|
U.S. Voted Off U.N. Human Rights Commission
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 (News Agencies) - The United States was voted off the U.N. Human Rights Commission on Thursday, in an election which brought some notorious human rights abusers onto the Geneva-based body.
"We are disappointed at the outcome," the acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, James Cunningham, told reporters after his government lost the seat it had held ever since the commission was set up in 1947.
The United States polled last among four candidates for three seats in its regional group in a ballot of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which oversees the commission.
"It won't of course affect our commitment to human rights issues, in and outside of the United Nations," Cunningham said.
But a diplomat from another Western country said the U.S. defeat was "not necessarily a good thing, because the commission can only be active if the greatest world power takes part in its work."
About one third of the commission's 53 members are elected each year for three-year terms.
All but one of the 54 members of ECOSOC took part in the vote, and France obtained 52 votes, Austria received 41, Sweden 32 and the United States 29.
The four were competing for three seats in the group representing Western European and associated countries.
"There was an election between a number of solid candidates. We had too many candidates for too few seats," Cunningham said. "I don't want to speculate on what may have been the motives underlying the outcome of the election."
One diplomat said, however, that the result "might fuel an anti-U.N. campaign" in the U.S. Congress, which has still not released $826 million in unpaid dues which it has agreed to pay the United Nations.
One factor that could enrich the fuel is the election to the commission of Sudan, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda, described by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as "a rogues gallery of human rights abusers."
They were elected unopposed to four African seats.
"A country's human rights record should be the single most important factor in whether or not it joins the commission," said the U.N. representative for HRW, Joanna Weschler.
"An abusive country cannot honestly pass judgment on other abusive countries," she added.
Weschler noted that "in recent years, the United States often failed to support important human rights initiatives at the commission, or found itself voting alone, on the wrong side of important issues," and said "its not surprising that the U.S. was voted off."
But, she added: "To punish the United States and reward Sudan is clearly absurd."
One diplomat speculated that recent positions taken by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush on climate change and on nuclear missile defense might have "added to the resentment against the U.S. that is always under the surface."
She said the U.S. defeat was "a surprise, given their arm-twisting power."
The United States is a member of ECOSOC and holds one of the five permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.
Last year, it blocked a bid by Sudan for election by the U.N. General Assembly for two years to one of the 10 non-permanent Security Council positions.
In Thursday's vote, Bahrain, South Korea and Pakistan were the successful Asian group candidates, while Iran was defeated.
Croatia and Armenia were elected for Eastern Europe, and Azerbaijan was defeated.
Chile and Mexico were elected unopposed for Latin America.
The defeat of the United States leaves Russia and India as the only two countries to have had uninterrupted membership of the Human Rights Commission since 1947.
|
