(1 October, 2010 – Geneva) Today, after three weeks of intensive activity, the 15th Session of UN Human Rights Council has come to an end. A series of resolutions passed by the Council over the last three days have revealed an institution struggling, and often failing, to fulfil its role as the “conscience” of the international community and protector of victims of human rights violations throughout the world.
According to Jeremie Smith of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), “This session of the Council has put the best and worst of the Council on display. We have seen it rise above politically entrenched positions in order to strengthen human rights protection, but more often we have watched it ignore the many grave human rights situations occurring throughout the world and abandon victims for the sake of political expediency.”
On Thursday the 30th of September, in a positive development, the Council was able to accomplish what many thought impossible. Sixty-three states from every region of the world co-sponsored a resolution to establish an important new UN expert on the right to freedom of assembly and association to monitor and report on the increasing restrictions and attacks on civil society organizations and political associations throughout the world.
Maldives, introducing the resolution, said, “the right to freedom of association and assembly are essential components of democracy…[but] represent significant gaps at the human rights council… this vital resolution is intended to fill this gap.” The United States asserted that “civil society has played a central role in eradicating injustices that have throughout history separated nations from the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights… civil society is essential for progress… it therefore gives me great pleasure to see the Human Rights Council embrace the freedom of association.”
The following day, by a margin of 7 votes, the Council renewed the mandate of the Independent Expert on Sudan. The Council appeared to be on the verge of doing away with the Independent Expert in response to strong lobbing by Sudan and members of the Arab group, and in spite of the worsening human rights situation in the country. Similar to the last time the issue was voted on, the decision came down to a few key African states, including Uganda, Zambia, and Gabon, taking a principled position and voting for the mandate’s renewal. Speaking before the Council, Uganda’s representative stated, “At this critical time in Sudan… This Council cannot disengage… if ever there were an appropriate time to stay engaged now is the time… we will vote for the extension of the mandate as a matter of principle.”
The Human Rights Council has a legal and moral obligation to ensure victims of human rights violations are given a voice and to work for an end to such violations. The renewal of the Sudan mandate is a glimmer of hope for the millions of victims of war crimes and rights violations in the country,” said Ziad Abdel Tawab of CIHRS. A resolution extending the mandate of the Independent Expert on Somalia was also passed.
Unfortunately, these positive developments were overshadowed by the continued inability and unwillingness of the Council and its member states to deal with the most serious and chronic human rights situations throughout the world.
Mr. Tawab of CIHRS stated, “Despite the rapid and grave deterioration in the human rights situation of Bahrain since August, where the government has begun to systematically imprison all political opposition figures and human rights defenders, the Human Rights Council has remained utterly silent. This in addition to its continued silence on chronic human rights crises’ in countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and other places throughout the Arab region and wider world.”
In one of the more disappointing episodes of the 15th Session, the Palestine Authority, Arab Group, and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), gave into political pressure from the United States and others and effectively buried the Goldstone process, potentially destroying the greatest opportunity ever created to hold accountable those responsible for committing war crimes in Palestine and Israel.
On 27 September, the Expert Committee mandated to monitor and assess domestic investigations by Israel and the Palestinian side into war crimes committed during Israel’s military offensive (code-named Operation Cast Lead) on the Gaza Strip (12/2008- 01/2009), presented their report. In a statement read before the Council, Prof. Christian Tomuschat, head of the Expert Committee, stated that investigations by Israel “fundamentally lacked transparency” and “impartiality,” and that the Israeli government failed to investigate those who designed, planned, ordered, and oversaw the offensive. The Expert Committee also concluded that the Palestinian side has failed to conduct criminal prosecutions.
“The UN Rights Council had an important choice to make this session: It could either undermine the Goldstone process with a weak resolution for the sake of political expediency or breath life into it by concluding that recourse to the International Criminal Court is now required and sending their decision to the General Assembly. The resolution put forward by the OIC, authored by the Palestine Authority, and adopted by the Council on the 30th of September, did neither of these. Instead it buried the issue deeper by deferring justice indefinitely,” argued Jeremie Smith (CIHRS).
On the last day of the 15th Session, the OIC, lead by Saudi Arabia, attempted to insert a conditional clause into the text of a resolution on “Elimination of discrimination against women,” implicitly threatening to veto the resolution if the amendment was not adopted. In response the Mexican Ambassador, who introduced the resolution, stated before the Council, “we cannot accept reservations that question the absolute right of women to equality… as a result we must reject this amendment.” In a close vote the amendment was defeated and the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council, creating a new Independent Expert Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Contact:
Arabic, English, French: Ziad Abdel Tawab, abdeltawab@cihrs.org, English: Jeremie Smith, jsmith@cihrs.org
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