US President Barack Obama’s administration is reviewing how to “engage with” the UN’s top human rights body, which the administration of former president George W. Bush shunned, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
Advocacy watchdog Human Rights Watch said last week that the Obama administration should end the shunning of the UN’s top human rights body so it can speak out against abuses in countries such as China.
The US State Department’s acting spokesman Robert Wood said the Obama administration was mulling over the matter.
“We’re reviewing our policy and strategy with regard to the Human Rights Council,” Wood told reporters.
“Certainly I can understand many people want to see us enunciate our policies very early on. You know, it does take time. We want to make sure that we’ve done a thorough review and that we not rush this,” Wood said.
“We want to get it right,” he added.
For Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “human rights is a very, very high priority,” Wood said.
“We’ve been very concerned about the operation of the Human Rights Council, and we want to take a look and see how we may engage with the Human Rights Council,” he said.
China’s human rights record is due to be examined by the 47-member council in Geneva this week under a regular review. Russia’s record was reviewed last week.
Under the Bush administration, the US shunned the council when it was created in 2006 by refusing to be a member and subsequently minimized its presence as an observer.
By contrast Washington was an active member of the council’s predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, before it fell into disarray.
The State Department said it was observing recent US practice toward the council.
“Officers from the US Mission in Geneva have observed the reviews of all countries participating in this UPR [Universal Periodic Review] round. However, we have not participated in the UPR process,” it said in a statement.
Washington believes the council failed to overcome the failings of its predecessor, while human rights groups have also criticized bias, political bartering and the dominance of states with a record of abuse in the body.
Human Rights Watch global advocacy director Peggy Hicks last Thursday urged the US to return to the council.
“If the US is truly committed to addressing abuses and re-engaging with the world, it should speak out at the Human Rights Council,” she said.
Clinton is due to visit China late next week as part of an Asia tour that will also take her to Japan, South Korea and Asia.
“On this trip, human rights is going to be an important issue. The secretary will raise the issue when appropriate, where she thinks she can have the most effect, and you can count on that,” Wood said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS