US not seeking UN Human Rights Council seat

[norml]

US not seeking UN Human Rights Council seat
06/04/2006 - 16:20:22


The US has decided not to seek a seat on the new UN Human Rights Council for now, preferring instead to see how the body takes shape, a US official in Washington said today.

So far, 34 countries have declared their candidacy to be members of the new council, including Cuba and Iran.

“We’re going to take a wait and see attitude,” the US official said.

The US was virtually alone in voting against the council when the UN General Assembly approved its creation last month. US officials claimed not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members.

The Human Rights Council will replace the highly politicised and often criticised Human Rights Commission, which was discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible human rights records used their membership to protect one another from condemnation. Commission members in recent years included Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe and Cuba.

In a letter seeking support for its candidacy for a seat on the new council, Cuba said its people have made “tremendous achievements” in human rights, most importantly in exercising the right of self-determination against “the unilateral policy of hostility, aggression and blockade imposed on it by the superpower".


snip


http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=178533986&p=y7853469z

[phantom power]

1. Human rights are so pre-911.

We've become an embarrassment.

[OKNancy]

2. kick

[Catchawave]

3. U.S. Will Not Join U.N. Rights Council

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006; Page A16

UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- The Bush administration will not seek a seat this year on the new U.N. Human Rights Council, marking the first time in more than half a century that the United States has chosen not to pursue membership in the United Nations' principal rights organization.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States will be an observer on the U.N. council and will probably run for a post next year -- assuming the 47-member agency proves its commitment to promoting human rights. Council advocates and some Republicans in Congress said the decision will deprive the United States, which has been at the forefront of U.N. human rights efforts for five decades, a chance to shape the new council in its crucial first year.

The decision announced today was influenced in part, officials said, by concerns that the United States might have failed to win one of the seven seats reserved for Western governments. The United States has faced sharp criticism at the U.N. for alleged abuse of terrorism detainees. Meanwhile, Cuba and China, which have troubled human rights records, stand a strong chance of winning election to the council by secret ballot in May, according to senior U.S. and U.N. diplomats.

The Human Rights Council was established last month to replace the 60-year-old Human Rights Commission, which had been derided in recent years for allowing countries with abysmal rights records, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, to join and thwart criticism of their actions. The United States, which was voted off the commission for one year in 2001, has always sought membership in the U.N. agency since its creation in 1946.

Cont'd...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040601849.html

[marmar]

4. Because the Bush administration doesn't give a damn...

about people's rights. :grr:

[Jack Rabbit]

5. How they can prove their commitment to human rights

They can prove their commitment to human rights by establishing an international tribunal for war crimes in Iraq and crimes against humanity arising out of the war on terror.

That ought to impress the Bushies.

[acmejack]

6. There was a time when this would have been totally inconceivable

The United States of America spurning membership on an United Nations Human Rights Commission. How far we have fallen.

[C_U_L8R]

7. At least there will be no conflict of interest

when they charge the United States with the countless
human rights abuses that Bush and the Republicans have committed

[UpInArms]

8. "the first time in more than half a century"

it will take decades to have any credibility as a nation after we imprison these criminals.

[Bassic]

9. Why is it that every time the international community

tries to do something about the abuse of human rights, the U.S. wants no part of it? I'm not just talking about this thing, I'm also thinking about the international penal court, for example.

What are the repubs afraid they're going to have to treat all them brown people like actual human beings? :shrug:

Assholes....