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UN Secretary General Annan with the president of Iran
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| By israelinsider staff November 26, 2006 |
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A report released by the Geneva-based United Nations watchdog, UN Watch, at the end of last week revealed a dismal progress report for the newly created UN Human Rights Council. The Council, which was set up to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, received its first major report card after its creation in the spring of this year.
The Council comes under severe criticism in the report for many lopsided practices, including its decision to make a special review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel to be a permanent and automatic process of every session.
The report also draws criticism to the Council's statistically anti-Israel bent, noting that despite massive killing in Darfur and Iraq, and widespread abuse in China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Zimbabwe, the Council has "devoted 100% of its censure powers to one-sided condemnations of Israel, in four country-specific resolutions and three special sessions. It has yet to pass a resolution or convene a special session against any other state."
The report card section of the review gave the Council a 'Fail' grade in the areas of ending politicization and addressing global human rights abuses. In "Creating a new culture of dialogue and cooperation" and in "Championing the UN Charter's democratic values" the Council received a rating of 'Poor'. Its highest rating of 'Satisfactory' was given for "Ensuring robust NGO participation".
Lack of action and resolutions from the Council has surprised many who question why the daily slaughter of black Sudanese, with tallies at 250,000 dead, the Council's own report on torture in China, and the continuing persecution of democracy activists in Burma have not warranted a resolution.
The report places partial responsibility for the Council's inaction and imbalance on 'abuser states', or members of the body who seek to use it to advance national and regional political agendas.
While neither Israel nor the United States sits on the Council, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Indonesia, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan Tunisia, Bangladesh, and Bahrain all hold permanent seats.
The UN Watch report goes on to state that "abuser states have been more proactive, better organized, and more cohesive than the liberal democracies and as a result have consistently dominated the debate.
"The Council's human rights supporting states must begin now to work together to retake the Council, before it is too late."
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