International Human Rights.
In recent
years a number of nongovernmental
organizations—international, national, local—have been
formed to promote respect for human rights, publicize abuses, and
provide legal services to people whose rights have been violated.
The Foundation has supported more than a dozen such organizations
as well as efforts to encourage cooperation among them. Grants this
year continue that support and extend it to new undertakings.
One new
organization is Asia Watch, formed by the United States-based Fund
for Free Expression, which has also organized "watch" committees
that monitor human rights in Europe, the United States, and Latin
America. Asia Watch will document abuses of human rights in Asian
countries and bring them to the attention of U.S. policy makers,
the media, and the public.
Although
the European Convention on Human Rights has been in force since
1953, legal expertise and training are badly needed in European
countries to ensure that human rights cases are accepted for
consideration and are skillfully presented. To help fill this need,
the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights
(interights) was
established in London in 1982. A Foundation grant is supporting
interights' efforts
to inform the legal profession in Western Europe about
international treaties and tribunals for the protection of human
rights and to provide legal aid in presenting cases before such
tribunals. interights
has already established a network of about 100 British lawyers
willing to give advice and assistance and is now extending this
network to include lawyers from the Continent.
The
Foundation renewed support for the International Commission of
Jurists (icj) in
Geneva, which has been promoting human rights on a worldwide basis
since 1952. icj makes
submissions to international organizations, issues publications,
organizes conferences and symposia, assists jurists harassed in the
performance of their duties, and supports the establishment of
human rights groups in developing countries. In recent years it has
worked to establish stronger ties with lawyers and jurists from
socialist countries.
The newly
established Center for International Legal and Economic Studies at
Zagazig University, and Egyptian provincial university, also
received support. The center is setting up a documentation
clearinghouse, sponsoring academic seminars on critical human
rights issues, and conducting one-day training courses for lawyers
on human rights law in Egypt. Another grant went to the Committee
for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras
(codeh). Although
human rights abuses are not as severe in Honduras as in some other
Central American countries, they have increased in recent years.
codeh organizes
workshops, publishes a monthly bulletin, and investigates
individual cases of violations.
The
Foundation also supports the human rights activities of
professional societies that monitor abuses from a specialized
perspective and assist colleagues in distress. This year, for
example, a grant went to the American
Association