The new UN Human Rights Council must be objective and have broad geographical representation in order to fulfil its mandate of ensuring fundamental freedoms and human rights protections and avoid becoming politicized like its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, several representatives told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) Monday, as it continued its debate on human rights questions.
The United Nations work on human rights had sometimes rightly been criticized, for being politicized, selective and ineffective, said Norways representative. Creation of a new Council was an opportunity to rectify that situation and strengthen the Organization’s role in human rights. The representative suggested that the new instrument be a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly and quite possibly a principal organ.
Echoing this view, Viet Nams representative said selectivity and double standards had politicized the Commission on Human Rights, and a Human Rights Council should not be established just for the sake of creating a new, highly politicized mechanism. As the process of consultation and negotiation on establishing a Council continued, a working group should be created to study and work out details towards that end.
Libyas representative said Council members of the proposed new Council should not seek to serve individual economic or political interests. The General Assembly should be given sufficient time to review the issue of Council membership.
The representative of Peru said the new Council should be a permanent body with full powers to promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, address human rights violations and make recommendation to the entire United Nations system, including the Security Council. It should carry out its work in timely fashion, taking into account the perspective of victims.
Also speaking at the Third Committees two meetings today were the representatives of Turkey, Togo, Egypt, New Zealand, Ecuador, Kenya, Iran, Myanmar, United States, Uruguay, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Fiji, Republic of Moldova, Kuwait, Burkina Faso, Malaysia, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Yemen, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Japan, and Nepal also made statements.
The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 November, to take action on its draft resolution on strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity, and its draft on providing support to Afghanistan with a view to ensuring effective implementation of its Counter-Narcotic Implementation Plan, as well as to hear the introduction of other draft resolutions.
Kilde: www.runiceurope.org
