VIENNA: The World Conference “on Human Rights opened here on June 14amidstablaze of publicity _and.an open confrontation between Governments and billions of “people deprived of food, shelter and dignity.
Nearly 13 Nobel Peace laureates boycotted the opening ceremony chaired by United Nations Secretary General Boutros Ali, whose official guest-list did not include fellow Nobel Peace Laureate, the Dalai Lama. The ‘Nobel laureates will attend a seminar on peace and human rights till June 16 to be held outside the UN. Premises.
Amnesty International Secretary General Pierre Sane, himself a ‘Nobel laureate refused to attend the gala ceremony. He said that a man was executed in Cabo on Sunday, and that Amnesty was “trying to prevent yet another such killing slated this week.
Boutros-Ghali’s solemn but sanguine call to the conference to take up three imperatives in Vienna those of university, guarantees and democratization was drowned in the more passionate demands of demonstrators from different parts of the world who shouted outside the Austria Center for peace and freedom for Kurds, Kashmiris, Red Indians and Tibetans.
Ignoring the slogan mongers who screamed “down with dictators” and “Fascists go home,” officials, including several heads of states, rushed through the portico into the safe haven of the conference center.
Dr. Alois Mock, who was chosen president of the two-week conference, said that the main task of the conference will be to review and assess the progress made in the field of human rights, to examine the relation between development and the enjoyment by everyone of all human nights.
India will speak on Tuesday. It has sent a 26person delegation led by Manmohan, “that we have come here in such strength goes to prove that we take the conference seriously,” said Hamid Ansari, India’s permanent representatives to the UN in New York.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 18, 1993
