Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Geneva, 27 January 1997
N° 61

Senator Hugo Batalla, Vice-President of Uruguay and President of the Uruguayan Senate, today was elected Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians. The Committee is the IPU's specialized body which looks into violations of the human rights of MPs around the world - arbitrary measures taken against them, generally for having exercised their right to freedom of speech.

The election of Mr Batalla took place on the first day of the Committee's 76th session, being held at the headquarters of the IPU in Geneva from 27 to 30 January. Senator Batalla, a lawyer specializing in penal law and a leading human rights defender in his country notably during the military rule, has been a member of the Committee since 1988 - first as a substitute member, then a titular member, and vice-chairman in 1996. He takes over from Mr Nicos Anastasiades, Member of the House of Representatives of Cyprus. The other members of the Committee are Mr Clyde Holding (Australia, who was elected Vice-Chairman), Mr François Autain (France), Mr François Borel (Switzerland) and Mr Hilarion Etong (Cameroon).

Mr Batalla has been a member of parliament in Uruguay since 1962. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies until the 1973 military coup. During the military rule, he chose to remain in the country to combat the dictatorship, and was twice taken prisoner. He devoted all his efforts and professional activity to defending political prisoners and acting as legal advisor to a number of trade unions in the country. Following the re-establishment of democracy in Uruguay in March 1985, he was elected Senator. In 1987 he was decorated by the French government with the Order of National Merit for his defence of human rights in Uruguay during the military dictatorship.

The Committee has on its current agenda this session the cases of 81 Members of Parliament, in 28 countries, who are, or have been, subjected to various arbitrary actions, such as being stripped of their mandate, threatened, detained, prosecuted or assassinated.

The Committee meets four times a year to look into cases of violations of parliamentarians' rights. It first attempts to reach a satisfactory settlement of a case through confidential examination and communication with the authorities of the country concerned. However, if no satisfactory settlement is reached within a reasonable period of time, the IPU issues a public report on cases to urge prompter action. There are currently 21 public cases still on the Committee's agenda, in the following countries: Albania, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Gambia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia and Turkey.

Since the IPU Committee began its work in 1977, it has contributed to the satisfactory settlement of a large proportion of the 810 cases it has dealt with in 78 countries.