Human Rights Watch blasts Brazil for “siding with human rights violators rather than with their victims” in votes at the Human Rights Council. The evidence:
Over the past few months, Brazil has abstained on a resolution on the situation in North Korea, which deplored the grave, widespread, and systematic human rights abuses there, in particular the use of torture and labor camps against political prisoners. Brazil has also abstained on a vote on the situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which sought to strengthen the role of expert investigators and to condemn the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and child recruitment.
During the special session on the situation in Sri Lanka, Brazil co-sponsored a resolution that affirmed the long-discredited principle of non-interference in domestic affairs.
Human Rights Watch continues, “In these votes and debates, Brazil has preferred to align itself with countries like China, Cuba and Pakistan that question the value of country-specific action at the council. Brazil has turned its back on countries like Argentina, Mexico, and Chile that have had a much more committed approach to human rights in the UN.”