With the US in virtually lone opposition, the UN overwhelmingly approved a new Human Rights Council on Wednesday to replace the widely discredited Human Rights Commission.
The vote in the 191-nation General Assembly was 170-4 with three abstentions.
Joining the US in opposing the resolution were Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau. Abstaining were Belarus, Iran and Venezuela.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who first proposed the council a year ago, hailed the decision, saying, "This gives the United Nations the chance -- a much-needed chance -- to make a new beginning in its work for human rights around the world."
But the US' UN Ambassador John Bolton said the proposed council was "not sufficiently improved" over the commission, which has been faulted for permitting rights abusers to join.
"We must not let the victims of human rights abuses throughout the world think that UN member states were willing to settle for `good enough,'" Bolton said in a statement after the vote. "We must not let history remember us as the architects of a council that was a `compromise' and merely `the best we could do' rather than one that ensured doing `all we could do' to promote human rights."
He said that the US would "work cooperatively" to strengthen the council and looked forward to reviewing its effectiveness in addressing rights abuse cases like Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Myanmar.
He did not say whether the US would be a candidate to serve on the council, a critical consideration for the its future.
The resolution calls for the election of new council members on May 9 and a first meeting of the council on June 19. The commission will be abolished on June 16.
The new council will have 47 members, as opposed to the commission's 53; the means to make timely interventions in crises; and a year-round presence, with three meetings a year at its Geneva base lasting a total of at least 10 weeks. The commission has traditionally met for six weeks, once a year.
Under terms meant to restrict rights abusers from membership, candidates for the council will be voted on individually rather than as a regional group, their rights records will be subject to mandatory periodic review and they will be subject to suspension if found guilty of committing abuses themselves.
But the final text had a weakened version of the crucial restriction in Annan's original plan, which required new members to be elected by two-thirds of those voting. Instead, council members will be elected by an absolute majority of member states.
Major rights organizations and a number of US allies in the UN -- who had all lobbied Washington to reconsider its opposition -- argued that the terms were far better than existing ones and would keep major abusers off the council. But Bolton disagreed and singled out the compromise as a reason the US could not back the council.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
‘FALLACY’: Xi’s assertions that Taiwan was given to the PRC after WWII confused right and wrong, and were contrary to the facts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) claim that China historically has sovereignty over Taiwan “deceptive” and “contrary to the facts.” In an article published on Wednesday in the Russian state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xi said that this year not only marks 80 years since the end of World War II and the founding of the UN, but also “Taiwan’s restoration to China.” “A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration have affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan,” Xi wrote. “The historical and legal fact” of these documents, as well
RSS