Zimbabwe Re-Elected to Human Rights Body

By Leyla Linton 
April 27, 2005
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042701676.html
UNITED NATIONS -- Zimbabwe was re-elected Wednesday to the Human Rights Commission, drawing scathing protests from the United States and other countries charging that the African nation is one of the world's worst rights violators.
William J. Brencick, the U.S. mission representative, said Zimbabwe had blatantly disregarded the rights of its own people and its re-election to the U.N. human rights watchdog was inappropriate.
We remain deeply concerned that the government of Zimbabwe maintains repressive controls on political assembly and the media, harasses civil society groups, and continues to encourage a climate where the opposition fears for its safety, he said.
Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United Nations, Boniface Chidyausiku, said no nation was beyond reproach in the area of human rights and added: Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Western governments and human rights campaigners have criticized the 53-member human rights commission for allowing countries with poor human rights records to use their membership to protect one another from condemnation.
Since losing a constitutional referendum in February 2000, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has seized thousands of white owned farms in what human rights critics alleged was intimidation of opposition under cover of agitation for agrarian reform.
He claimed a two thirds majority in last month's elections, sufficient to amend the constitution at will, although the opposition Movement for Democratic Change alleged widespread rigging and intimidation invalidated the result.
The membership of the council is determined in the Economic and Social Council, where Wednesday's meeting took place. Brencick said its members should consider the consequences of allowing the commission to become a safe-haven for the world's worst human rights violators.
Australia and Canada also called for fundamental reform of the U.N. human rights machinery and new election procedures for the Commission.
Under U.N. rules, members of the Human Rights Commission are picked by regional groups. Current member states that have been criticized for abuses include Sudan, China, Cuba, Nepal and Russia. A number of countries with poor human rights records have been on the commission over the years. Libya has even held the chair.
As part of far-reaching reform proposals, the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this year proposed a new human rights council to replace the commission.
Annan has proposed that members of the human rights council would be elected directly by the General Assembly, by a two-thirds majority, and that those elected to the council should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards.
Zimbabwe was one of 15 members elected to the Commission on Human Rights Wednesday for a three-year term from 1 January 2006. The others were Botswana, Cameroon and Morocco from the group of African States; Bangladesh, China and Japan from the group of Asian States; Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela from the group of Latin American and Caribbean States and Australia, Austria, Germany and the United States from the group of Western European and other states.
As there were more candidates from the Group of Eastern European States than vacancies, the Council held a secret ballot, after which it elected Azerbaijan.
© 2005 The Associated Press