In Rebuke to UN, US Will Not Seek Seat on Rights Council

By Patrick Goodenough
March 07, 2007
CNS News
Original Source: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200703/NAT20070307b.html


(CNSNews.com) - The United States has decided not to seek a seat on the U.N.'s premier human rights body for the second year in a row, citing a lopsided focus on Israel during its first year of existence.

The decision amounts to a sharp rebuke of the Human Rights Council, because when the State Department first announced last April that it would not run for the inaugural election for the 47-seat HRC, it said that it would likely do so in 2007.

But the period since the Geneva-based council first met in mid-2006 has done nothing to suggest it will be an improvement on its discredited predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), its critics say.

We believe that the Human Rights Council has thus far not proved itself to be a credible body in the mission that it has been charged with, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.

There has been a nearly singular focus on issues related to Israel, for example, to the exclusion of examining issues of real concern to the international system, whether that's in Cuba or Burma or in North Korea, he added.

McCormack said the U.S. would remain actively engaged in promoting human rights, both inside the U.N. system via the General Assembly and Security Council and outside the U.N. system.

The U.S. was a member of the UNCHR every year from its inception in 1947 until its shutdown last year (with the exception of 2002, when it unexpectedly lost in a four-way runoff with Austria, France and Sweden for three vacant Western group seats.)

Part of a broader U.N. reform process, the Human Rights Council was designed to replace the 60-year-old UNCHR, whose critics charged it was increasingly discredited by the presence and voting conduct of rights-violating nations.

Specifically, they said the UNCHR was tarnished by obstructionist behavior of regimes like China and Cuba during the commission's annual session in Geneva and by a disproportionate focus on Israel.

The U.S. voted against the U.N. resolution setting up the council, arguing that it did not go far enough to prevent recurrence of the problems that plagued its predecessor.

The Bush administration also decided at the time not to stand for election to the council in its first year. Instead, the U.S. decided to attend meetings as an observer and take a wait-and-see approach.

The election duly went ahead last May.

Despite voting by secret ballot and despite a U.N. appeal that members take into consideration candidates' contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, more than 96 of the U.N.'s 192 member states voted in favor of China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Russia - countries rights campaigners name among the world's worst abusers.

Of the 47 members eventually chosen, nine were countries that the democracy watchdog Freedom House designates not free. Apart from China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Russia, they are Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Algeria and Cameroon.

Another 13 are partly free, according to Freedom House - which bases its assessment on scores for political rights and civil liberties - while the remaining 25 members are countries designated free by Freedom House.

Supporters of the new body praised the outcome, which they said despite the inclusion of countries like China and Saudi Arabia had produced a far better body than the UNCHR.

The optimism soon dimmed, however.

In its first six months, the council held three special sessions - all focusing on and highly critical of, Israel. It also held three regular sessions and passed seven resolutions censuring Israel.

Sudan, by contrast, was debated in only one special session, called at the instigation of European nations last December. Khartoum's allies ensured that the meeting did not end with censure over the situation in Darfur.

According to statistics drawn up by the Hudson Institute's Eye on the U.N. project, the council in its third regular session - from Nov. 27-Dec. 8 - devoted nine hours to Israel alone, compared to a total of six hours spent on discussing other country-specific situations in the rest of the world. (The remainder of the time was spent on issues not specifically relating to individual states, it said.)

The council will hold its fourth session from March 12 to April 5.