GENEVA - The U.N.'s newly
formed human rights watchdog ended a three-week session in disarray on Friday
over how to address contentious issues such as Darfur, Lebanon and the occupied
Palestinian territory.
Launched earlier this year to replace the discredited Human Rights
Commission, the Council failed to agreed a declaration to cover these questions
together with condemning defamation of religion and proclaiming the right to
economic development.
"We have not achieved the results hoped for," Council chairman Luis Alfonso
de Alba of Mexico told the 47-state body. "It is not wise to seek to force
agreements over such delicate issues," he added.
Faced with some 44 different resolutions going into the final two days of the
meeting, de Alba sought to focus on a few themes, but diplomats said differences
had remained wide.
European Union states, backed by the United States, although Washington is
not a Council member, pressed for wording on Darfur that stressed the
government's responsibility to halt abuse, going further than African states
were ready to go.
On the Middle East, however, the Europeans and their allies regarded wording
demanded by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) states and its
supporters as being "unbalanced" because too much of the blame was put on
Israel.
"We are disappointed that this just concluded session of the Council
accomplished little to protect and promote human rights," U.S. ambassador Warren
Tichenor told the Council.
FALLEN SHORT
"The Council was founded on the principles of universality, objectivity and
non-selectivity. In this session, the Council has fallen short of those high
ideals," he added.
Washington refused early this year to stand for election to the body because,
it said, not enough was done to prevent countries with poor rights records
gaining a place.
But others were less damning of the Council, saying that while they were
disappointed it failed to agree on anything, many difficulties could be put down
to teething problems.
The Council, part of a package of hoped-for U.N. reforms put forward by U.S.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will gather at least three times a year, unlike
the old Commission which met annually.
It has one year in which to finalise all its rules, including how to conduct
periodic reviews of the rights records of all U.N. states.
"The Council has failed to act on a number of situations, but it is
broadening its agenda," said Peter Splinter of Amnesty International. "It is
going in the right direction."
Diplomats and activists highlighted the fact that earlier in the session the
Council held good and detailed debate on many of the world's most problematic
human rights situations.
The issues outstanding from the October meeting will be taken up again on
November 27 ahead of a final session for the year.
The Commission, launched in 1946, lost credibility as a defender of human
rights with its actions becoming increasingly dictated by political alliances.
Some diplomats and rights activists point to signs the Council is following
the same road.
"There is an urgent need for the Council to change course and address in an
effective and active way the human rights violations that ought to occupy its
time," said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights
Watch.
