The same day the a U.N. General Assembly human rights committee voted to discourage U.N. human rights bodies from condemning any country on human rights, it voted to criticize North Korea for torture, public executions and miserable prison conditions. Meanwhile, the General Assembly is considering a resolution to condemn Israel for its war crimes in Gaza.
The non-criticizing measure was sponsored by Belarus and Uzbekistan - two countries with dismal human rights records - and was approved by 77 countries, it now goes to the General Assembly where it seems likely to pass.
The political schizophrenia of the U.N. is to be expected - it is, after all, a congregation of 192 politically-minded countries - but such blatant hypocrisy can't but diminish the moral authority of the U.N. Who can take it seriously when it can't even take itself seriously?
U.N. Panel Votes on Human Rights Measure
By EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
Friday, November 17, 2006; 5:50 AM
UNITED NATIONS -- A U.N. General Assembly committee has voted to discourage U.N. human rights bodies from condemning any country on human rights, despite objections to the measure from the U.S. and many European countries.
The draft resolution _ sponsored by Belarus and Uzbekistan, both of which have been accused of serious human rights abuses _ was approved by the assembly's human rights committee on a 77-63 vote, with 26 abstentions. It now goes to the full 192-member General Assembly for a final vote.
Its key provision stresses the need to avoid "country-specific resolutions on the situation of human rights" and the "exploitation of human rights for political purposes."
Before Thursday's vote, Belarus said the idea for a resolution opposing the targeting of specific countries over their human rights record was approved at the September summit of the 117-nation Nonaligned Movement.
American officials underscored that Belarus and Uzbekistan had both been long-term abusers of human rights. The U.S. also said that resolutions targeting specific countries had given hope to the oppressed and encouraged reform by some governments.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters that the resolution reflected "a real problem with the U.N. human rights machinery."
The new Human Rights Council in Geneva, which earlier this year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission, has met three times to pass resolutions condemning Israel but hasn't dealt with human rights in Myanmar, North Korea or Sudan, Bolton said.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. General Assembly panel rebuked North Korea on Friday for gross human rights abuses, with South Korea voting in favor for the first time and Pyongyang calling the measure a U.S. "political plot."
A draft resolution criticizing North Korea for torture, public executions and miserable prison conditions, was passed by a vote of 91-21, with 60 abstentions.
The balloting took place in a General Assembly committee that handles human rights and includes all U.N. members, thereby assuring its official adoption by the full assembly. Last year, the assembly approved a similar resolution by a vote if 88-21, with 60 abstentions.
Fearful of antagonizing its heavily armed and impoverished neighbor, Seoul previously abstained or refrained from participating in votes in various U.N. bodies on human rights in the North. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will become the next U.N. secretary-general on January 1.
Neighboring China opposed the measure, saying pressure and accusations would not achieve results.
The resolution criticizes North Korea for a wide variety of abuses, such as "torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," arbitrary detention, the death penalty for political reasons and the extensive use of forced labor as well as deplorable conditions in prison camps.
North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador, Kim Chang Guk, called the measure, initiated by the European Union, a "political plot of the United States and its satellite countries as well as an illegal document."
He said the United States had no right to invade Iraq, establish secret prison camps, torture detainees, discriminate against other races and migrants and support Israel's bombing of Lebanon last summer.
"Where on earth can we find more outrageous, barbarous and worst violations of human rights than this?" Kim asked.
South Korea's U.N. ambassador, Choi Young-jin, called for active and "practical steps" to improve human rights in the North and urged Pyongyang to allow in the U.N. investigator.
'MODERN-DAY GULAG'
No nation defended North Korea's rights record. But Cuba, Venezuela, Indonesia, Egypt and Syria, which voted "no," argued against any country-specific resolution adopted in the General Assembly. Among the 60 abstentions, Singapore and Costa Rica used a similar argument.
The panel's resolution also urges nations, without mentioning China by name, not to forcibly return refugees as most are then subject to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" or executed when they return.
