INTRODUCTION / WORK WITH INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
16 Amnesty International brought to the Committee's attention new cases from China (Tibet), Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, Peru and Yugoslavia. The organization also attended in June the 22nd Conference of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with UNESCO.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, REPORT 1991
The International Labour Organization (ILO)
As in past years, Amnesty International attended the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva in June. It followed the proceedings of the Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, which forms part of the ILO's supervisory mechanism for the implementation of its con- ventions. Amnesty International raised its concerns about human rights viol- ations relevant to the Committee's work in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, all of which were taken up by the Committee, and in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Amnesty International also submitted information to the ILO Commission of Inquiry on Romania.
The Organization of American States (OAS)
Chile ratified the American Convention on Human Rights and Paraguay ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, bringing the total numbers of ratifications of these instruments to 22 and eight respectively (see Appendix VII). Amnesty International continued its practice of submitting to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) information relating to its concerns in member states of the OAS, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Colombia. In June Amnesty International again attended the General Assembly of the OAS as a "special guest". Prior to the session the organization. sent a letter to all member states expressing grave concern about the noticeable increase in recent years in attacks suffered by human rights defenders in various countries in the region. Amnesty International referred to the inefficacy or non-existence of investigations into these violations in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru, and called on the General Assembly to address these concerns and to promote preventive
measures.
An important human rights development in the OAS was the adoption by the General Assembly, on 8 June of a Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty (see Appendix XI). By the end of the year five states had signed the Protocol - Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay and Venezuela - but none had ratified it. Regrettably the General Assembly did not consider at its 1990 session the draft convention on "disappearances", post- poning its consideration until the next session.
The activities of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights substantially increased during the year with the submission to it by the IACHR of a further three "contentious" cases, one against Peru and two against Suriname. So far the Court has only ever ruled on two "contentious" cases, both against Honduras (see Amnesty International Report 1990, Introduction/Work with International Organizations). The Court began its consideration of the case against Peru,