World Bulletin
US to Run for Human Rights Council Seat, Reversing Bush Policy
By Alan Averyt
April 1 -- The State Department announced yesterday that the United States would run for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in elections scheduled for May 15, 2009. The decision marks a sharp break from the Bush administration’s relationship with the council, which was established in 2006 to replace the much-criticized Human Rights Commission. Under the Bush administration, the US was one of only four UN member states to vote against the council’s creation, joining Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau. The Bush administration never ran for election to the council. Last year, it ended US participation as an observer.
In the State Department release, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Susan Rice, explained that the US was seeking to join the council “because we believe that working from within, we can make the Council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights.”
The release noted that the decision was “in keeping with the Obama Administration’s ‘new era of engagement’ with other nations” and that both Rice and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States would work in partnership with other countries to improve the effectiveness of the council and the UN human rights system.
The decision was praised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while the response from Congress was mixed. The secretary-general said the US “has an important contribution to make” in helping the Human Rights Council to promote and protect human rights for all people. Ban also said that full engagement by the US would help produce “an inclusive and vibrant intergovernmental process” for promoting human rights around the world.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) also strongly supported the decision, saying, “For too long the United States has sat on the sidelines.” Berman criticized the council for “a pathological focus on demonizing Israel” at the expense of scrutinizing human rights crises in other countries, like Zimbabwe and Sudan. He said that the council “has become increasingly dysfunctional and politicized, with virtually no guidance from the United States” and that the “time is ripe to take a more positive and active role in challenging the Council.”
In a statement released yesterday, House Human Rights Commission Co-Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) joined Berman in commending the administration’s decision. “It is high time the United States rejoins the rest of the family of nations in making the Council the strongest international human rights entity yet,” McGovern said.
But the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior Republican member, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) denounced the State Department’s action. In a statement issued yesterday, Ros-Lehtinen said that the decision “surrenders the strongest leverage we have to force changes in the Council.” She added that the US should not seek to join the council until significant reforms are implemented to prevent countries with poor human rights records from being elected to the body. US membership on the council before reforms are implemented, she noted, “would only grant legitimacy to the biased actions of a fundamentally illegitimate body.”
Ros-Lehtinen has introduced wide-ranging UN reform legislation (H.R. 557) that would restrict US participation on the Human Rights Council and withhold a portion of US dues to the UN if certain countries are members of the council. No action has been taken on the legislation, which has 82 co-sponsors.
Members of the council serve three-year terms, with elections held every year for one-third of the council’s 47 seats. The US will run on an uncontested slate of candidates for the May 15 elections, ensuring a victory. Seats are apportioned based on the UN’s regional group system. The US is a member of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) and will run on a slate with Belgium and Norway for three open seats reserved for this region. New Zealand had announced its candidacy for one of the three WEOG seats, but withdrew yesterday after the State Department announced its decision to run.
Alan Averyt is UNA-USA’s advocacy coordinator, based in Washington, DC.
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