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Save U.N. Rights Commission from itself
Posted on Mon, Mar. 17, 2003 in
The Miami Herald.
The United States, the European Union and other nations that believe in
human rights should make every effort to rescue the United Nations Human Rights
Commission from itself this year. With the commission's annual session set to
begin today, notorious human-rights abuser Libya will preside as its chair.
Unfortunately, Libya and like-minded offenders will push to defeat the
commission's core mission: promoting respect for fundamental human rights and
freedoms.
The United States and the European Union must work to counteract those who
would devalue the human-rights agenda. They and other freedom-loving
democracies, including those in Latin America, must take the lead and introduce
and push strong resolutions in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
It's not enough to profess support alone; countries that want to defeat
tyranny must make human rights a priority and have diplomats work on the issue
year 'round, not just when the commission convenes each spring.
That is the way to salvage the original intent of the commission that, when
chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948, approved the declaration that Emile Saint
Leau of Haiti presented to the General Assembly as humanity's "greatest
effort [to establish] a new moral and juridical order based on liberty, equality
and fraternity.''
Those aren't the values guiding Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan or Syria --
current commission members who appear on Freedom House's list of nine countries
with the world's worst records for abusing human rights. Fellow members China
and Zimbabwe are no slouches among human-rights abusers, either.
The governments of these countries make it a priority to get on the
commission to try to weaken any condemnation of their hateful actions. Sadly,
most other countries have allowed them to hijack the agenda and damage the
commission's legitimacy. Indeed, 33 countries voted for Libya's chairmanship, 17
abstained and only three -- the United States and Canada commendably among them
-- opposed. That's pathetic.
Nations of good will need to change the rules of the game. At minimum,
countries that refuse entry to United Nations' monitors or are repeatedly
sanctioned shouldn't be at the commission table, much less as chairman. | 
