| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| International-UN-NGOs | ||
| Sudan withdraws candidacy for UN Human Rights Council | ||
| 2012-09-02 | ||
Sudan’s UN Mission said in a letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press that “it is no longer interested in taking up one of the vacancies available in the Human Rights Council.” Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir, is accused of genocide and war crimes in Darfur, and his government is accused of human rights violations elsewhere. But Sudan was virtually guaranteed a seat on the 47-member council as one of five African candidates for five African seats. Sudan’s brief letter to Djibouti, which is the current coordinator for East African countries at the UN, gave no reason for pulling out of the November election in the UN General Assembly. Philippe Bolopion, UN director for Human Rights Watch, welcomed the decision, saying “The worst human rights offenders are slowly recognizing they are not welcome on the Human Rights Council.” “Sudan joins notorious rights violators Syria, Iran, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Azerbaijan whose hypocritical aspirations to sit on the Council have properly led to embarrassing retreat,” he said. The Geneva-based council was created in March 2006 to replace the UN’s widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission.
Much of the blame lies in the UN system where regional groups select candidates for seats on UN bodies, often based on which country is next in line, not on merit. In many instances, the blocs will try to ensure that the election is not contested, so for example, it will approve only three candidates if there are three vacant seats. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |