Mixed welcome for new UN body

By Mark Turner and Hugh Williamson 
May 9 2006
Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a2aff152-df8f-11da-afe4-0000779e2340.html
 
image001.gif \* MERGEFORMATINETCuba, Russia, China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia all won seats on the United Nation’s first Human Rights Council, casting an early shadow over the future of the fledgling body.

Human rights groups welcomed the decision by some of the world’s most egregious rights abusers, such as Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan and Sudan, not to apply. Iran was a candidate, but failed to win enough votes.

But the success of other countries with poor records raised questions about how effectively the new 47-member council, a centrepiece of UN reform, will be able restore credibility lost in the discredited UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.

Kenneth Roth, head of Human Rights Watch, said: “The spoiler governments, who have a history in trying to undermine human rights, are now a significantly reduced minority.
 That doesn’t guarantee success, but it is a step in the right direction.”

Gunter Pleuger, German ambassador to the UN, said: “The large majority of countries who have been elected have a good record. It is not very fair to transform prejudice into pre-judgment.”

There is uncertainty over the council’s readiness to adopt specific resolutions to deal with glaring abuses. Rights groups warn that even some of the more progressive members, such as South Africa and India, have poor voting records when it comes to condemning atrocities in other nations, and say they will be watching their actions closely.

Günter Nooke, the German government’s human rights envoy, told the FT recently that it was “by no means certain that the new council will work better than the old commission”.

“The so-called ‘human rights-friendly states’ are clearly in a minority on the council,” he said, referring to the African and Asian regional groups that control 26 of its 47 seats. 

“These countries could play a blocking role, as they did on occasion in the commission.”
image002.gif \* MERGEFORMATINET