APPENDIX 1
     
     

                          The Human Rights Agreement in El Salvador
     

     
                     (PRESS SUMMARY)
     
     

     The Civil Rights Movement in a recent statement draws attention to the agreement on human rights arrived at between the government and the armed opposition of El Salvador, with the mediation of the Secretary General of the UN.
     
     The agreement also covers such subjects as arrest procedures, preventing enforced disappearances and abductions, prohibiting incommunicado detention, prohibiting torture, ensuring habeas corpus, freedom of the press and freedom of association.
     
     The Agreement provides for monitoring by the UN. What is remarkable is not only that such an agreement has been reached while the parties are still at war, but that the Secretary General of the UN is now seeking to implement the agreement before a cease﷓fire is negotiated; an operation for which, as he himself states, "no precedent exists in the annals of the United Nations".
     
     Meanwhile, negotiations with UN participation continue between the parties on a number of other issues including the armed forces, the judicial system, constitutional reforms, economic and social questions and monitoring by the United Nations. Important progress on electoral reform has been made by an Inter Party Commission.
     
     These developments illustrate dramatically the importance of the role that a neutral body such as the UN Secretary General's office can play in a situation of civil war.[Top]

---

Next || Previous|| TOC of Report7

---