New Council on Best Behaviour for Inauguration Guests

Gustavo Capdevila
June 19, 2006
Inter Press Service News Agency
Original Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33681


GENEVA, Jun 19 (IPS) - The United Nations' newly-created Human Rights Council has officially embarked on its daunting task -- which includes depoliticising the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms. 

The U.N. General Assembly created the Council on Mar. 15, to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, which in recent years had faced accusations of biased proceedings and virtually paralysed mechanisms. 

The executive committee of the World Council of Churches is calling on the new U.N. body to avoid policies and practices of double standards that were prevalent before the ignominious end of the Commission, said Peter Weiderud, the Council's International Affairs director. 

The U.N. included 47 member states in the Council, down from the Commission's 53. It also extended and divided the sessions, which were previously held in one continuous six-week period. 

The inaugural session opened Monday, and is set to run to Jun. 30. It will be followed by a session in September and October, and then the final session between November and December. 

Perhaps the most groundbreaking innovation is the implementation of universal periodic reviews, which will allow it to scrutinise each of the 191 U.N. member states' compliance with the international human rights treaties that they have signed and ratified. 

Such a system is designed to put an end to selective evaluations that target certain countries, say human rights activists. 

These are part of the measures designed to eradicate some of the hindrances that bogged down its predecessor, such as en bloc voting and the politicisation of the human rights agenda, said Weiderud. 

However, the Council's official preliminary meetings, held in recent weeks, seem to indicate that the members have yet to reach a consensus to move forward in the tasks the U.N. General Assembly has set. 

This first week of sessions, involving ministers and high-level dignitaries, is dedicated almost entirely to protocol, including formal ceremonies and speeches that will continue through Thursday. 

U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, and representatives of 33 countries spoke on Monday. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will address the meeting on Friday. 

No council agenda was set for the first week, as delegates failed to agree on its content. 

One Latin American diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, told IPS that, reluctant to air its discord while the ministers are still in Geneva (where the council's main headquarters will be set), the Council will likely not approve the agenda until late Thursday afternoon. 

Council members that also belong to the Islamic Conference organisation have stepped up pressure in recent weeks to include debate on the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. 

Agenda items proposed by other delegates include the human rights situations in Nepal and the western Sudan region of Darfur. 

Regardless of the final agenda, discussion of substantive issues has been postponed until the second week, when the council will also have to approve its operating procedures. 

The diplomat said the Council's member states have agreed to examine and approve next week a proposal for a convention on forced disappearance 

The convention, drafted by a working group established under the former Commission, must be approved by the Council and then sent to the U.N. General Assembly to be formally adopted. 

HRC members have accepted the appointment of Mexico's representative, ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba Góngora, as president of the organisation's first session. However, lack of consensus has delayed the selection of the four vice presidents. 

This point is also expected to be resolved on Thursday, once the ministers have left, said the source. 

The same informant also noted that the United States, in keeping with its decision not to seek election to the Council, sent a low-ranking delegation to the Council's official inauguration. 

Nevertheless, U.S. representatives will be participating as observers in all the HRC meetings. 

It seems the U.S. delegates are waiting for the right moment to put their cards on the table, during September's session, when reports on the human rights situations in Cuba and North Korea are discussed, said the diplomat. 

Moreover, the director of the World Organisation Against Torture, Eric Sottas, noted that the George W. Bush administration hopes the new Council will be a failure. 

They will wait. They will not go out of their way to cause trouble, but they will not get too involved, Sottas told IPS. He observed that the U.S. is convinced that a new reform to the U.N. human rights system will be needed within two or three years. 

Washington believes that not forming part of the Council will enable it to present itself as a state that, from the beginning, was reluctant to join an unreliable and unacceptable system, concluded Sottas.