UN’s new human rights body still a slave to politics, EU parliament will be told

THE first anniversary of the UN Human Rights Council is approaching, but rather than celebrating the successor to the discredited Human Rights Commission, the new body is to be heavily criticised by the European Parliament.

Cork MEP Simon Coveney is compiling this year’s report on human rights for the parliament, and, in the draft, has accused the Geneva-based body of putting politics before rights during its first 10 months.

He says the new body is no improvement on its predecessor, and his report will find that, in fact, it is even worse. Mr Coveney has attended two of the new body’s sessions over the past few months and concludes: “It’s much worse — it’s a sham.”

So far, the council has failed to take serious action on any issue, even Darfur, and has concentrated on discussing human rights abuses by Israel at every session. They agreed to investigate Israel’s attack on the Lebanon last year, but forbade any enquiry into Hezbollah’s activities or attacks on Israel.

The problem with the new 47 member body appears to be the same as the last one — it is being held to ransom by countries that are themselves are abusers of human rights.

Mr Coveney said it does not have a voting majority of countries that abide by international law on human rights. Instead Islamic countries have cut a deal with African states to block council action on any issue other than Israel.

“I was told bluntly by an ambassador from an Arab country that, until the issue of Israel and the Palestinians is sorted out, they will frustrate everything else at the Human Rights Council including Darfur, Burma, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.

“They are using their majority position to ratchet up political pressure... to find a resolution to their specific issue,” said Mr Coveney who is human rights spokesperson for the European People’s Party, the largest group in the Parliament.

At the council’s first meeting in June last year they agreed to review human rights abuses by Israel at every council session. In September, they set up a commission of Inquiry into Israel’s attack on Lebanon but forbade it to investigate Hezbollah’s attack on Israel.

The original plan for the new council was that members had to have a good human rights record. But to get agreement to establish the new body, this was watered down, and UN members were advised to “take into account the candidate’s record on human rights”.