Posted on 02/08/2005 2:38:45 PM PST by shadowfighter
White House - AP Cabinet & State
U.S. Blasts Human Rights Panel Selection
Tue Feb 8,12:36 PM ET White House - AP Cabinet & State
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated press Writer
WASHINGTON - The State Department denounced on Tuesday the selection of Cuba and Zimbabwe for a panel that will decide on the agenda for a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission next month.
"The United States believes that countries that routinely and systematically violate the rights of their citizens should not be selected to review the human rights performance of other countries," State Department press office Tom Casey said.
Besides Cuba and Zimbabwe, the other members of the so-called "Working Group on Situations" are Hungary, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
"Despite the inappropriate membership of Cuba and Zimbabwe, we look for the working group to conduct its procedures in a balanced and transparent manner," Casey said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) listed Cuba and Zimbabwe among six "outposts of tyranny" during her Senate confirmation hearing (news - web sites) last month.
Casey's statement offered no criticism of the selection of Saudi Arabia, an authoritarian monarchy. Officials note, however, that a reform movement is under way in the country, highlighted by village elections set for this week.
The working group passes judgment on the admissibility of complaints intended for consideration by the 53-member commission. The group meets every March at its headquarters in Geneva.
Cuba was selected to the working group based on the support it received from fellow Latin American countries. The Cuban Foreign Ministry web site said Argentina proposed Cuba for membership on the panel.
The show of hemispheric support for Cuba signaled another setback for the administration in its campaign to isolate Cuba internationally.
Last week, ignoring Bush administration objections, the European Union (news - web sites) lifted a suspension on high-level contacts with Cuba that was imposed after a crackdown on dissidents in 2003.
Cuba's official news agency, AIN, said that among the cases being considered by the commission this year are "the well documented atrocities committed by the U.S. government in Iraq (news - web sites), particularly the brutal procedures used against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail and at the prison camp set up at the illegal U.S. naval base located in the eastern Cuban province of Guantanamo."
Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the America's Division of Human Rights Watch, reacted sharply to Cuba's selection to the panel.
"I think it's a scandal," Vivanco said. A country with "such a poor record on human rights" should not be rewarded in this way," he said
Ugh, what p*ssies. They forgot to mention China.
Who was it that said we should expel the UN from the US, and start all over with an organization composed solely of democratic regimes?
Sounds like a great idea to me. Then we can get away from all this B/S we have to deal with from the Untied Nations.
Cuba and Zimbabwe on a commission to look at human rights violations? Hey, at least they'll have some expert guidance of what to look for.
State Dept is so brave - NOT!
Time for Condi to return home and clean out the stables.
So, just to be clear here, the UN is upset with any attempts to fight Islamist terror, but has no problems with imprisoning and executing those who peacefully request that their government respects basic human rights such as the right to free speech or the right to representative government...?
Pretty sad human rights committee when Saudi Arabia ranks in the middle of the pack for respecting basic freedoms.
Belarus.
Get us out NOW!
"The United States believes that countries that routinely and systematically violate the rights of their citizens should not be selected to review the human rights performance of other countries," State Department press office Tom Casey said.
No kidding.
The briefing paper, "Under a Shadow: Civil and Political Rights in Zimbabwe," details the government's policy of repression and the harassment of opposition party members by state institutions and supporters of the ruling party. The direct involvement of ranking government officials and state security forces marks a new and worrisome trend in Zimbabwe's ongoing political crisis."
"Not only have the army and police personnel failed to protect people from human rights abuses, but they are now carrying out abuses themselves," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch. "In addition, recent legislation has drastically curtailed citizens' rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.
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