Fifty-Third Session

10^th March - 18^th April 1997

Mr. President,

The International Bill of Rights, is almost 50 years old now, but almost half the member states of the United Nations have not ratified the covenants, and hardly any member state fully implements the bill, as we are approaching the 21^st century. Human Rights, as we perceive them, are closely linked with the economic situations, socio-cultural problems including religious polarisation, illiteracy and other aspects of everyday life of individuals. Hence, the arbitrary division of the Civil and Political rights from Socio-Cultural-Economic rights and economic aid is misleading and has proved to be detrimental. Socio-economic deprivation always leads to civil and political unrest as witnessed in Albania. Territorial integrity and Civil & Political stability of the member states can not be guaranteed, unless we guarantee the Socio-economic rights, including employment with dignity, housing, education health

The situation becomes even more alarming, when the champions of the free world argue that the violation of Human Rights can not be linked with sanctions or trade links. We wonder if the peaceful changes would have been brought about in South Africa or Chile without the sanctions. Profit making seems to have overtaken all other moral and humanitarian values, and the new world order seems to have created more problems than resolve them. Many more people are getting killed today demanding their legal rights than ever before, with complete impunity to the world opinion by the new dictators, and feeling of helplessness by the international community.

I was rather surprised to learn that IMF does not concern itself with the internal policies of the country, specially with regard to the Human Rights situation before giving loans, which are mostly used to buy guns and other military equipment to subjugate the people, as in the case of Burma, China, Nigeria, Serbia, and not to mention Pakistan.

We hear more and more about the right to development, but the question arises the right to development for whom? Is it the multi-national companies and syndicates who are making huge profits or the individual ordinary human beings who are being displaced from their land to explore the natural resources and made redundant to beef up the profits for the companies.

In last few years, we have witnessed the shift in the economic policies in many civilised countries, from the emphasis on the economic and socio-cultural rights of the individual to the market economy and corporate efficiency, resulting in mass redundancies and labour strikes, as witnessed in Germany, France, South Korea and Great Britain. To highlight as an example, after 18 months of injustice in which 500 Liverpool Dockers and their families have suffered, after being dismissed by the 'Mersey Docks and Harbours Co.', for refusing to cross the picket line. The company used government legislation to waive the men's right to redundancy payments, and the pensions were frozen which all the men were entitled to after thirty to forty years of service.

Millions of pounds worth of European Grants have been given to the Mersey Docks in last six years, but no new jobs have been created, indeed the labour force has gone down by over 70% in an area of high unemployment. The workers have put forward a new initiative to establish a non-profit making labour supply company, but the Mersey Docks is using casual labour and Contract labour to replace the sacked Liverpool Dockers. This clearly violates the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration.

There is widespread violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Sindh, as highlighted in the UN document E/CN.4/1994/NGO/56.

a) More than eight million acres of land has been forcibly taken from local Sindhis and allocated to Military Generals and other outside settlers, forcing native Sindhis to abandon their centuries old ancestral homes and villages. Recently more than 200 miles of coastal land has been taken over by the defence forces, evicting local fishermen and depriving more than 2000 families of their livelihood.

b) The natural resources of Sindh, including oil, gas and coal are being indiscriminately exploited and taken away without due compensation to the local people.

c) Sindh is being deprived of its share of water from Indus River vital for agriculture, by construction of dams upstream, severely affecting the agrarian rural economy and resulting in the ecological disaster.

d) Widespread deforestation has further worsened the situation, as evidenced by the recurrent flooding, extinction of many endangered species and damage to the wild life.

e) Sindhi medium schools are being closed down, so much so that their is not a single Sindhi medium government school in Karachi, the capitol of Sindh.

f) The continuos settlement of outsiders has resulted in the disproportionate imbalance of the population resulting in the increasing tension between the native Sindhi people and the immigrants. The immigrants have further destroyed the native culture by bringing heroin and illegal weapons.

In the absence of any constitutional protection, Sindhis feel that their Economic, Social and Cultural rights are being violated. Hence, Sindhis the indigenous people of Sindh, demand the Right of Self Determination, as per International Covenants.

In view of the continuing violation of human rights in Sindh, an impartial United Nations fact-finding mission is essential and will be welcomed by the indigenous people of Sindh.

Immediate measures must be taken to ensure that Sindh & Sindhis continue to participate in the peace, progress and stability of the region. Anything less puts one of the world's oldest surviving civilisation at risk of extinction. We appeal to the international community for their support in our peaceful struggle against the neo-colonisation and occupation of our land and massacre of our people.

Thank you again, Mr. President.

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