Posted on 04/27/2002 4:30:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. Human Rights Commission ended its annual session Friday amid criticism that its reluctance to act on China, Chechnya, Iran and Zimbabwe showed it was protecting oppressors and not the oppressed.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said the six-week meeting of the world body's top rights watchdog was "very difficult" and "very worrying." Robinson said she was concerned by trends to weaken the commission's role as a defender of liberties.
During its session, the 53-member commission did not discuss China's reported repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and Muslim minorities, dropped its criticism of Russian abuses in Chechnya, ended a decades-long investigation into Iran's alleged abuses and blocked moves to examine alleged abuses in Zimbabwe.
Also, Israel blocked efforts to send a senior human rights team to assess the plight of Palestinians after the recent Israeli offensive into their territories.
A resolution calling for anti-terrorist measures to conform with international humanitarian law was withdrawn in the closing hours of the meeting, outraging advocacy groups.
"This is a time to remind ourselves of the essential role of the Commission on Human Rights in protecting human beings against gross violations through highlighting and publicizing those violations; providing a forum for victims to raise their grievances; heeding the voice of conscience from different parts of the world," Robinson said.
Non-governmental groups denounced the outcome of the meeting and criticized the fact that independent experts who monitor abuses were given only five minutes each to speak.
Evening sessions also were canceled, supposedly because of budget shortages.
"The Commission on Human Rights has become hostage to human rights abusers," said Rory Mungoven of Human Rights Watch. "The Commission's most important tool - its capacity to name and shame human rights violators - is being eroded."
He said the European Union spent more time trying to find consensus among its 15 members and the United States kept a lower profile because it was not a member this year.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Federation of Human Rights said they were dismayed that Mexico withdrew a resolution urging that counterterrorist measures be compatible with international humanitarian law.
The U.N. human rights commissioner would have been responsible for monitoring and analyzing those measures, according to the resolution.
The United States - which has been criticized widely for its treatment of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and its detentions of Middle Eastern nationals who violated visa regulations - opposed the resolution.
"This could have been one of the most important outcomes from this Commission, but instead has become one of its lowest points," the advocacy groups said in a statement.
"From Illinois in the United States to Xinjiang in China, counterterrorist measures have placed human rights at risk," they said. "The Commission's silence on this critical issue sends a dangerous signal that in the fight against terrorism anything goes."
Commission membership rotates, with this year's rotation including many countries accused of violations, such as China, Cuba, Congo, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
The United States - which has been criticized widely for its treatment of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and its detentions of Middle Eastern nationals who violated visa regulations - opposed the resolution. "This could have been one of the most important outcomes from this Commission, but instead has become one of its lowest points," the advocacy groups said in a statement.***
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Hardly. The lowest point is their dismissal of Mugabe's unchecked reign of terror over his people, blatantly demonstrated by his violent band of roving thugs. His orchestrated horror was designed to rig an election and still it continues, leading to the death and starvation of those desperate people who bravely tried to exercise their right to vote. The U.N. couldn't be bothered.
U.N. Rights Body Ducks Zimbabwe*** The EU, in the first attempt to put Zimbabwe in the dock at the Commission, expressed concern at "continuing violations of human rights and attacks on fundamental freedoms" in Zimbabwe.
It called on the Commission to send its special rapporteurs on torture, the independence of judges, freedom of opinion, arbitrary executions and violence against women to Zimbabwe to prepare reports FOR THE NEXT ANNUAL MEETING.***
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