UNITED NATIONS, Jun 9 (OneWorld) - A prominent international rights watchdog has reacted sharply to the U.S. government's decision to further disengage itself from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
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| Opening the first session of the Human Rights Council in 2006. |
The U.S. government declared Friday that it would now only engage the 47-member Council when it deemed necessary to discuss issues of "deep national interest."
"Our skepticism regarding the function of the Council in terms of fulfilling its mandate and its mission is well known," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "It has a rather pathetic record."
The United States is one of only four nations that voted against the UN resolution that established the Council in 2006. Despite that, until now it had continued to take part in the Council meetings as an observer.
U.S. officials apparently briefed their European counterparts about Washington's decision to end its participation in the Council as debate was progressing over the rights situation in Myanmar.
The United States has been a vocal critic of the military regime in Myanmar (formerly Burma) for its suppression of political dissent and human rights violations for years, and has repeatedly advocated the imposition of sanctions on the authoritarian regime there.
Many critics say the U.S. decision was poorly timed, as the Council is beginning to show more positive signs in terms of monitoring worldwide abuses of human rights.
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| Displaced by war in Sri Lanka. © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network |
Many critics agree the Council has failed to perform as well as expected, but also acknowledge the progress it has made in establishing international mechanisms to monitor rights violations.
In the past two years, the Council has not only done substantial reporting on cases of torture, gender violence, and extra-judicial executions, they say, but it has put a spotlight on the ongoing rights crises in Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan.
Rights activists acknowledge, however, that in its first two years, the Council has failed to pay due attention to more than 20 different places that are in dire need of monitoring.
Still, overall, they generally rate the Council's work as relatively satisfactory, and many believe full U.S. participation could have significantly improved the Council's ability to protect abused populations worldwide.
"Whatever the Council's problems," said Human Rights Watch's de Rivero, "[the U.S.] decision is a victory for abusive states and a betrayal of those fighting for their rights worldwide." De Rivero and other rights activists say the Sri Lanka vote is an indication that the Council is willing to fight the abusers of human rights.
In his view, "Washington's hands-off approach to the Council undermined it from the start. It's ironic that the U.S. shares responsibility for the shortcomings it's now using to justify its withdrawal from the Council."
According to some observers, one reason the United States is disengaging itself from the Council is the growing opposition from a vast majority of developing countries, which see the U.S. stance on human rights as hypocritical.
In electing the first Council members two years ago, the United States chose not to contest elections because it was almost certain to have lost the vote, largely due to its unconditional support for Israel in that country's ongoing conflict with the Palestinian people.
Observers think the United States is ill-placed to confront many international situations of human rights abuse because it has lost much credibility by refusing to let international experts investigate alleged rights abuses of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Despite this, many advocacy groups and countries with relatively untarnished records on human rights think having the United States at the negotiating table is important to building a more effective world body on human rights.
"Instead of ceding the field to those who want to shield abusers from scrutiny," said de Rivero, "the U.S. should have redoubled its efforts to make the Council work as it should."
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