(IPS) feature The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson suggested Monday that attention to human rights values would help rather than hinder the promotion of peace and security in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

Robinson, in the Indian capital of New Delhi for the two-day inaugural congress of the South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) which began Sunday, said her office would be sharing information on moves by governments to comply with Security Resolution 1373 (2001).

The resolution obliges states to adopt measures against terrorism but has been criticised by rights groups as having the potential to open the doors for draconian legislation.

Without naming names, Robinson last week told another international audience that some countries were introducing measures in apparent violation of core human rights safeguards, an observation shared by rights organisations.

She said non-violent activities were being considered as terrorism in some countries and ''excessive measures'' were being taken to suppress or restrict individual rights.

''Human rights, wisely, strike a balance between the enjoyment of freedoms and concerns for national security and the rights of others,'' Robinson told the SAHR participants from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal on Monday.

Delegates from the host country, India, complained to her of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's introduction by bureaucratic fiat of the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (Poto) which is being stiffly resisted by rights groups and opposition parties.

Police state

Poto is in many ways stricter than the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act which was allowed to lapse in 1995 because of its sheer unpopularity and misuse, as acknowledged by the National Human Rights Commission, a statutory body.

For its part, the government has declared Poto necessary in the post-Sept 11 security environment with Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani quoted as saying that those who opposed it were supporters of terrorism.

But India's main opposition Congress Party announced Sunday that it would ensure that Poto does not get the mandatory parliamentary ratification during the winter session which begins on Nov 19.

Ratification entails clearance by the upper house or Rajya Sabha where the Congress Party enjoys a majority. The party's leaders have accused the BJP of using the legislation to suppress legitimate political activity.

Among those who criticised Poto at the conference was Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a Jawharlal Nehru University professor who saw in the legislation an attempt to create a police state on a pattern already familiar in South America and Africa.

According to Chenoy, the whole of South Asia was now in danger of drifting towards ''authoritarian, militarist and masculinist'' positions and away from a ''pacifist, gender-sensitive and egalitarian'' stance.

Prof Hasan Mansur, an activist for the People's Union of Civil Liberties in India, said he found it disturbing that South Asian governments were actually competing with each other to support the US-led bombing of Afghanistan.

Robinson urged activists at the conference to ensure that anti-terrorist measures be appropriate and least intrusive to achieve their objective.

She said that discretion granted to authorities ''must not be unfettered, the principle of non-discrimination must always be respected and special efforts must be taken to safeguard the rights of those who are already vulnerable.''