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U.S. against UN Human Rights Council
The U. S. Senate is considering a proposal to cut off funding for the UN Human Rights Council. If it passes the Senate, chances are high that U.S. President George W. Bush will sign it into law, analysts say, even though the White House has resisted such initiatives in the past. “Dictatorial regimes such as those of Cuba and Belarus have joined the council,” an American diplomat noted. Libya is also a current member.
Furthermore, “the only country that has been directly condemned through country-specific resolutions is Israel,” noted Republican senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman. Of nine resolutions passed by the council against Israel, America's biggest ally in the Middle East, while abuses in such countries as Cuba and North Korea are ignored.
Coleman spoke with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon about the council this week, and the UN leader responded with a statement that he was “disappointed” that the council had focused on a specific regional issue (i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). Refusing to fund a UN committee could have adverse consequences for the United States, however, since countries that do not meet their financial obligations in the international organization can be deprived of their vote in the General Assembly.
American efforts to reform the UN body may be the beginning of a larger-scale effort to influence world opinion on human rights. UN activities in relation to that issue often have a clear anti-American bias. Heated debate over human rights is expected in the UN General Assembly session this September, not focusing on individual issues, but on the formulation of the question as a whole.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 06, 2007
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