Human Rights Watch: UN: Rights Council Remains Timid in Face of Abuses
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 30, 2007
1:55 PM
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CONTACT: Human Rights Watch
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UN: Rights Council Remains Timid in Face of Abuses
Darfur Resolution Provides Basis for Further Action
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(Geneva, March 30,
2007) – The UN Human Rights Council closed its fourth regular session
today having failed to take action to address many of the world’s most
urgent human rights situations, Human Rights Watch said today. The
council adoption of a compromise text regarding the crisis in Darfur,
however, was a welcome if small step forward.
“The council again chose talk
over action on worsening human rights situations in countries such as
Burma, Iran, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan,” said Peggy Hicks, global
advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The council’s resolution on
Darfur is a relatively bright light in an otherwise disappointing
session.”
The council adopted the Darfur text put forward
by Germany, as amended, by consensus, after extended negotiations
involving a competing Algerian draft. The resolution establishes a
group composed of six currently-serving independent experts on a range
of abuses – including violence against women, extrajudicial executions
and torture – and led by the council-appointed expert on Sudan. The
expert group is charged with working to ensure follow-up and
implementation of existing recommendations by the council and its
experts, by the council’s predecessor, the UN Commission on Human
Rights, and by other UN human rights institutions. The group is also
charged with reporting back to the council in June. The text does not,
however, criticize the Sudanese government directly for its role in
orchestrating and perpetrating massive violations of human rights and
humanitarian law in Darfur.
Several African states played a critical role in
breaking the council’s silence on Darfur. Six states – Cameroon, Ghana,
Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia – called for council action in
response to a report on Darfur from a high-level mission established by
the council in December. These and other states, including Uganda and
Mauritania, engaged constructively in discussions over the German text.
A key test for the council will be whether these and other swing states
such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa will engage
similarly to address abuses in other locations in the future.
The council continued its practice of hearing
detailed reporting from its independent experts on human rights
violations who focus both on “thematic” issues, such as torture or
violence against women, and on particular country situations. This
segment of the council’s agenda shines a spotlight on violations in
many countries, an act which could itself help to protect human rights
in some cases. However, the council again failed to take specific
action to follow up on the experts’ recommendations, often made in the
face of massive violations, or to address the endemic failure of many
states to cooperate fully with the experts.
In a particularly disturbing development, the
council decided to end its scrutiny of Iran and Uzbekistan. Both
countries had been subject to council monitoring under a confidential
procedure known as 1503 (after the resolution that created it). The
human rights situations in both countries have significantly
deteriorated in the past year.
“The council’s decision actually rewarded Iran
and Uzbekistan for their crackdowns on human rights, and it risks
fueling further abuses in both countries,” Hicks said. “Rather than
worrying how repressive governments will respond to scrutiny, council
members should think of the thousands of victims in Uzbekistan and Iran
who are hoping the council will make a difference.”
The council also adopted a resolution on
defamation of religions that could itself endanger human rights, Human
Rights Watch said. The resolution, put forward by Pakistan on behalf of
the Organization of the Islamic Conference, focuses on protection of
religions themselves, particularly Islam, rather than the rights of
individuals, including members of religious minorities. This approach,
and a provision which notes that free expression can be limited based
on “respect for religions and beliefs,” could be used to justify
encroachments upon freedom of thought, conscience and religion. More
positively, the council adopted by consensus a European Union
resolution which addresses elimination of all forms of intolerance and
of discrimination based on religion or belief, and calls for the
council to address this issue at its sixth session this June.
On a more positive note, 57 states led by
Argentina joined together to urge the council to address violations of
the human rights of women and girls in a more effective and integrated
manner than its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights. More
than 30 states also supported the new “Yogyakarta Principles” on sexual
orientation, gender identity, and human rights and urged the council to
take action on these issues.
The common refrain of this session was the need
to complete “institution-building,” and the concern that too much
activity on pressing human rights issues would undermine that focus. A
review of the council’s system of experts and of the Resolution 1503
procedure is scheduled to be completed by June 18. In addition, the
council was given a year to establish a “universal periodic review”
under which the human rights situation in all states will be examined.
“A substantial backlog of work has piled up as
the council focused on building the new institution this year,” Hicks
said. “Let’s hope the council has the energy and political will to get
down to business once the institution-building phase ends in June.”
For more information on the Human Rights Council, please click here.
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