Bosnia, Low Expectations Cast Pall Over Rights Meeting

As delegates gathered here Sunday on the eve of the first global human rights meeting in a quarter-century, their lofty goal of making the world a less oppressive place appeared about to drown in a sea of chaotic organization and diplomatic stumbling blocks.

The fact that the 2-week-long meeting, officially known as the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, will unfold in the shadow of ongoing atrocities in nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina is likely to underscore the distance between good intention and hard reality on the human rights issue.

Bosnia, as such, will not even be discussed, organizers said. New ideas, not specific trouble spots, make up the agenda, they noted.

Several foreign ministers, including Secretary of State Warren Christopher, are scheduled to address today’s inaugural session.

Representatives from more than 180 countries, more than 1,000 privately funded human rights groups and an array of prominent individuals are planning to take part in the sessions.

Despite the early hopes of organizers who had wanted to capitalize on the collapse of the Soviet empire to usher in a higher plane of human behavior, ideas once considered essential for the conference to succeed now seem unlikely to materialize.

Even the most committed activists, for example, have concluded that there is no longer enough support to recommend creation of either a U.N. high commissioner for human rights or an effective mechanism for investigating, trying and punishing major human rights violators.

“My guess is that the conference is not going to do it,” former President Jimmy Carter told a small group of reporters Sunday, referring to the prospects of endorsing calls for a high commissioner modeled after the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

Many human rights advocates believe that such a prominent individual would be able to focus international attention on abuses and would be powerful enough to bring pressure on violators.

“There is a good chance the conference will do nothing,” said Richard Bunting, a spokesman for the London-based, privately funded group Amnesty International.

He described the present draft version of the final declaration as “a series of contradictions, non-statements and open brackets.”

At a briefing Sunday evening, U.S. officials also seemed to be trimming their expectations, despite the Clinton Administration’s high foreign policy priority on human rights and democratization.

“The conference itself is far less important than the human rights movement,” one U.S. official said.

The organizational chaos that has marred the run-up to the conference also dominated the final day of preparation.

Reacting to objections from various governments, the United Nations has had to disinvite 17 privately funded groups initially listed for participation.

Two days after bowing to Chinese pressure to disinvite the Dalai Lama, embarrassed U.N. and Austrian government officials late Sunday appeared to have found a way to let the Tibetan spiritual leader participate, after all.

Conference Secretary General Ibrahima Fall--the person forced to disinvite the Dalai Lama--said Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock could invite whomever he wished once he took over the chairmanship at today’s opening session. Mock indicated he planned to welcome the Tibetan leader.