[Peace-discuss] UN vote on DU 9/10/01

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

US/UK DEFEATED ON DU  VOTE AT THE UNITED NATIONS  SUB-COMMISSION
Contact: Philippa Winkler 928 774 1765 (USA)
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Efforts by the US/UK to keep depleted uranium off the agenda of the UN
Sub-Commission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights failed this
August as the Sub-Commission clearly decided that depleted uranuim weaponry
qualify as weapons of mass destructio
n (WMD) and authorized a prominent member, Justice Y. Sik Yuen (Mauritius)
to prepare a study on the topic. The UK member of the Sub-Commisson tried to
have depleted uranium weaponry deleted from the study, which had been
authorized earlier by the Sub-Com
mission, arguing that DU weaponry are not WMD,but her proposed amendments
and a substitute resolution were defeated, drawing only two votes -- hers
and the vote of the member from Norway.

The debate as well as the outcome reinforces the claim made by Karen Parker
and supported by a clear majority of international experts --including 23 of
the 26 members of the Sub-Commission -- that DU is already banned because it
is incompatible with exis
ting humanitarian law and qualifies as WMD. (The  American member was chair
and did not vote, but according to eyewitnesses allowed the Norwegian member
to speak beyond the limits usually allocated for such debates.)

The vote to study weapons of mass destruction including DU is the latest
success of UN non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who, beginning in 1996,
started a campaign for a strong condemnation of both DU and sanctions. In
1996 attorney Karen Parker, Mar
garita Papendreou, Dr. Beatrice Boctor, Philippa Winkler and Dr. Gorst
Gunther (all representing International Educational Development/
Humanitarian Law Project (IED/HLP)) made a two prong charge against both DU
and sanctions at that year's session of the
 U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Then, at the 1996 session of the
Sub-Commission, following a speech made by attorney Karen Parker on behalf
of IED/HLP and extensive lobbying by her and Fabio Marcelli (Italy) on the
effects of DU on Iraq, a resolution wa
s adopted by the Sub-Commission that included depleted uranium weaponry on a
list of other "bad" weapons and asked the Secretary-General to present a
report on these weapons to the 1997 session of the Sub-Commission. The
report was to reflect submissions
fro
m governments, NGOs and others. The Secretary-General's report was submitted
on schedule in 1997,thanks to the efforts of Karen Parker, Damacio Lopez,
Felicity Arbuthnot,Philippa Winkler and others and was issued as U.N.
Doc.E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/27 and Add.
1.That year the Sub-Commission decided to appoint one of its members, Mme
Forero Ucros (Columbia), to prepare a working paper preparatory to a full
study. Unfortunately Mme Forero never returned to the Sub-Commission, with
many saying this was because of
US pressure.

The same year, however, the Sub-Commission moved on the sanctions issue, and
adopted a resolution on economic sanctions -- responding again to a speech
by Karen Parker.  Unfortunately, that resolution's author, Marc Bossuyt
(Belgium) was ill the following
 year, and was unable to attend the Sub-Commisison's session. When he
returned in 1999, the Sub-Commission authorized him to prepare a working
paper on sanctions, issued as UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/33.

Following the departure of Mme Forero, there were changes in the membership
of the  Sub-Commission, and the "team" was uncertain whether it was
necessary or useful to go forward with a study on DU and the  other listed
weapons, in part because (1) the Sub
-Commission had already labeled DU as a WMD, and (2) the Secretary-General's
report contained substantial portions of both the Parker Memorandum on
Weapons, the submission of the International Indian Treaty Council and a
number of countries, all essential
ly implying the same thing -- DU weaponry is incompatible with existing
international humanitarian law and human rights norms. However, during these
three years, the NGOs at the UN continued to present seminars, films and
keep up the pressure. In 1999, th
e video documentary "From Radioactive Mines to Radioactive Weapons" was
shown at the Commission. The documentary linked the health impacts of
uranium mining on Navajo miners to  the impacts of DU weapons, and described
tests done by Dr Hari Sharma showing
 th
e presence of DU in Gulf War veterans including Ray Bristow. The number of
UN NGOs presenting statements on DU continued to grow. At the 2001 session
of the Sub-Commission, one of the most respected members of the
Sub-Commission, Justice Y. Sik Yuen (Maur
itius) agreed to go forward with the study. (Karen Parker had tried to
convince him to take on this study for several years, but he had already
been assigned another study). By Thursday of the first week of the 2001
session, the draft resolution was table
d (submitted) with 16 co-sponsors.

The final debate on the draft became, as Karen Parker says, a "dream come
true." The US and UK tried to urge that DU is a 'conventional' weapon and
therefore 'legal.' So the debate really shows that these two countries are
backed into a corner, and the re
st of the world accepts that DU is and always was illegal." (Please note:
There have been many NGOs who have contributed to this effort at the
Sub-Commission and we apologize if some have not been mentioned by name.)

The documents from the Sub-Commission are not yet all posted on the UN
web-site, and as soon as they are available, we will let you know.

In the meantime, Karen Parker  will be assisting Justice Sik Yuen on this
study, and requests that people begin to collect the latest relevant
information to transmit to her at ied at igc.org if they are small enough.
Larger documents may be transmitted to h
er office by mail. Funds to assist this effort may be made out to Karen
Parker directly, of for those wishing to make a tax-exempt contribution, to
the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, and sent to The Law Offices of
Karen Parker, 154-5th Avenue, San F
rancisco, CA 94118, USA.

Below is the relevent press release from the UN website
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/NewsRoom?OpenFrameSet
UNITED NATIONS

                 Press Release




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             SUBCOMMISSION ASKS EXPERTS TO CONDUCT
             STUDIES ON WEAPONS, RIGHT OF RETURN OF
          REFUGEES' PROPERTY, AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

xxxxxxxxxx


                                           Subcommission on the
Promotion
                                             and Protection of Human
Rights
                                                           53rd
session
                                                         16 August
2001
                                                             Afternoon



The Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights this
afternoon adopted a number of resolutions and measures which, among other
things, requested its members to carry out studies on human rights and
weapons of mass destruction; the transf
er and use of small arms in the context of human rights; the return of
refugees' or displaced persons' property; and non-discrimination.

Concerning weapons, the Subcommission, by a show of hands vote of 21 in
favour and 2 against, approved a decision that asked Subcommission Expert
Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen to prepare a paper on human rights and weapons of mass
destruction.

In the report, he would assess the utility, scope and structure of a study
on the real and potential dangers to the effective enjoyment of human rights
posed by the testing, production, storage, transfer, trafficking, or use of
weapons of mass destruction
 with indiscriminate effect, or of a nature to cause superfluous injury or
unnecessary suffering, including the use of weaponry containing depleted
uranium.