U.N. Delays Action on
Rights Council
Opposed by U.S.
By WARREN HOGE,
NYTimes on the Web, March 11, 2006
UNITED NATIONS, March 10 — The
United Nations on Friday extended by a week its deadline for seeking approval of
a new human rights council that is opposed by the United States but backed by
rights groups and a vast majority of the 191 member states.
Simultaneously, the Human Rights Commission, which the council is supposed to
replace, agreed to postpone by a week the opening of its annual session that was
to start Monday in Geneva.
The actions came after human rights organizations had mounted a lobbying effort
in support of the proposed council, and the European Union had sent Washington a
pledge that its members would keep objectionable candidates off the panel.
The commission has long been an embarrassment to the United Nations because its
members included some of the world's most notorious rights violators.
The council was proposed a year ago by Secretary General Kofi Annan with terms
that would bar membership to rights abusers, but in the version that emerged
this month after long negotiations, those guarantees were watered down.
While a number of countries expressed disappointment, the United States was the
only one to say that it would call for a vote and vote no.
John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said the
measure should be renegotiated, but Jan Eliasson of Sweden, the General Assembly
president, said that reopening the delicately balanced text would expose it to a
"Pandora's box" of amendments from opponents and effectively doom the whole
project.
Gerhard Pfanzelter, the ambassador from Austria, which occupies the European
Union presidency, said the European effort could calm American concerns.
He said the number of countries joining the Europeans in pledging to ban abusers
from membership could end up approaching the 96 that would be needed to approve
candidates for the panel.
Mr. Eliasson has sought to avoid a vote and, instead, to gain adoption by
consensus, with countries making any individual views known in explanatory
remarks afterward.
Asked about the assurances being offered by the Europeans and other allies, Mr.
Bolton said the American position had not changed. "If you want to fix the
text, fix the text," he said. "My instructions are clear."
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