June 15th, 2007
European Union countries have threatened to pull out of the United Nations Human Rights Council if its developing country majority succeeds in an attempt to prevent scrutiny of the worst abusers.
By Frances Williams in Geneva
The proposals include the abolition of 12 of the 13 independent human rights envoys charged with reporting on specific countries. These include Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Somalia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. The exception to abolition is Israel.
An EU walk-out would effectively kill the council, created a year ago to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission as part of a sweeping reform package meant to strengthen the UN’s role in promoting and protecting human rights.
Instead, an alliance of mainly African, Asian and Middle Eastern states, which have a built-in majority on the 47-member council, is poised to push through institutional procedures that would make it almost impossible to hold individual countries to account for human rights violations. A decision is due on Monday.
Speaking to the FT after talks earlier this week with EU and other diplomats in Geneva, Richard Howitt, vice-chair of the European parliament’s human rights committee, said the walk-out threat was no bluff.
“If these changes were to be adopted, the council would be significantly worse than the old Human Rights Commission,” he said. “The Europeans would rather see the whole institution collapse than agree to an institution where the perpetrators of human rights abuses can walk away scot-free.”
EU diplomats, requesting anonymity, said they still hoped to negotiate a compromise accord.
Developing nations argue that the system of country envoys is unfair in singling out just a few countries for investigation, that it enshrines the “double standards” of western governments and engenders confrontation rather than co-operation to raise human rights standards.
However, developing nations are insisting on continuing the much-criticised practice of the former Human Rights Commission of singling out violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be discussed at every meeting.
The EU is also resisting developing-country proposals to raise the voting threshold for country resolutions from a simple majority to two-thirds, impose strict curbs on investigations by the remaining human rights envoys with thematic mandates, and require the envoys, who are supposed to be independent, to be elected by the council rather than appointed by the chair as now.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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