Source: – HYPERLINK https://mail.hudsonny.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.house.gov/international_relations/democratic/press_060406_UN_HRC.html \t _blank http://www.house.gov/international_relations/democratic/press_060406_UN_HRC.html
Date: April 6, 2006



Democratic Office Press Releases 

Lantos Outraged at U.S. Decision Not to Seek U.N. Human Rights Council Membership

Washington, DC – Congressman Tom Lantos, the Ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, today expressed outrage at the Bush Administration decision that the United States will not seek a seat on the United Nations’ new Human Rights Council.

“This decision represents a major retrenchment in America’s long struggle to advance the cause of human rights around the world, and it is a profound signal of U.S. isolation at a time when we need to work cooperatively with our Security Council partners,” Lantos said. “The new Human Rights Council, though flawed in many ways, is a clear improvement over the existing commission, and was approved last month by a vote of 170-4. The new body’s membership and voting requirements offer tools that American diplomats could leverage to dismantle the myth of moral equivalency among states that has long polluted the UN human rights mechanism.”

“Today’s announcement projects a picture of profound weakness in U.S. diplomacy,” Lantos continued. “It should not have been a heavy lift for our diplomats in New York and in foreign capitals to recruit the necessary 96 affirmative votes to seat the United States in the new council. By the same token, our capable diplomats should have been able to use their leverage to ensure that 96 countries do not support the likes of Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria and North Korea for Human Rights Council membership.”

“This is a very sad day in the history of American diplomacy,” Lantos said. “In 1948, behind the visionary leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, the United States led the effort to create a human rights mechanism at the United Nations. Today, the Bush Administration did violence to Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy by announcing to the world that it has turned its back on our 60-year effort to use the United Nations to promote and protect human rights around the world.”