U.S. balks at UN plan to reform rights body

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SHAWN McCARTHY NEW YORK U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton is
expected to torpedo plans to reform the much-criticized Human Rights
Commission today unless the world body meets U.S. demands for
significant changes to the proposed structure.

The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled today to take up a
proposal to establish a Human Rights Council to replace the discredited
commission, which is seen as ineffective and a haven for rights abusers.

Supporters are hoping the assembly will adopt the plan in a voice vote
and thereby avoid an acrimonious balloting process that would afford
opponents an opportunity to attack it through a series of amendments.

But the United States, which has long advocated a beefed-up human-rights
council, is now complaining that the new system would leave too much
scope for human-rights abusers to take seats on the council.

Mr. Bolton has not backed away from his threat to vote against the
current plan, and by doing so, open it to attack from other disgruntled
members.

Lawrence Moss, special counsel for New-York-based Human Rights Watch,
yesterday slammed the U.S. intransigence.

“We deeply regret the U.S. position and we believe that the new council
will be substantially different and better than the existing
commission,” Mr. Moss said.

He said countries that want a seat on the council must agree to have
their own human-rights records examined, and that the entire UN General
Assembly will now vote on prospective members, whereas in the past,
various blocs chose members from their own ranks.

“We believe we could exclude the worst human-rights offenders from the
council,” he said.

Critics in the United States complain that the new council will have its
members selected by a majority vote — instead of a higher threshold,
two-thirds — and that too many of the seats on the 47-member body would
be reserved for Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The United States is also concerned that it will not have a permanent
seat on the council; no member can have more than two consecutive
three-year terms.