Abid Aslam, OneWorld USWed Mar 15, 7:04 PM ET

WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 15 (OneWorld) - United Nations member states turned a deaf ear to U.S. objections and approved a new global Human Rights Council Wednesday as watchdogs urged further steps to strengthen victim protections.

Washington refused to support the new body on the grounds that membership in it would remain open to countries it regards as rights violators--chiefly, Cuba, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Sudan, and Zimbabwe. But it balked at withholding funds from the new panel--a move that rights advocates applauded.

The new rights council garnered support from 170 of the UN General Assembly's 191 members. Four countries voted against (Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Palau joined the United States) and three (Belarus, Iran, and Venezuela) abstained.

Other member states were not allowed to vote because they had failed to pay their UN dues.

Despite objections, Washington would not seek to withhold funding for the new council, U.S. officials said in news reports. However, no decision had been made on whether the U.S. government would seek a seat on the new panel.

''In coming years we will be judged on whether we created UN human rights machinery that was effective and strong,'' said John Bolton, Washington's ambassador to the world body. ''We must not let history remember us as the architects of a council that was a compromise and merely the best we could do.''

Rights advocates gave Wednesday's vote and Washington's stance a qualified thumbs-up.

''This is a victory for human rights protection around the world although the hard work is just beginning,'' said Yvonne Terlingen, UN representative for Amnesty International.

''It is encouraging to hear that, despite voting against the resolution, the U.S. government will cooperate with the Council and support it,'' Terlingen added.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the new council's ''ability to protect the weakest will now depend on the commitment of governments to curb rights violations.''

Roth shared Washington's disdain for countries branded as the world's worst rights violators and urged that they be excluded from the new panel.

''We call on all countries to pledge not to vote for governments that systematically repress their people,'' said Roth. ''States like Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, or Zimbabwe, which are current members of the old commission, cannot be allowed on to the new council.''

He referred to the UN Human Rights Commission, widely assailed as ineffective and accused of allowing oppressive governments to use their membership to shield one another from condemnation.

Criticism of the old body led UN Secretary General

Members of the new council are to be elected by a simple majority, or 96, of the General Assembly's membership. Annan, Washington, and rights groups had urged that membership require a two-thirds majority--something they had said would help keep offenders off the new panel.

To be eligible to sit on the new council, governments will have to cooperate with the new council--including by letting it review their human rights records during their three-year term.

The resolution adopted Wednesday also authorized the General Assembly to suspend members found guilty of ''gross and systematic'' human rights violations.

Roth, at Human Rights Watch, urged UN member states to ensure that elections to the council, slated for May 9, ''deliver the best possible candidates from each region of the world.''

To do this, his and other organizations urged UN members to: insist that regional groups submit nominations at least 30 days before the election to allow for public scrutiny of their human rights records, insist that there be more nominees than seats so governments have a real choice when voting; hold candidates' feet to the fire on granting unimpeded access to UN human rights investigators; and insist that candidates ''set forth a concrete and positive human rights agenda at home and for service on the council.''

''All those elected to the council must uphold the highest human rights standards, must cooperate fully with the council and must accept review of their own human rights record during their term of membership,'' said Amnesty's Terlingen.

''Any country not prepared to meet these requirements should not apply,'' she concluded.

Related Links