and Gambia have good domestic records, and even in those states-for example Nigeria-which from time to time have experienced major problems of political instability and responded with significant human rights violations, there has also been a recognition of the need to respect human rights.

Recently, a number of significant initiatives have been taken at the international level to promote the establishment of effective mechanism to resolve human rights problems within Africa. In August 1978, the African Bar Association drew up a Declaration of Human rights for presentation to the Organization of African Unity, and in September 1978-a call for the establishment of a regional commission of human rights for Africa was made at a seminar in Dakar, Senegal, attended by lawyers from French speaking African countries. In May this year, the need for more effective methods of protecting refugees in Africa was recognized by the holding of an international conference in Arusha, Tanzania. These initiatives certainly contributed to the adoption of a resolution calling for the preparation of an African Charter of Human Rights at the O.A.U. summit in July 1979. Two months later in September, a U.N. sponsored Seminar in Monrovia discussed a draft proposal for the establishment of an African human rights commission.

While these initiatives were under way, a significant development occurred when representatives of five African countries participated in an inquiry into the killing of children in the Central African Empire. Appointed at the May 1979 summit conference of Franco-African heads of state, the five members of the inquiry team visited the Central African Empire and subsequently published a report which verified the killings and severely criticized the Government. This is the first report about human rights problems by African jurists appointed by African heads of state. It has created a precedent which we hope will be repeated on later occasion where African governments are incriminated in gross human rights violations.

While these initiatives have created a momentum within Africa they must also be set within a wider context. The Morovia discussion took U.N. standards as its starting point; all African states are participants in the United Nations human hights system; all have subscribed, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; all voted for the U.N. Declaration Against Torture in 1975, and 29 have ratified U.N. Refugee Convention and Protocol. Eight states have acceded to the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, and Zaire has ratified the Optional Protocol which recognizes the right of individuals to seek redress internationally in cases where violations such as torture have taken place at the domestic level. Whether or not effective regional machinery is established soon, countries such as Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and Mali have already accepted both the principle of international accountability and the obligation to report annually to the U.N. Human Rights Committee on both law and practice in their countries. The standards set in the Universal Declaration are not seen as alien to African traditions. It is to be hoped that one effect of recent revelations of atrocities in the Central African Empire, Equatorial Guinea and Uganda on the one hand, and of the debate on original structures on the other, will be to encourage more states to ratify existing U.N. instruments.

LIST OF SIGNATURES, RATIFICATIONS, ACCESSIONS, ETC. BY AFRICAN STATES TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

1

(1) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:

1 "Human Rights International Instruments; Signatures, Ratifications, Accessions, etc., January 1, 1979." United Nations.

2x Ratification, accession, notification of succession, acceptance or definitive signature.

(2) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

(3) Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political

(4) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of

Yusuf Osman Samantar, a former parliamentarian and secretary general of the Somali Democratic Union has been a political prisoner in Somalia since 1976.

Mr. Samantar, aged 47, is in indefinite detention without trial under Somalia's Preventive Detention Act. Under the act, detention orders are signed by the president and no independent or regular system of reviewing such orders exists.

Yusuf Osman Samantar (know in Somalia by his nickname "Barde Ad") is the best known socialist politician detained in Somalia. A political science graduate of the University of Rome, he was prominent in Somali politics of the 1950's and 1960's. He wrote political articles in the Arabic press and had connections with the African and international trade union movement.

Mr. Samantar has been detained on at least three previous occasions following the military takeover in 1969 when the constitution was suspended and all political parties banned. The new constitution of the Somali Democratic Republic, accepted by referendum on 25 August 1979, declares Somalia to be a socialist state under the leadership of the only legal political party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, of which President Siyad Barre is Secretary General. The adoption of the new constitution, however, has not led to the release of the hundreds of political prisoners in Somalia.

