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Can The United States Rescue the Human Rights Council?

Despite the urging of top UN Human Rights Official Navi Pillay, member states of the Human Rights Council could not agree to authorize a commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.  The non-western, developing world bloc won the day.

So does this mean that critics are right and that the only country the Human Rights Council can muster itself to probe is Israel?  I admit that it's beginning to look that way. But before I give up on the institution, I'd wait to see how the council will change when the United States takes its seat next month.  Presumably, with the United States at the table, the Obama administration will feel like it has more of a stake in the outcome of votes like this.

In an interview with Ben Smith last month, Susan Rice said so herself:

"We have a record of abject failure from having stayed out. We've been out for the duration and it has not gotten better. It's arguably gotten worse," she said. "We are much better placed to be fighting for the principles we believe in — protection of human rights universally, fighting against the anti-Israel crap and for meaningful action on issues that we care about and ought to be the top of the agenda, things like Zimbabwe, Sudan [and] Burma — by leading and lending our voice from within."

This Sri Lanka vote is certainly a blight on the process, but I do sense that the administration is vested in improving it once it joins.  I just wish that yesterday's vote had the benefit of American participation.

Another Casualty of the Global Economic Crisis: Human Rights

A sad fact about life is that when things get tough, it's often those who can least afford more hardship who bear the brunt.

Case in point:

The global economic crisis is exacerbating human rights abuses, Amnesty International has warned.

In its annual report, the group said the downturn had distracted attention from abuses and created new problems.

Rising prices meant millions were struggling to meet basic needs in Africa and Asia, it said, and protests were being met with repression.

One Way to Deal With Burma

Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro takes to the pages of the New York Times to urge the Security Council to act on Myanmar: 

The Security Council must establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Myanmar. The Security Council took similar steps with regard to Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The situation in Myanmar is equally as critical.

Creating a commission of inquiry will accomplish three important goals:

First, it will make the junta accountable for its crimes with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court. Second, it will address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma. Third, it has the potential to deter future crimes against humanity in Myanmar.

No objection here.  Though for the Council to act requires that the key members of the council (namely, the Chinese) at least not veto such action. 

Also, there is precedent for a causative relationship between a Security Council mandated Commission of Inquiry and eventual indictment by the International Criminal Court. In 2005, a Security Council mandated Commission of Inquiry on suspected crimes in Darfur presented its findings to the Security Council.  Three months later, the Council (with China and the United States abstaining) gave the International Criminal Court the jurisdiction to investigate crimes in Darfur.  Four years later, the ICC indicted the Sudanese president.  

Theoretically, this pattern for dealing with recalcitrant human rights abusing  regimes can be repeated.  And why not? General Than Shwe seems like a decent enough candidate for indictment.

Top UN Human Rights Official Demands Investigation Into Sri Lanka Atrocities

AP:

The U.N.'s top human rights official demanded an independent investigation Tuesday into atrocities allegedly committed by both sides in Sri Lanka's civil war.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told an emergency meeting of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council that tens of thousands of civilians had been killed or injured in intense fighting between the government and Tamil rebels since December.

HRC and BKM on Sri Lanka

The UN Human Rights Council is set to hold a special session on Sri Lanka next Monday. While that may not reassure critics of the institution, I think it's a good sign that the Council is engaged.  The more focus on the humanitarian disaster -- and its possible escalation -- in Sri Lanka, the better. This is what worries me:

Sri Lanka has said it needs to keep people inside the camps long enough to weed out potential Tiger infiltrators, and the United Nations has since said the camps meet international standards aside from the limited freedom of movement.

"Aside from the limited freedom movement" is a rather scary caveat, particularly when the Sri Lankan government is insisting it will be able to resettle the 250,000-plus displaced civilians in just six months. Combined with an ambiguous "weeding-out" program, this could spell danger.

Ban Ki-moon will be in the country tomorrow, and he better make sure that humanitarians and human rights activists have good access to make sure nothing goes wrong in the camps.

Same-Sex Partner Benefits on the Way for American Diplomats

Congress has inserted a provision into the State Department authorization budget that would require the State Department to confer the same benefits to same-sex partners as it does to married couples. 

Congressman Howard Berman, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, included the provision in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410) to "end the long-standing practice of excluding the committed partners of Foreign Service officers from the benefits routinely provided to the spouses and children of officers serving abroad."  The provision now must make its way through the budget process, including the conference committee where many-a-well intentioned proposal hits the chopping block.  But in this case, it would be hard to imagine that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is lead by Chairman John Kerry and the moderate republic ranking member Richard Lugar, would do anything to strip out this provision.  

This would be progress.  For too long, gay and lesbian diplomats have had to chose between their families and their service.  "I'm happy that efforts to redress these discriminatory policies are being undertaken," emails Michael Guest a former Foreign Service officer currently affiliated with the Center for Global Equality.  "This is all about ensuring the safety, effectiveness and equal workplace conditions for those who serve our country abroad, and for the families who accompany them on those assignments."   Amen!

Remembering Tiananmen 20 Years On

Human Rights Watch released a new report on the legacy of the Tiananmen Square Massacre to political life in China today.  HRW finds that there is ongoing official harassment of those who participated in the demonstration and crack downs on people who want a public reckoning of what happened. The accompanying video is well worth a watch. 

Top Rights Official at the UN Calls For Torture Inquiry

Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, posted an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune on America's election to the Human Rights Council.  In it, she calls for the United States to do more to investigate Bush-era detainee abuses: "The U.S. should also shed light into the still opaque areas that surround capture, interrogation methods, rendition and detention conditions of those alleged to have been involved in terrorism, and ensure that perpetrators of torture and abuse are held to account."  Tough words.  But sometimes it takes somoene on the outside to tell us not what we want to hear--but what we need to hear.  As Pillay says, "Signals coming from America reverberate around the world. Sending the right ones is the responsibility of power."

Welcome to the Human Rights Council

This is perhaps telling.  Since the United States made its intention to run for a seat on the Human Rights Council known, about a month and a half ago, skeptics have wondered whether it could gain enough votes in the supposed "dictators' club" of the General Assembly.  These murmurings persisted even after the United States and New Zealand -- ahem -- agreed that the former would run unopposed, lowering the standard for membership to a simple 50% confidence vote.  Would all the America-haters in the world fiendishly cast their ballots against the U.S., rebuking its much-publicized attempt to re-engage with the Council?

Based on yesterday's vote, not even close.  The United States got a whopping 167 votes out of the 192 member General Assembly (just ten fewer than Belgium, and only 12 fewer than that global pariah, Norway).  Seems like a pretty good sign that the rest of the world is happy to see the U.S. coming back inside the tent.  (Unless, of course, countries voted the U.S. in simply to lull it into a sense of false security before unleashing their dastardly agendas – but even the paranoia-mongerers haven’t gone that far.)

(In the two competitive elections yesterday, Hungary was able to defeat Azerbaijan, but Kenya fell short of unseating any of the five incumbent African nations.)