October 23, 2001
Armed conflict and consistent violations of human rights have ended in Central America, but the region needs to eradicate poverty and strengthen safeguards for human rights to maintain peace, the U.N. chief said Tuesday.
"Central America has been transformed by the strides taken in the past decade," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report which detailed progress in the region and urged further reforms to avoid unrest.
But the region "has a long way to go before the poverty and structural inequalities, which gave rise to conflict, are overcome," he said in the report to the U.N. General Assembly.
Annan called for Central American governments to make elections more transparent, saying falling voting rates reflected voters' increased discontent and shrinking confidence in the region's political institutions.
"There is still much work to be done in establishing politically independent electoral bodies and ensuring conditions for genuine competition among all political parties," Annan said.
The secretary-general also urged the governments to strengthen their countries' judicial systems.
"With the end of armed conflict, human rights violations are no longer systematic nor the norm, yet violations do occur, and the institutions designed to protect rights and try violators are still weak and need strengthening," he said.
Annan praised the appointment of national ombudsmen throughout the region, in particular the election of one in El Salvador in July and the growth in size of the office in Nicaragua, which was created in 1999.
"These offices have the potential to serve as important institutional guarantors to human rights protection and, in some instances, to help ensure that the state provides appropriate services and protection to the citizenry," he said.
Annan also praised the establishment of new civilian-led police forces in El Salvador and Guatemala, calling them "a significant step forward" to phase out the involvement of armed forces in pubic security functions."
However, he called for better internal oversight mechanisms and urged the governments to halt joint police-military patrols.
Continuing military involvement in police functions, he said, "could lead Central America into the cycle of violence and repression that led so tragically to war in the past."
Annan praised Guatemala, whose civil war was the longest in the region, for its commitment to peace, but also cited the "worrisome deterioration in human rights compliance and public security, as well as the persistence of impunity."
The report said there had been an increase in crime, including armed assaults and incidents of lynching, and more attacks and intimidation against judicial official, human rights activists and journalists."
To read the report
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