Yusuf Osman Samantar is detained in a remote prison near the Kenyan border at Labatan Jirow. Prisoners are held in permanent solitary confinement in small cells and are denied visits from their families. Correspondence is rarely permitted and it is reported that prisoners are not allowed books to read, not even the Koran. They are taken into the fresh air for only a short period each day. Their diet is poor. Prisoners sleep on wooden beds without mattresses. Medical attention is limited to treatment by a medical orderly. Detainees generally suffer from hypertension, eye problems, difficulty in breathing, and the debilitating effects of poor nutrition and lack of physical exercise. Yusuf Osman Samantar is married and has five children.

DECLARATION ON THE PROTECTION OF ALL PERSONS FROM BEING SUBJECTED TO TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT (Adopted unanimously by United Nations General Assembly resolution 3452

Article 1

1. For the purpose of this Declaration, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating him or other persons. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions to the extent consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

2. Torture constitutes an aggravated and deliberate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 2

Any act or torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is an offence to human dignity and shall be condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 3

No state may permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Exceptional circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 4

Each State shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Declaration, take effective measures to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment from being practised within its jurisdiction.

Article 5

The training of law enforcement personnel and of other public officials who may be responsible for persons deprived of their liberty shall ensure that full account is taken of the prohibition against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This prohibition shall also, where appropriate, be included in such general rules or instructions as are issued in regard to the duties and functions of anyone who may be involved in the custody or treatment of such persons.

Article 6

Each State shall keep under systematic review interrogation methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in its territory, with a view to preventing any cases of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 7

Each State shall ensure that all acts of torture as defined in article 1 are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply in regard to acts which constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or an attempt to commit torture.

Article 8

Any person who alleges that he has been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by or at the instigation of a public official shall have the right to complain to, and to have his case impartially examined by, the competent authorities of the State concerned.

Article 9

Wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture as defined in article 1 has been committed, the competent authorities of the State concerned shall promptly proceed to an impartial investigation even if there has been no formal complaint.

Article 10

If an investigation under article 8 or article 9 establishes that an act of torture as defined in article 1 appears to have been committed, criminal proceedings

national law. If an allegation of other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is considered to be well founded, the alleged offender or offenders shall be subject to criminal, disciplinary or other appropriate proceedings.

Article 11

Where it is proved that an act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment has been committed by or at the instigation of a public official, the victim shall be afforded redress and compensation in accordance with national law.

Article 12

Any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment may not be invoked as evidence against the person concerned or against any other person in any proceedings.

Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Mr. McGee.

I would like to commend you for your comprehensive statement dealing both with human rights violations as well as citing certain countries. We do appreciate the quality of work that your organization does. I also noted that there are several references to religious persecution. The Subcommittee on International Organizations is very interested in this topic and will be preparing a series of hearings on religious persecution in the foreseeable future.

We will now move to our second witness, Dr. Warren Weinstein, vice president of the Coordinating Council for International Issues. Dr. Weinstein, if you can limit your statement to summarized presentation, the subcommittees would be greatly appreciative.

STATEMENT OF WARREN WEINSTEIN, VICE PRESIDENT, COORDINATING COUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Mr. WEINSTEIN. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I do plan to keep my remarks summarized.

I wish to express my appreciation to both subcommittees for this opportunity to speak to you today.

The subject of human rights is complex and in continuous flux. At this time in Africa there is a very positive mood toward the promotion of human rights. It is not an easy matter to catalog the most important human rights problems in Africa given the vast differences which mark the African continent. Indeed, it is precisely this lack of homogeneity that was a stumbling block to the efforts by some to have the OAU become more active in human rights matters.

You asked me to address some of the key problems. Perhaps the very state of underdevelopement experienced by many states in Àfrica is one key problem. Scarce resources and public goods for which competition is extremely keen promotes preemptive action by individuals or groups to prevent others from gaining control over those resources. Lack of cadres and infrastructure can limit the abilities of even the best of intentioned African leaders and regimes where there is a political will at the top to undertake a vigorous positive program with respect to the protection of human rights.

To demand rights implies that those who do so understand what those rights are and where to go to make their demands. The inability to commit resources for human rights education makes it difficult for this to happen in the rural areas and remote parts of African countries. Foreign aid which is intended as a response to development may have its dangers. If its sponsors oversell its scope and consequences, or the