“New Challenges for Civil Society in Times of Growing Human Rights Erosions”
Intervention by Peter Schatzer, Ambassador, Perm. Observer at the United Nations and other International Organizations, Vienna, Austria
Dear organizers, dear participants,
many thanks for inviting me to this session, convened in memory of the late Helga Konrad, with agenda items that she certainly would have supported.
I had the privilege of meeting Minister Konrad for the first time in Beijing, at the UN Women’s conference in 1995. Since then our paths crossed on many occasions, in particular when she worked with the OSCE to counter trafficking in human beings, and later with her NGO, that I followed regularly even after my leaving IOM in 2015. Besides my continued personal interest in the subject, the Parliamentary Assembly where I work nowadays, also runs a campaign for members of parliament about combating trafficking.
The meetings in Vienna certainly contributed to keeping the topic on the agenda, and to keep the network of activists, policy makers, practitioners and researchers alive.
Trafficking in human beings is of course just one of the many human rights abuses that continue being perpetrated, but it is one of the more heinous crimes, and one that remains difficult to prevent, combat and prosecute.
While the focus on types of trafficking has certainly moved from sexual exploitation to forced labour victims more generally, and while much has been achieved in producing legislation, and training law enforcement, the exploiters haven’t sat idle. And as in many cases the evidence still walks away, or is too scared to testify, due to pressure on victims and their families back home, the challenge remains.
Having observed debates on human rights for more than 5 decades, I couldn’t but note that they appears like a dance – a few steps forward, some sidewards, some backwards. Many try to follow different tunes, played by different orchestra.
Frequently in the end the dancers haven’t moved too far from where they started – not least because the dance-floor hasn’t grown much larger, or has even shrunk.
The ‘Western’ approach to individual human rights is also openly questioned in other regions.
As with International Humanitarian Law, the biggest problem in enforcing even basic human rights law, I see in the fact that there is no global mechanism to sanction violations. And I don’t see any willingness to move in that direction.
Just naming and shaming alone however will not prevent other perpetrators to abuse victims.
Thus what would Helga Konrad do?
I am certain that she would try to continue naming the real problems, and to indicate, with the team she had shared around her, solutions. None of them would be perfect or complete. In fact I would suggest to be wary of anybody who does promise simple solutions for complex problems.
In concluding, let me express my hope that the flame Helga carried will be kept burning a while longer. The underlying problems haven’t gone away, they still require serious analysis, and concrete actions.