New calls for reform of UN rights commission

"The commission has always been a political body," says Yvonne Terlingen, UN representative for Amnesty International. "[Member states] are thinking of human rights, but they also have their other issues and relationships, like economic interests. That's why some countries are always able to go scot-free."

One country that did not escape denunciation is Israel, a perennial target of vitriol. Israel has been the subject of some 30 percent of commission resolutions, say supporters.

"The UN has played a seminal role in determining who's a villain, who's a victim," says Anne Bayefsky, an international lawyer at Columbia University and director of refugee studies at York University in Toronto. "Because the commission misidentifies where the priorities ought to be, it doesn't give a true picture of human-rights abuse."

Meanwhile, some observers renewed criticism that the US has sacrificed the cause of human rights in its war on terror. Washington did not push for resolutions against Russia or China, and some charged it wished to avoid further straining relations already bruised over war in Iraq.

Critics of US policy say America also protects its friends, regardless of their ruthlessness; favors the death penalty, executing even juveniles; has trained some of the past and present juntas that torture dissidents; and detains some 660 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay without charges.

"I think the US, in its own way, is at least as serious a violator as those other countries on the commission," says James Paul, executive director of the Global Policy Forum, a UN watchdog.

Still, no one questions the need for reform. UN officials themselves have voiced concern about the forum's credibility.

Any of the 191 UN member-states is eligible to serve, regardless of its track record. They must be nominated by their regional grouping, of which there are five, and garner enough votes.

Some US officials talk of creating a "democracy caucus" within the UN to draw the line with nondemocracies, while more hard-line voices say the UN should be closed to dictatorships.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the new UN high commissioner for human rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, to look into possible reforms, says spokeswoman Annick Stevenson. He is also concerned about credibility, says Ms. Stevenson, but parts ways with some activists.

"The high commissioner thinks it is not a bad thing in itself if a country that violates human rights sits on the commission," Stevenson says. "It's the best way to catch their attention and make them aware of the issues."

Critics point out that the commissioner, unlike his predecessor, came from within the UN bureaucracy and may be disinclined to ruffle feathers. And his "big-tent" idea to include human rights violators is flawed, they say. "[Those states] are already inside the tent," Ms. Weschler says. "They're very effective at making sure there's less human rights debate and less talk about victims and abuses."

Page: 1 | 2