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.”