Share
Resources updated between Monday, December 19, 2005 and Sunday, December 25, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Anne Bayefsky
It was hardly a surprise that the UN "reform" talks on abolishing the UN Human Rights Commission ended in failure this week. The majority of UN member states are not fully democratic. Despite all the nonsense about having shared values, they don't. Some violate human rights, enjoy it, and object to scrutiny. Others are prepared to accept the consequences of mistakes or occasional wrongs.
The Summit document stated only: "We resolve to create a Human Rights Council." The overwhelming majority agreed on nothing else. The next two and a half months were spent going from bad to worse. The "new" Council was headed for a pale imitation of its infamous predecessor.
The last draft on the table, released on December 19th, has all kinds of outrageous provisions, some bracketed – meaning not yet agreed, others unbracketed suggesting some provisional agreement. Here are some of the items raising alarm bells:
In mid-January the negotiations on creating a Human Rights Council will resume. The effort to abolish the discredited UN Human Rights Commission has been turned into a matter of damage control. The only questions remaining are these. Will a new Council manage to hold on to any good features of the Commission? What steps backward will be extracted as the price of maintaining any of the status quo? What crumbs will be thrown to western governments in order to allow a public-relations story about a "new" Human Rights Council?
And the most important question of all. What will the U.S. Administration and Congress do if the Commission is not abolished or in its stead comes an Emperor with no clothes?
It was hardly a surprise that the UN "reform" talks on abolishing the UN Human Rights Commission ended in failure this week. The majority of UN member states are not fully democratic. Despite all the nonsense about having shared values, they don't. Some violate human rights, enjoy it, and object to scrutiny. Others are prepared to accept the consequences of mistakes or occasional wrongs.
The Emperor Has No Clothes Editor's Note
This is the transcript from the UN General Assembly's Second Committee meeting of December 16, 2005. It provides very revealing evidence of the nature of UN operations. A subject that previously had been dealt with by consensus, was transformed into a political battlefield merely as a consequence of an attempt to mention Israel in a non-condemnatory context.
The subject of controversy was pro-forma language welcoming the holding of a future conference in Israel on the subject of desertification. ("Welcoming also the decision of the Government of Israel to host, in cooperation with other stakeholders, an international conference entitled 'Deserts and Desertification: Challenges and Opportunities' in Be'er Sheva, Israel, in November 2006.") The language suggested was identical to the language in another paragraph, about a similar conference to be held in Algeria. The Israeli conference was included only after a vote.
However, the price eventually extracted for the mere uncritical mention of Israel was the inclusion of a new paragraph which condemned Israel once again. The Arab group introduced the condemnation as a new amendment, which was adopted by another vote. ("Deeply concerned also at the extensive destruction by Israel, the occupying Power, of agricultural land and orchards in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the uprooting of a vast number of fruit-bearing trees.")
The upshot was that one more resolution condemning the state of Israel was added at the 2005 General Assembly, in a vote of 120 in favor, 1 against and 47 abstentions. The only country voting against the resolution was Syria, which objected to any mention of Israel without criticism - in this case a mere Israeli desertification conference. Israel, and many other countries, were forced to abstain on the whole subject of desertification because of the Arab Group's success in adding the language condemning Israel.
The whole episode makes the political map of the UN very clear. A simple matter like desertification was taken from a consensus issue to a matter of controversy and divisiveness solely by Arab states that continue to object to peace with Israel and which have the UN in a chokehold.
December 22, 2005
U.N. Official Gets Two Salaries Article
December 21, 2005
Resolution on the Peacebuilding Commission Development
Another Useless U.N. Conference Article
December 20, 2005
The International Atomic Energy Agency still refuses to put Iran's nuclear and genocidal intentions onto the agenda of the UN Security Council (which supposedly has the job of dealing with major threats to international peace and security.) Last month's debacle, at which the IAEA Governing Board once again ran in the opposite direction, is having the predictable results. This article reports "In recent weeks, Iran has been celebrating Europe and the US's decision not to refer Iran to the Security Council at the November meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency."
The UN General Assembly has had 10 emergency sessions in its history. Six have been about Israel. The tenth is still technically in session, but adjourned, and is reconvened at will by the anti-Israel and anti-American General Assembly majority. So raising the level of attention and concern about egregious human rights situations in Myanmar/Burma, happened only as a consequence of the leadership of the United States and Ambassador John Bolton in the Security Council.
Remarks by US Ambassador John Bolton on Burma at the Security Council stakeout Development
The latest draft of a "new" Human Rights Council includes the following: (OP13) "[also decides that country specific resolutions shall be adopted by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the Council present and voting.]" Although this provision is still not final, it would clearly prevent the adoption of virtually any resolution condemning human rights violations in a specific country, but for those against Israel. This would represent a giant step backwards for the Human Rights Council. By keeping it on the table, the states with the world's worst human rights records have obtained concessions throughout the rest of the document. The "new" Human Rights Council is now almost identical to the old Human Rights Commission, and in some respects will be worse.
Revised text for the draft on a Human Rights Council (December 19, 2005 version) Document
This is a transcript EyeontheUN has prepared of the dialogue that occurred in the UN General Assembly's Third Committee on the subject matter of human rights violations in Sudan. It took place on November 23, 2005 and it resulted in the defeat of the effort to condemn Sudanese human rights violations at the UN's 2005 General Assembly. So on December 16, 2005 when the General Assembly adopted a handful of resolutions critical of the human rights records of particular states, Sudan was not among them. This transcript reveals the reason why. The institutional impediment to the success of the UN as a truly global human rights leader remains the fact that most UN member states are not fully democratic. Protecting their own is the underlying pathology, which a "new" Human Rights Council will not solve.
Transcript of the Third Committee's adjournment of action on the situation of human rights in Sudan Development
This vote of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee took place on November 23, 2005 and removed the condemnation of human rights violations in Sudan from the agenda of the 2005 General Assembly. For the reasons behind it, see the transcript above.
Voting Record on the no-action motion on the Draft Resolution on the situation of human rights in Sudan Development
This is the 2005 draft resolution condemning human rights violations in Sudan that never made it past the human rights violators who control the UN General Assembly. For the details, see the transcript above.
Draft Resolution on the Situation of human rights in the Sudan Development
December 19, 2005
Lebanon and the U.N. Article
Letting Down Lebanon Article
Putin's Payroll Article