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The US has announced its opposition to the proposed new UN
Human Rights Council, putting the US administration on a collision course with
many UN members, key human rights groups, and a dozen Nobel peace laureates.
US Ambassador John Bolton said that the US will vote against
the latest proposal for the council unless negotiations are reopened to address
what it views as serious deficiencies, especially the chance that countries
abusing human rights can become members.
General Assembly President Jan Eliasson and Secretary-General
Kofi Annan both indicated they want to see action on the draft resolution and
no new negotiations.
At stake is whether the compromise proposal by Eliasson to
revamp the widely criticised and highly politicised Human Rights Commission
with a new Human Rights Council significantly improves the UN's human rights
machinery.
Bolton told reporters that it was "unacceptable".
Supporters, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy
Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said it is a significant improvement and
should be approved even though it doesn't go as far as many of them wanted.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Commission has been attacked
for allowing some of the worst-offending countries to use their membership to
protect one another from condemnation or to criticise others. In recent years,
commission members have included Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe and Cuba.
A primary US goal in the negotiations has been to ensure that
human rights offenders are barred from membership on a new council. It wants
a permanent body of 30 members chosen primarily for their commitment to human
rights that would deal with major rights violations.
Under Eliasson's proposal, the 53-member Human Rights Commission
would be replaced by a 47-member Human Rights Council that would be elected
by an absolute majority of the 191-member General Assembly, which would equate
to 96 members. The United States, Annan, and human rights campaigners wanted
a two-thirds majority to try to keep countries abusing human rights off, but
faced strong opposition, especially from developing countries.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Annan and
they discussed the Human Rights Council, UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
She had no details, but presumably Rice informed the secretary-general
of the US opposition.
Source: Scotsman.com
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