Another U.N. "Reform"
BAYEFSKY, ANNE
Another U.N. "Reform" The new Human Rights Council is no improvement. BY ANNE BAYEFSKY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has decided not to run for a seat on the new U.N. Human Rights Council. The...
...Standing in the background lamenting U.S...
...At the time, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns blunted the message of the U.S...
...The core issue is what the consequences of this fiasco should be for the American financial and political commitment to an unreformed U.N...
...cover to demonize the United states and israel while ignoring the human rights violations of the likes of China, saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe...
...it will be up to their fellow member states to evaluate these promises...
...The Latins...
...First out of the gate for the African group is Algeria...
...Membership in this body would be limited to states with "a demonstrated commitment to the protection of human rights...
...Senator Frist suggests a bold new direction for the international promotion of human rights outside the United Nations...
...And throwing their hats into the ring for the Asian group are China, Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, among others...
...General Assembly on March 15 in a vote of 170 to 4 (United States, israel, Marshall islands, Palau), with 3 abstentions (Belarus, Iran, Venezuela...
...The newly "reformed" human rights body of the U.N...
...But the real question is not whether the council will be inept, or whether it will use U.N...
...A U.N...
...Secretariat has had to produce some unambiguous rules to govern the election process, and these clarify the situation...
...Foundation and financier George Soros...
...The State Department, in last Thursday's announcement that the United States will not seek council membership this year, reiterated, "We will support the Council and we will continue to fund it...
...No substantive criterion of eligibility reflecting respect for human rights is required for membership...
...Which brings us to the candidates that have put themselves forward...
...will once again include countries that have no interest in protecting human rights...
...In another twist, countries standing for election can choose to make a public pledge that they will eventually protect human rights...
...The council was created by the U.N...
...In short, nothing has changed...
...The U.N., however, for reasons that became clear as soon as the Algerians and Cubans made their pledges, has decided not to translate these pledges, but to make them available only in their original language, thus impeding evaluation of their worth...
...budget for 2006-2007 anticipates that the organization will translate 582,781 pages (one-fifth of the cost being borne by American taxpayers), the 15 pages of pledges won't be among them...
...Cuba to start...
...document released April 4 explains that "membership of the Council shall be open to all Member States of the United Nations...
...nonparticipation are some, like Amnesty International's Irene Khan, who believe that the "gulag of our times" is Guantanamo —not the Egyptian, Syrian, Iranian, and Sudanese torture chambers—and that the business of promoting human rights is best conducted with the delinquents on the inside, enjoying the privileges of the human rights club, instead of standing outside until they reform...
...Feverish vote-swapping among regional groups is now in full swing for the secret-ballot election to the council, and one can be sure the horse trading has nothing to do with protecting human rights...
...Despite these efforts, the U.N...
...But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has a different vision of constructive multilateralism...
...By running, he says, the United States could "ensure" that states with abysmal human rights records would not be elected...
...There has been a massive disinformation campaign concerning the Human Rights Council, operated by General Assembly president Jan Eliasson, Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Congressman Tom Lantos, with added muscle from Ted Turner's U.N...
...The document also makes obvious who will own the U.N.'s human rights agenda: Membership "shall be based on equitable geographical distribution and seats shall be distributed among the regional groups as follows: African Group 13, Asian Group 13, Eastern European Group 6, Latin American and Caribbean Group 8, Western European and others Group (WEoG) 7." (The United States is in the WEOG group...
...lish an effective human rights oversight body outside the United Nations system, so as to make it the primary means for examining, exposing, monitoring, and redressing human rights abuses throughout the world...
...To understand the importance of the action Frist proposes, it is necessary to be clear about what it would leave behind...
...He submitted a resolution last week calling on the president not only to eschew a seat on the council, but also to "estabAnne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a professor at Touro Law School, and the editor of EYEontheUN.org...
...This ignores the facts of life at the U.N., where the United States is only one of 191 members...
...So far, only 15 of the 42 declared candidates have made such pledges...
...The time is ripe for such an initiative...
...The election, scheduled to take place in New York on May 9, is shaping up to be a nightmare for the United Nations, so there was good reason not to lend it credibility...
...Congressman Lantos has expressed "outrage" that the United States isn't anxious to join the party...
...While the U.N...
...no" vote by telling reporters, "We'll look for ways to support [it...
...in the words of the secretary general, "states wishing to be elected to the new Council will put forward their pledges and commitments to protect and promote human rights...
...the regions of the world with the fewest democracies will hold 55 percent of the seats...
Vol. 11 • April 2006 • No. 29
