New council, old business

July 11, 2006
The Chicago Tribune
Original Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0607110252jul11,0,7612299.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed

A new United Nations Human Rights Council was elected in May with high hopes that it would stop coddling human-rights abusers and stop looking the other way in places like Darfur. That's how the old, disgraced Human Rights Commission operated. But with streamlined membership and new rules, there were expectations--albeit not in these quarters--that things would be different. No more business as usual, reformers vowed.

The UN's new council finished its first session recently.

So how did it do? Did it call on the world to get tough on human-rights abuses in China? Oops. No. China's on the human rights panel. How about the abysmal state of women's rights in Saudi Arabia? Darn. Saudi Arabia's a member too. Russia? Cuba? Sorry. They're members.

No, the new panel took direct aim at a familiar target: Israel.

The new council voted to review alleged human-rights abuses by Israel in its next session and at future sessions. The resolution effectively revives a practice of the old commission, which reviewed alleged Israeli abuses at each session.

Israel protested the vote. Voting in favor of this draft resolution will lead you directly to the old infamous habits of the commission, Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon told the council. Voting yes essentially means that no lessons have been drawn. It means that there is no fresh beginning.

That is unfortunate but true. Human Rights Watch issued a warning, calling the singling out of Israel a cause for concern. It urged the council to avoid the selectivity that discredited its predecessor. It noted that there are at least two dozen pressing situations that the council should take up. .. 

The human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories deserves attention, but the new council must bring the same vigor to its consideration of other pressing situations, said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for the group.

We'll see if that happens. So far, the new council is living up--or down--to its predecessor's legacy. The U.S. and others had urged radical reform for the council to ensure that nations with horrible human-rights records didn't hijack the agenda and deflect scrutiny from where it's needed. Those efforts were defeated. It's still early but from here, it looks a lot like business as usual in the new council.