Most countries obstruct UN rights review

Group: Most countries obstruct UN rights review

By FRANK JORDANS – 1 day ago

GENEVA (AP) — Most countries use the U.N.'s human rights meetings to
praise their allies and criticize their enemies instead of highlighting
genuine cases of abuse, a lobbying group said Thursday.

The Geneva-based U.N. Watch said only 9 of the 55 countries it examined
took a constructive approach to scrutinizing each other's human rights
record at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The group, which is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee and
has long been critical of the U.N., gave positive reviews to Canada,
France and Britain. The United States was listed as constructive, too,
despite disengaging from the council last year. Brazil, Italy and
Australia were among a dozen countries considered weak.

U.N. Watch rated the performance of 32 other countries — including
Russia, Iran, China and Cuba — as detrimental to destructive. Two
countries — Burkina Faso and Gabon_ did not rate at all because they
never took the floor during the council's thrice-yearly flagship
meetings, meant to regularly scrutinize each U.N. member state's record.

Earlier this week, Iran took Germany to task over its treatment of women
in the workplace.

On Thursday, China and Russia commended Cuba for its achievements in the
field of social and cultural rights but made no mention of the communist
nations' restrictions on political freedoms. All three countries are up
for review during the current Feb. 2-13 meeting.

Juliette de Rivero, a spokeswoman for the New York-based group Human
Rights Watch, said countries such as Mexico took the scrutiny process
very seriously, making pertinent contributions to every debate.

"Other countries use this as a way of just perpetuating the idea that
everything is fine and human rights can be improved through niceness,"
she said, citing North Korea.

De Rivero said the council's work might be improved if the United States
chose to re-engage with it. Washington all but pulled out of the council
last year, citing what it called persistent bias against Israel and
lenient treatment of known rights abusing countries.

De Rivero said Russia's recent review proved the council can be effective.

"It was important that some governments raised the killings of
journalists in Russia," she said. "(And) the fact that China will have
to sit there next week and explain itself is something that activists
have been fighting for many years."

President Barack Obama's administration is reviewing U.S. policy toward
the council.

"The United States remains deeply dedicated to the cause of promoting
and protecting human rights around the world, and will adopt a course of
action most likely to advance that cause," the U.S. mission to the U.N.
in Geneva said in a statement.
On the Net:

* Universal Period Review: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR
* UN Watch: http://www.unwatch.org

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