UN votes
to establish new human rights body
The World Today - Thursday, 16 March , 2006
Reporter: Jennifer Macey
ELEANOR
HALL: The UN Secretary-General has called it an historic resolution.
The United States administration opposed the move.
But today the United Nations has voted to set up a new body to investigate human
rights abuses around the world.
The Human Rights Council is to replace the UN's Commission on Human Rights,
which lost much of its credibility when it was chaired recently by countries
with some of the world's worst human rights records.
The new Council has a tougher membership selection process. But the United
States refused to support it saying it's still a compromised body.
So will the new Council really be any more effective than its predecessor?
Jennifer Macey reports.
ANNOUNCER: The result of the vote is as follows: in favour 170, opposed four,
abstention three. Draft resolution A/60L48 is adopted.
(Sound of applause)
JENNIFER MACEY: Their was a smile of relief on the face of Jan Eliasson the
current President of the UN General Assembly when the draft resolution on the
new Human Rights Council was passed.
The new body designed to replace the Human Rights Commission has been a year in
the making and almost didn't make it, with last minute objections from the
United States.
US representative to the UN, John Bolton, said the proposed council was not
strong enough.
JOHN BOLTON: We must not let the victims of human rights abuses throughout the
world think that UN member states were willing to settle for good enough.
We must not let history remember us as the architects of a council that was a
compromise and merely the best we could do, rather than one that ensured doing
all we could do to promote human rights.
JENNIFER MACEY: The United States was virtually alone in its opposition, joined
only by Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau. Abstaining from the vote was
Iran, Belarus and Venezuela.
But the US has indicated it will cooperate with the council, a move welcomed by
UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, speaking here from South Africa.
KOFI ANNAN: I'm particularly happy about it because I think that it's
qualitatively better than the Commission.
JENNIFER MACEY: Kofi Annan himself had criticised the old Commission saying many
countries had themselves elected to avoid scrutiny of their own human rights
record or to protect their friends.
The membership process of the new council has been tightened with members
elected by secret ballot and by a majority of the General Assembly.
British Ambassador to the UN, Jones Parry, says these are significant changes.
JONES PARRY: We think that's good because it means that human rights will get
better attention, the council is an improvement, a substantial improvement, on
the Human Rights Commission.
JENNIFER MACEY: Unlike the old commission, which met in Geneva for six weeks
each year, this new body will sit three times a year and can more easily convene
special sessions.
Human rights advocacy groups such as Amnesty International believe this will
make the council more effective in reacting to human rights crises.
Yvonne Terlingen is the Amnesty International representative at the United
Nations in New York.
She says human rights has been given a fresh start.
YVONNE TERINGEN: We think it's a victory for human rights protection, but we
also think it's only the very first step that has been taken and that a lot of
political will is needed in order to turn this new body into an effective and
authoritative human rights body for the United Nations.
JENNIFER MACEY: So do you think it will be effective?
YVONNE TERINGEN: Well, we certainly hope it will be. Much will depend on who the
new members are going to be of this new body.
If you have governments who commit themselves to fully cooperate with the new
body, and if governments are genuine about those commitments, then we really
stand a very good chance of having a body that will in essence be different from
what you had in the past.
And combine that with the fact that all human rights records will be reviewed.
It's not quite clear how that will be done, but the principle is a very
important one and has escaped the commission in the past, and that's why we
think it will be different.
ELEANOR HALL: And that's Yvonne Terlingen, the Amnesty International
representative to the UN in New York ending that report from Jennifer Macey.
© 2006
Australian Broadcasting Corporation