It expresses very serious concerns over the abduction of foreigners, many from Japan and South Korea, kidnapped by the North and not heard from for decades. It condemns Pyongyang for putting the mentally ill or disabled into deplorable camps and asks U.N. Secretary-General Annan to file a report.
Author Elie Wiesel, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik came to the United Nations on Thursday to boost a report they had written on Pyongyang's rights abuses.
They urged the U.N. Security Council to deal with more than Pyongyang's nuclear threat, saying North Korea posed a threat to international peace because of refugee outflows and suspected drug trafficking and counterfeiting.
Their report estimated North Korea imprisoned "upwards of 200,000 people in its modern-day gulag" and that double that number have died in its prison network over 30 years
UN Considers Resolution Condemning Israeli Gaza Attacks
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 (AP) -- The U.N. General Assembly held
an emergency special session Friday to consider a draft resolution condemning Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. Israel's ambassador blasted the session as a "farce" and a "circus."
The Arab League asked for the session after the U.S. vetoed a similar, but watered-down U.N. Security Council draft resolution against Israel's actions last weekend - its second veto on the matter this year.
The resolution is certain to be approved because there are no vetoes
in the 192-member General Assembly. But assembly resolutions are non-binding, and are considered more a reflection of international opinion.
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Riyad Mansour, said Friday that Israel
had committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the nearly five-month offensive, which Israel says is aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets from Gaza into its territory.
Mansour said 82 Palestinians were killed during a six-day Israeli
assault on the town of Beit Hanoun this month, including 19 members of an extended family who died in an early-morning artillery attack on Nov. 8.
"What is required is serious and firm action in response to these crimes, especially the massacre in Beit Hanoun, as well as putting an end to this rampant Israeli campaign, which intends to destroy an entire people," Mansour told the General Assembly.
Israel has expressed regret for the loss of civilian life in Beit Hanoun, and blamed the deaths on a technical failure in the fire control system
of an artillery battery.
On Friday, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman lashed back at the Palestinians, accusing them of turning the Gaza Strip into a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israel, allowing the firing of more than 1,000 rockets in the last year.
He said Israel has been forced to defend itself because the Hamas-led government has not acceded to international demands to renounce violence, recognize Israel and honor past peace agreements with the Jewish state.
"The debate this morning ... offers the Hamas government no incentive
to renounce their ways of terror," he said. "They have a monopoly on
this assembly's attention and sympathy. Without forcing the Palestinians to shoulder their responsibilities, there will be no change."
Later at a news conference, he called the General Assembly session
a "circus" and a "farce," and dismissed the draft resolution for
omitting any reference to Hamas.
Gillerman also targeted Syria and Iran for criticism in his remarks, saying the two countries were fueling terrorism and extremism in
the Middle East. He said Tehran had just given $120 million to the
cash-strapped Hamas government, without providing any details.
"Who knows what they will use that money for? The international community must put a stop to their genocidal regimes," he said.
In addition, Gillerman accused the moderate Arab country of Qatar
of forcing a quick vote on the Security Council draft resolution
last Saturday because it was afraid "a mega-terror attack was being planned and they didn't want it to spoil their game." Qatar is the only Arab member of the Security Council.
Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser denied there was any reason behind the timing of Saturday's vote, saying the Arab League had only wanted the Security Council to act on the draft resolution as quickly
as possible.
Israel has been conducting an offensive in the Gaza Strip since
an Israeli soldier was kidnapped in a cross-border raid on June 25.
Its latest military operation in Beit Hanoun ended last week without major achievements, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signaled
there are no immediate plans to launch more assaults.
The draft resolution being considered by the General Assembly condemns the Israeli offensive, in particular the Beit Hanoun killings, and demands Israel immediately halt its hostilities and pull its troops out of the Gaza Strip. It also requests that the secretary-general establish a fact-finding mission on the Beit Hanoun incident and calls on the international community to take steps to restart the peace process.
It is significantly stronger than the Security Council draft resolution that failed last week, which included a section demanding the Palestinian Authority take immediate action to bring an end to violence, including
the firing of rockets into Israel.
In vetoing that resolution, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the wording was "biased against Israel and politically motivated."