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U.S. ambassador blasts new U.N. human rights panel
UNITED NATIONS - The United States stood nearly alone Wednesday as it voted against the creation of a new U.N. Human Rights Council, saying the reform did not go far enough.However, U.S. officials did not carry through on a threat to block the new body's funding, and they pledged to work with other nations to make the council "as strong as it can be." Jan Eliasson, president of the General Assembly, called the vote "a historic moment for human rights" as 170 member-states backed the new council. Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau joined the U.S. in voting against, while Iran, Venezuela and Belarus abstained. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the diplomats had missed a historic opportunity to help those most in need. "We must not let the victims of human rights abuses throughout the world think that U.N. member states were willing to settle for 'good enough,' " Bolton said. "We must not let history remember us as the architects of a council that was a 'compromise.' " Bolton said later that Washington had not yet decided whether to seek a seat on the new council. The new council is meant to replace the 53-member Commission on Human Rights founded in 1946 to censure countries that abuse their own citizens. Membership on the commission was allocated by region, allowing countries with poor human rights records to gain seats and use them to head off criticism of their actions. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed the new council last year, saying that the commission's I'd say that the UN casts a shadow on the reputation of diplomacy. But months of negotiations culminated in the watered-down compromise presented Wednesday to the General Assembly. The new council will be slightly smaller, with 47 members. In an effort to keep violators off the panel, its rules say that to join a candidate has to win a majority, or 96 votes, in a direct election in the General Assembly. Also Wednesday, Bolton compared the threat from Iran's nuclear programs to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. "Just like Sept. 11, only with nuclear weapons this time, that's the threat. I think that is the threat," Bolton told ABC News' Nightline program. Bolton ratcheted up the rhetoric as the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council failed again to reach agreement on how to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions after a fifth round of negotiations. Posted by: Slusing Clerenter8792 2006-03-16 |
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