TNAG-0559-FCO40-654-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 102

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International Law and Its Implementation

Of equal importance to publicity is the necessity to improve international law on human rights and its implementation, in order to strengthen the safeguards against torture at all levels. In connection with this function of the campaign, the highlight of 1974-75 was the unopposed adoption by the United Nations General Assembly on 6 November 1974 of Resolution 3218 (XXIX) on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in relation to detention and imprisonment”.

By a vote of 125-0 (Zaire abstaining) the General Assembly not only reaffirm- ed the rejection of any form of torture, which it had expressed in its earlier Resolution 3059 (XXVIII) of 2 November 1973, but also took a significant step forward in moving the question of torture from the realm of non-committal denunciation-accomplished by the 1973 resolution-into the stage of specific action by the UN and its agencies. For, in addition to placing the question of torture as a separate item on the agenda of the 1975 (30th) session of the General Assembly, the 1974 resolution also specifically referred a number of major issues regarding torture to the Fifth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, which will be held from 1-12 September 1975 in Toronto, Canada.

By virtue of Resolution 3218, this congress, which meets every five years, is requested to give urgent attention a) to the question of the development of an international code of ethics for the police and related law enforcement agencies and b) to the strengthening of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treat- ment of Prisoners with a view to protection against torture. Furthermore, the World Health Organization and UNESCO are asked to prepare, in consultation with such professional bodies as the World Medical Association, draft principles of medical ethics for the treatment of persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment, and to submit these to the Toronto congress. On these and other matters, the congress will have to report back to the 30th session of the General Assembly.

Although the congress is not an international legislative body, it does have the status to recommend important measures to the UN and its agencies, and more important, to have its recommendations adopted. Thus, the first congress (Geneva, 1955) recommended the adoption of the Stan- dard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners by the UN as a guideline for all member states and for incorporation into national law.

A contributing factor to this positive development on the inter-govern- mental level was a resolution on the subject of torture passed by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at its 27th session in August 1974. In its Resolution 7 (XXVII) this sub-commission of the UN Human Rights Commission laid down a number of judicial principles that are of vital importance with a view to preventing or diminishing the occurrence of torture, and “noting....that all available information suggests that in several countries there may be a consistent pattern of such violations" (i.e. torture), it decided "to review annually developments in the field and for this purpose to retain the item on its agenda".