Rights Abusers Elected to UN Council

Epoch Times
May. 17, 2006

U.S. fears about the viability of the new UN Human Rights Council appeared to be vindicated last week when several habitual human rights abusers were elected to the new body.

The human rights organisation UN Watch had compiled a list of 28 countries it considered unfit to sit on the council, yet the General Assembly voted for 17 of those countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Azerbaijan. China and Saudi Arabia are already guaranteed seats until 2009. The newly elected members drew lots to determine whether they would start with a term of one, two or three years.

For a country to be successful in its candidacy a total of 96 votes out of 191 had to be achieved. India came top of the poll with 173 votes but with China managing 146 votes it would appear that other considerations than human rights were influential in determining voting behaviour.

A number of former members of the discredited Human Rights Commission, such as Sudan, Zimbabwe and Vietnam, along with the likes of North Korea, Burma and the Ivory Coast decided not to seek membership of the new body on account of the more stringent criteria. Moreover, Iran and Venezuela were both defeated, notwithstanding the powerful bargaining chip of their oil wealth.

Human Rights Watch said that despite the election of at least six notorious human rights offenders the membership of the council was an improvement on the old commission. But in future elections the UN needed to ensure that a country's human rights record was the only determining factor as to whether it became a member.

The council is to periodically review the human rights performance of all member states including members of the Security Council. Human Rights Council members will also be subject to scrutiny and liable for suspension if found guilty of human rights violations.

Members are also obliged to cooperate with UN investigators. Given the contents of Dr. Manfred Nowak's recent report concerning his visit to China, it will be interesting to see if the PRC is inclined to comply with the recommendations in that report including the immediate abolition of all "re-education through labour" camps.

The full membership of the Human Rights Council is as follows:

Africa (13 seats): Algeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia.

Asia (13 seats): Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka .

Eastern Europe (6 seats): Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

Latin America and the Caribbean (8 seats): Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

Western Europe and other states (7 seats): Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Britain.