U.N. to Elect New Members for Council

By Edith M. Lederer
May 17, 2007
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051700259.html

UNITED NATIONS -- Human rights groups are calling on the General Assembly to reject seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council for Belarus, Egypt, Angola and Qatar because of their poor rights records.
The 192-member world body is scheduled to elect 14 new members for the 47-member council on Thursday.
The council was created in March 2006 to replace the discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission, and one aim was to keep some of the worst human rights offenders out of its membership. But it has been widely criticized in its first year for failing to change many of the commission's practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country.
Last year, the council adopted eight resolutions criticizing Israel for its military actions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. The only other country to be criticized was Sudan. Censure by the council brings no penalties beyond international attention, but countries lobby hard to avoid scrutiny.
The Geneva-based council is composed of regional groups that gives dominance to Africa and Asia, each with 13 countries. If they vote as a 26-member bloc, they have an automatic majority. Western Europe and North America together are represented by seven countries.
While any country can enter the race for a council seat _ even during Thursday's voting _ at the moment the slates for Africa, Asia, and Latin America are uncontested.
Angola, Egypt, Madagascar, and South Africa are running for the four African seats and India, Indonesia, Philippines and Qatar are candidates for the four Asian seats. There are two candidates for two Latin American seats _ Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Initially, there were two candidates for two Eastern European seats _ Belarus and Slovenia. But diplomats said the U.S., Britain and France, who strongly oppose Belarus, pressed for Bosnia to enter the race as well. There is also a contested race for two Western seats with Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands vying to join the council.
Nineteen human rights groups and organizations appealed to the General Assembly Monday not to accept Egypt because the government's record is full of serious human rights violations that have been practiced widely for long years. A statement from the group alleged that Egypt condones police torture, arbitrary detention, trying civilians before military tribunals, and the rigging of elections.
Earlier this month, a report by two watchdog groups, U.N. Watch and Freedom House, said Angola, Belarus, Egypt and Qatar are authoritarian regimes with negative U.N. voting records (on rights issues) and are not qualified to be council members. The two groups also criticized the council for failing to criticize egregious human rights violations since it replaced the commission.
Human Rights Watch also urged the General Assembly to reject Belarus' bid for membership, and Amnesty International and the World Federalist Movement's Institute for Global Policy have questioned the fairness of the candidate selection process for Human Rights Council membership.