Human Rights Organizations Send Letter to Secretary Rice in Support of a UN Human Rights Council

Citizens for Global Solutions joined leading human rights and democracy organizations to urge the United States to support the new Human Rights Council (HRC), which would replace the discredited Commission on Human Rights. In a letter addressed to Secretary Condoleezza Rice, the organizations wrote that although the new Council is not as strong as human rights advocates had hoped, it is a step in the right direction for strengthening human rights at the UN. The letter also stated that walking away from the proposal or trying to change it could jeopardize important progress already made.

There is no doubt that the new Human Rights Council will be better than the Commission on Human Rights. It will meet regularly throughout the year, unlike the Commission that only met for six weeks each year. Furthermore, the members of the Council will be required to undergo a peer review on its human rights practices.

However, the main concern about the new Council is the process by which its members will be elected. Earlier proposals included a provision requiring two-thirds majority support of the General Assembly for membership on the Council, which would have effectively shunned some of the world’s worst abusers of human rights. Unfortunately, ultimately, this proposal was not included. According to the current resolution that would establish the Council, members will be elected by 50% of the 191 countries who are members of the United Nations.

On Monday, the United States called the proposal for the new Human Rights Council unacceptable and vowed to vote against it unless negotiations were re-opened. The U.S. is right to be disappointed in the resolution, but the blame for this disappointment falls on Ambassador John Bolton. When negotiations on the Council re-opened after the World Summit in September, Ambassador Bolton did not even attend the negotiations over the Council. And in the final weeks, while key diplomats in the State Department were advocating for the 2/3 support requirement for membership, Ambassador Bolton promoted his own unachievable goals for the Council.

If the U.S. is intent on reopening negotiations on the Human Rights Council, it must have a clear plan to improve it. Further, that plan must be embraced and put into action at all levels of the State Department, from Secretary Rice to Ambassador Bolton.
 

Updated March 2, 2006