Topic: Rights of Accused
Country: Belgium
Delegate Name: Brendan Jackson
School: Grand Blanc High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Belgium position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
During the past century, the basic human rights of individuals have become an increasingly more important issue to nations around the world. As the recognition of these essential, unalienable rights has disseminated throughout the world, the rights of those who have been accused of crimes have also become more prevalent in the eyes of the international community. The freedoms that are due to every human being at birth become complicated to uphold when they are being applied to those who have committed crimes against fellow people. Thus, the international community needs to establish firm guidelines that eliminate these “grey areas” of the rights afforded to the accused.
Belgium has extended every essential human right to its accused persons, providing them with a fair trial, presumed innocence, free legal counsel, and more. We abolished capital punishment for a variety of reasons, not least of which being the not insignificant chance that an innocent person be accused and sentenced to death, which the nation of Belgium seeks to avoid at all costs. In addition to this, people can be arrested only during the perpetration of a crime or by a warrant obtained from a judge less than 24 hours previously, further eliminating potential human rights violations. Finally, the rights of prisoners are extremely just, as they are afforded nutritious food, contact with friends and family, reading material, and the right to practice the legitimate religion of their choice. We, the state of Belgium, allow visits from human rights watch groups at any time, as we have nothing to hide from the international community. Despite suggestions that our prisons are slightly overwhelmed and that our legal proceedings are excessively long, Belgian authorities have maintained human rights at standards far above the minimums of international law, and remain fully committed to keeping them that way.
The royal nation of Belgium hereby formally recommends to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that it pass a resolution that affirms the rights of the accused to be exactly equal to the basic human rights of any citizen of the world. This resolution should extend these rights into every possible area, including speedy and fair legal proceedings, free legal representation, and treatment while imprisoned. It should also establish a committee, the Rights of the Accused Committee (RAC), to be a subsection of the UNHRC and monitor the rights of the accused across the world. This committee should be granted the power to conduct human rights watches across the globe, and should compile a report on a regular, frequent basis to allow the international community to track the progress of the committee. The resolution should also establish a method of condemnment or punishment for nations who refuse to comply with the provision of equal rights to all accused persons, be it in the form of economic sanction through the Security Council, or other means. We, as a community, must begin to respect all people as equals, but most especially the accused, as they have yet to be proven guilty, and because even guilty people deserve their most inherent, unalienable rights.
