Little Reason for Optimism on New Human Rights Council By Patrick Goodenough June 26, 2006 CNS News Original Source: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200606/INT20060626a.html (CNSNews.com) - The opening days of the inaugural two-week session of the U.N. Human Rights Council have done little to allay concerns that the new body will be hampered by some of the same approaches and biases that doomed its predecessor. Despite the establishment of procedures meant to marginalize and undercut rights abusers, representatives of some of the world's least democratic states made it clear in their opening salvoes at the HRC in Geneva that their focus would be not on their own records, but on the actions of their primary foes -- the United States and Israel. Leading the charge was Cuba, whose foreign minister devoted most of his speech to attacking the U.S. and its allies. Felipe Perez Roque accused the U.S. of not standing as a candidate for the HRC because it feared defeat in a secret ballot election. While Cuban doctors were saving lives or the poor around the world, he declared, U.S. troops were fighting an unjust and illegal war aimed at stealing a country's oil and securing lucrative contracts for President Bush's cronies. Roque made it clear that Fidel Castro's regime would use its seat on the 47-member body to hinder efforts to make dictatorships accountable for rights abuses. Cuba would not use the HRC's universal periodic review mechanism - set up to ensure that all countries' records were regularly evaluated -- as an instrument of new pressures and media campaigns, he said. Neither would Cuba use a clause providing for the suspension of violating nations, nor support country-specific resolutions which Roque said were aimed at punish[ing] those that do not bow their head. He also said Cuba would speak out at the HRC for the rights of the American people, particular excluded sectors, since the U.S. did not have a seat. Exercising a right to reply, the U.S. observer delegation called the Cuban attack gratuitous and unfounded, and said the American people did not need officials of an autocratic government to speak for them. They are, and always have been, free to speak with their own voices through free and fair elections, through open and active participation in civil society, and through a free and uncensored media. Targeting Israel The U.S. chose not to stand for election for the HRC in this, its first year, because it opposed the resolution establishing the body on the grounds it did not go far enough to sideline abusers. The presence and conduct of countries like Cuba was a major factor behind the decision to scrap the discredited U.N. Commission for Human Rights in the first place. Another was the disproportionate amount of time and attention directed by the now-disbanded Commission towards a single situation -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to statistics provided by the Hudson Institute's Eye on the U.N. project, 6.5 percent of all U.N. human rights actions in 2005 were aimed at Israel, ahead of countries like Sudan (second placed, at 4.2 percent), Burma (2.1), China (1.4), Russia (1.1), Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran (1,0), Saudi Arabia (0.8), and Cuba and Libya (0.5). Of the 47 HRC members elected by the General Assembly last month, nine are among the world's most repressive regimes in the assessment of Western human rights monitors. They are Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon and Azerbaijan. Envoys of the new members, and observer missions from countries not on the Council, delivered opening addresses in Geneva during the course of the opening week. Cuba's was not alone in raising concern about some of the new members' commitment to upholding fundamental human rights. The Saudi delegate informed the gathering that human rights in his country were based on Islamic law (shari'a), which treats all persons equally and advocates tolerance and harmony among all mankind. Turki bin Khalid al-Sudairy said the kingdom also accords special attention to the issue of religious tolerance and respect for particularities and cultures, and complained about attempts to associate terrorism with Islam. And he signaled that, for the Saudi delegation at least, Israel would continue to be a key focus of the HRC. The cause of the Palestinian people and the aggression to which their land and their holy places are being subjected should prompt us all to mobilize in all international forums, including this distinguished Council, al-Sudairy said. The fact that the Middle East is suffering more than other regions of the world from lack of stability, peace and security is due to Israel's occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories. His speech made no reference to any other specific dispute around the globe. Saudi Arabia has long drawn criticism for discrimination against Christians, Jews, and Muslims who do not follow the rigorous Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, and for abuses including shari'a-based punishments such as public beheadings and amputation of limbs. In their addresses, the Lebanese and Egyptian envoys also focused primarily on Israel, with Egypt's ambassador urging the Council to consider, with delay, the repercussions of the Israeli occupation. 'Defaming Islam' Iran failed in its bid to win a seat on the HRC, but its observer delegation, headed by foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, used the opportunity to condemn both Israel and the U.S. He cited the U.S. military prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and instances of abuse by some U.S. personnel at Iraq's Abu Graib prison and accused the U.S. of massacring women and children in cold blood. Mottaki also urged the HRC to act against defamation of religions, particularly the divine message of Islam. The call echoed one made earlier by a representative of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), a grouping of more than 50 Muslim states, who said the Council must take action to combat defamation of all religions, citing the row earlier this year over cartoons depicting Mohammed. The spokesman also said the OIC was considering setting up a body to promote human rights in member states in accordance with the provisions of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. The 1990 Cairo Declaration asserts that all human rights and freedoms must be subjected to shari'a. Hillel Neuer of the Geneva-based non-governmental organization U.N. Watch said in a statement at the beginning of the HRC's current session that its first year would be judged on such matters as whether it adopts a universal periodic review mechanism that is more than a toothless debating society; shuns politicization and selectivity; and speaks out ... against the atrocities in Darfur and against the gross human rights violations occurring in dozens of other countries around the globe.