, the workshop "will enable progress towards the establishment on a legislative basis of an independent human rights commission, and the finalisation of its human rights national action plan".
In a brief opening statement, Justice Minister Jose Abudo spoke vaguely of the Mozambican government's commitment to human rights, but gave no specific examples. He said the government's five year programme "contemplates actions tending to promote and develop the protection of human rights and to raise the civic rights of citizens, through the adoption of policies for social security, full employment, medical care, expansion of the judicial network, and even improving living conditions in the prisons".
In these efforts, he added, the government counted on "the commitment of civil society, of religious bodies, of the private sector, and of human rights associations".
He said nothing about specific human rights abuses and how they were being tackled. Surprisingly, he did not even mention one outstanding event of which the Mozambican authorities can be proud - the bringing to trial of at least some of those responsible for the murder of the country's top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso. Abudo declared that, like organised crime, human rights violations are today "a reality which does not respect national borders, and which necessarily requires the development of international cooperation to deal with it".
Zeferino Martins, the deputy executive secretary of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), told the workshop that respect for human rights "is imperative in creating a climate for political dialogue and development".
"We think it necessary to work with commitment and dedication to implant a culture of tolerance and dialogue, in order to build an inclusive and coordinated system to protect fundamental rights and freedoms", he said.
"Globalisation has reached all sectors of human existence", said Martins, "and so we have all become agents involved in building a world where justice and the well-being of all humanity are not just acts of solidarity, but an imperative that cannot be delayed".
A message from Sergio Vieira de Mello declared that "the international human rights framework comprises instruments which, when effectively implemented, provide a guarantee for the dignity, equality and security of all people".
That framework "lays a foundation for democratic governance, allowing for the meaningful participation of people in order to create the conditions necessary for development".
Vieira de Mello noted that both the Constitutive Act of the African Union, and policy documents of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) "emphasise the need for African countries to function in sustained conditions of peace and security, and in an environment where human rights and the rule of law are respected".
A national action plan for human rights "elaborated with the active participation of all components of a society under the leadership of the government" could be a useful tool in protecting human rights, said the UN official, and implementation of such a plan should be monitored by independent human rights bodies.
