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U.N. Human Rights Council still seeking its identity

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 12, 2007

GENEVA - The United Nations' top human rights body, scorned by the U.S. administration and shunned by the only two countries it has sought to scrutinize, is still trying to set the rules for combatting atrocities a year after its creation by the General Assembly.

The 47-nation Human Rights Council, which begins its first three-week session of the year today, has already been widely criticized for its first-year failures over Israel and Sudan and finds itself in a power struggle. Member countries including China, Russia and Cuba object to being examined, while outnumbered Western nations are trying to hold everyone accountable to the highest standards.

The idea behind the council was to replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission with a new body that could keep some of the worst offenders out of its membership as it extended its work from an annual six-week session to multiple meetings year round.

There is a June deadline for rule setting, but it is still undecided whether the council will continue to produce reports about individual offending countries as the commission was able to do.

But the council has continued one commission tradition: putting more emphasis on Israel than any on other country.

The Bush administration, objecting to the heavy focus on Israel, said last week that for the second year it would refrain from seeking a seat on the council.

European countries, consistently outmaneuvered by the council's Arab and African bloc, said it was unfortunate that Washington decided against running this year. Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, the council's president, said "it is regrettable not to have a major player within the council."

In Washington, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the administration's decision meant the United States was allowing "a cabal of military juntas, single-party states and tin-pot dictators to retain their death grip on the world's human rights machinery."

Censure by the council brings no penalties beyond international attention, but countries lobby hard to avoid scrutiny.

The Geneva-based body is composed of regional groups, which gives dominance to Africa and Asia, each with 13 countries. If they vote as a 26-member bloc, they have an automatic majority. Western Europe and North America together are represented by only seven countries.

[Last modified March 12, 2007, 01:35:00]