The UN has a new Human Rights Council!!

New U.N. rights body under pressure to prove itself

18 Jun 2006 11:33:55 GMT

Source: Reuters

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By Richard Waddington

GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations' new human rights body, the Human Rights Council, begins its inaugural session on Monday under close scrutiny to see if it does more to protect fundamental freedoms than its discredited predecessor.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a prime mover behind the replacing of the old Human Rights Commission, will attend the launch and a host of ministers will be in Geneva to address it in the opening days.

 

Much of the initial two-week session of the 47-state body will be devoted to planning future work, but its chairman ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico has set aside time for examining current rights crises around the world.

 

The latter will be a test of whether the new body is ready to break out of the confrontational and highly politicised atmosphere -- often pitting developed nations against developing -- that hampered the commission, diplomats and activists say.

"The new Human Rights Council must be more than the dysfunctional old commission by another name," said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

 

"The new members must ... find new and more effective ways to help the victims of human rights violations across the globe," she added in a statement.

But the council, intended to spearhead a series of U.N. reforms, had a difficult birth, with the United States declining to stand for membership because it said that changes to the old commission did not go deep enough.

 

KEEP OUT ABUSERS

Unlike the commission, whose 53 members were nominated by regional blocs, those wanting to take part in the council had to win a majority in the U.N. General Assembly.

 

Washington backed Annan's initial call for a two-thirds vote, which it said would help keep out abusers who had been able to join forces within the commission to bloc effective action against violations.

 

But rights activists say that with the storm of international criticism over Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. detention centres, as well as alleged secret prisons, it was far from certain that Washington would have won election.

 

One of the other key changes is that the rights records of all members will be periodically reviewed. It will be the job of the council to decide how this will be done.

While some states whose records have been questioned, such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China won election, others failed or did not even stand.

Washington has not ruled out standing in the future and it has been active in preparatory work. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva will address the council on Wednesday.

 

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has already made it clear that the situation in territories under Israeli military occupation must be discussed.

It also wants a debate on respect for religion following the furore stirred up by the publication late last year in some Western countries of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad -- something which is abhorrent to Muslims.

 

European countries have warned they will not allow Israel to be the only one signalled out for censure. Its routine condemnation, in resolutions repeated year after year, symbolised for many the sterility of the old commission.

 

European diplomats say there will certainly be discussion of Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea, although what form it will take and whether there will be resolutions was not decided.

 

But China, which has faced attempts at censure over charges of suppression of religious and ethnic minorities, has warned that there must be no return to the finger-pointing of the past.

 

From: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18754924.htm

 

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FW: ANNAN CALLS FOR 'A NEW COALITION' ON UN REFORM TO BRIDGE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE

 

-----Original Message-----
From: news11-admin@lists.un.org [mailto:news11-admin@lists.un.org] On Behalf Of UNNews@un.org
Sent: lundi 12 juin 2006 22:01
To: news11@list.un.org
Subject: ANNAN CALLS FOR 'A NEW COALITION' ON UN REFORM TO BRIDGE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE

 

ANNAN CALLS FOR ‘A NEW COALITION’ ON UN REFORM TO BRIDGE NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE

New York, Jun 12 2006  6:00PM

Warning that the United Nations is facing “a moment of truth,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan is urging all UN Member States to tone down their rhetoric over a proposed package of reform measures and join forces to reach a sensible compromise that will prevent a budget crisis and pave the way for more fundamental change later.   

 

“It is time for those who really care about reform to come together and form a new coalition – one that bridges the artificial, destructive divide between north and south and brings together all those who are willing to work together because they share the vision of a UN that really works, for the benefit of all the world’s peoples,” the Secretary-General said in an <"http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/articleFull.asp?TID=56&Type=Article">op-ed article published today in The Financial Times.

 

The situation, he noted, stemmed from a decision made by Member States last December when they adopted a budget for the current 2006-2007 biennium, but gave the UN “authority to spend only enough to carry us through the first six months.” The main contributors, led by the US, insisted that this spending cap should be lifted only when there is significant progress on UN reform.

 

“We are now perilously near the deadline and it is far from clear that enough reform to satisfy them has been achieved,” the Secretary-General wrote. “Neither side has found a way of engaging with the other to agree on further reforms.”

 

In the midst of this stalemate, he recalled a “minor storm” broke out last week when Mark Malloch Brown, the Secretary-General’s deputy, made a speech suggesting that the US should engage more fully and wholeheartedly with other members of the UN to bring about reform.

 

“That is absolutely right, but he and I believe the same message needs to be heard in many other countries besides the US,” he said, maintaining that that country is trying to use “the power of the purse” to force through the badly needed reforms and the tactic has provoked a negative reaction among developing countries, who see “overwhelming influence of a few rich countries.”

 

It was crucial to get passed this impasse in order to get on to the full scope of reforms that needed to be accomplished in the organization, including updating the Security Council, which would require greater political vision on the part of all governments.

 

“But even while we wait for political vision to catch up with the scale of today’s challenges, we have vital work to do right now - programmes that have been mandated by members and provide essential services to people in acute danger or need,” he said.

 

“We must not let that work be stalled,” he urged.

 2006-06-12 00:00:00.000

 

 

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