Human rights 


Louise Arbour 
March 20, 2006
International Herald Tribune
Original Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/19/news/edletmon.php

http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=&sort=swishrankThe overwhelming vote in favor of the Human Rights Council in the United Nations General Assembly represents a historic opportunity to improve the protection of fundamental freedoms around the world (UN creates new human rights panel, March 16).

I believe Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell (Rethinking UN reform, Views, March 14) should be reassured: The way members of the council are to be elected represents a major improvement over the present Human Rights Commission. The new process for membership is not a weakness, as they argue.

Election to the council will require not a simple majority, as Gingrich and Mitchell assert, but an absolute one. In other words, of the 191 members of the United Nations, at least 96 must support a state's membership of the Human Rights Council by secret ballot. This threshold, much higher than the 28 or fewer votes that can get a country membership in the commission now, may prove more difficult to achieve than two thirds of the members present and voting. And it would allow countries that support human rights to block the election of the worst violators.

The council can claim some other significant firsts: Candidates for membership will have to make commitments to human rights; elected members will be first in line for scrutiny under a universal periodic review of their records; and members that commit gross and systematic violations of human rights can be suspended. Members will also commit to cooperate with the council and its various mechanisms - an improvement on current practice, in which some members of the commission refuse to grant unimpeded access to UN human rights investigators.

Gingrich and Mitchell recognize that in an international institution like the United Nations there will always be limits to America's ability to render its infrastructure and decisions compatible with American values and interests. The new council incorporates principles and ideals dear to the United States, as well as mechanisms agreed to among the international community to give the best chance of success to this historic enterprise.

It is encouraging to see that the United States has, despite its no vote on the council, pledged to support it and work to strengthen it.

Louise Arbour, Geneva UN High Commissioner for Human Rights