U.S. Will Not Join U.N. Rights Council

By Colum Lynch
April 7, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040601849.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- The Bush administration will not seek a seat this year on the new U.N. Human Rights Council, marking the first time in more than half a century that the United States has chosen not to pursue membership in the United Nations' principal rights organization.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States will be an observer on the U.N. council and will probably run for a post next year -- assuming the 47-member agency proves its commitment to promoting human rights. Council advocates and some Republicans in Congress said the decision will deprive the United States, which has been at the forefront of U.N. human rights efforts for five decades, a chance to shape the new council in its crucial first year.
The decision announced today was influenced in part, officials said, by concerns that the United States might have failed to win one of the seven seats reserved for Western governments. The United States has faced sharp criticism at the U.N. for alleged abuse of terrorism detainees. Meanwhile, Cuba and China, which have troubled human rights records, stand a strong chance of winning election to the council by secret ballot in May, according to senior U.S. and U.N. diplomats.
The Human Rights Council was established last month to replace the 60-year-old Human Rights Commission, which had been derided in recent years for allowing countries with abysmal rights records, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, to join and thwart criticism of their actions. The United States, which was voted off the commission for one year in 2001, has always sought membership in the U.N. agency since its creation in 1946.
U.S. policy on the new rights council has shifted from outright opposition to qualified support, reflecting division within the administration. That internal debate has pitted some of the council's sharpest critics against those who feel that U.S. engagement would strengthen the United Nations' ability to restrain the world's most abusive despots.
The United States was one of only four countries to vote against the March 15 resolution that created the rights council, arguing that the resolution failed to set high enough standards to block abusers from joining. At the same time, the United States agreed to help fund the reformed agency and support its goal of holding abusers to account.
In announcing the decision not to join the council for now, McCormack said Thursday that the United States remains committed to supporting the council politically, diplomatically, as well as financially.
The United States will actively campaign on behalf of candidates genuinely committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and which will act as responsible members of this new body, McCormack added. We will also actively campaign against states that systematically abuse human rights.
The debate over the proper U.S. role on the new council has also played out in Congress, where several leaders, including Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), have urged the administration to join what they see as an imperfect U.N. agency and improve it from within. I think we should engage in the process, Hyde said in a March 27 news conference at the United Nations. It is the best that's available and you do what you can do with what you have at hand.
But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wrote to President Bush Thursday to say that U.S. participation in this new, unreformed council only undermines our own credibility and confers unwarranted legitimacy.
I am very concerned that your administration now may provide financial support to this discredited council, and may even seek a seat on this body, he wrote.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan joined human rights organizations in expressing disappointment at the U.S. decision. But Annan expressed hope that Washington will continue to support the council.