PLACE DU PETIT-SACONNEX
1211 GENEVA 19 SWITZERLAND
| INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION PLACE DU PETIT-SACONNEX 1211 GENEVA 19 SWITZERLAND |
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Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Abuse of the human rights of 298 parliamentarians or former parliamentarians is to be reported publically to the Inter-Parliamentary Council on Saturday. An outstanding case, that of 109 Colombian parliamentarians prosecuted for prevarication in breach of their immunity was submitted to the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians at its 83rd session. The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians sits four times a year and examines the cases of parliamentarians subjected to arbitrary treatment during their term of office. Three cases deemed to be very worrying were also examined by the Committee's five members. Mr Ngarléjy Yorongar was found guilty of defamation and complicity for recently criticising the Head of State and his family and expressing publically the suspicion that the President of the National Assembly received bribes from the Elf Oil Company in connection with a pipeline project. Mr Ngarléjy Yorongar, a member of the National Assembly of Chad, was sentenced on 20 July 1998 to three years' imprisonment. Owing to his harsh conditions of detention, his health is getting worth. The sources, which claim that the legal proceedings are seriously flawed, also fear for his personnal safety. Mr Lim Guan Eng, son of opposition Democratic Action Party leader Mr Lim Kit Siang, has been accused of prompting " disaffection with the administration of justice " in Malaysia for stating that the Attorney General was biassed in a statutory rape case against the former Chief Minister of Malacca. The Attorney General had decided not to prosecute the latter, while the victim, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, was placed in the custody of a welfare home. By a decision of 25 August 1998, the Federal Court upheld the appeal court judgment sentencing Mr Eng to two concurrent 18-month prison terms. In its decision, the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians said that it was shocked at the decision of the Federal Court. It reaffirms its conviction that Mr Eng was exercising his right to freedom of speech and his function of oversight of the Executive. The Committee also resumed its examination of the case of parliamentarians from Myanmar prevented by the Authorities from exercising their parliamentary mandate. The Committee reaffirms that the Authorities' refusal to convene Parliament constitutes a violation of the human rights principle that the will of the people is the basis of the authority of government. In demanding that Parliament be convened, the parliamentarians of the National League for Democracy, elected during the presidency of Aung Sang Suu Kyi are merely defending the right of the people to take part in public affairs through their chosen representatives, and the IPU Committee urges the authorities of Myanmar to meet that demand without further delay. The Committee held three in camera sittings this week in Moscow. In an initial and strictly confidential preliminary investigation stage, the Committee examines the cases submitted to it and initiates correspondence with the authorities of the countries concerned. When no possible solution is envisaged within a reasonable period, or in extremely serious cases, the Inter-Parliamentary Council may launch public appeals once the cases have been brought to its attention. Since it was created in 1976, the Committee has examined 1097 cases concerning parliamentarians from 78 countries, most of them cases in which parliamentarians are deprived of their mandate, or threatened, prosecuted, deprived of their freedom or even murdered for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Some of them have died in detention, others are still jail, but most of them have been released and several have become members of the IPU.
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