BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/05/2007

Belarus Blocked From Membership in U.N. Human Rights Council

By WARREN HOGE

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 - Belarus, one of the world's most repressive states, was blocked from gaining membership on the United Nations Human Rights Council today after being outvoted in favor of Bosnia, a late entry.

Human rights groups had been campaigning for weeks to head off what seemed tobe a near-certain choice of Belarus for the panel, after the Eastern European group submitted only Belarus and Slovenia as nominees for the two seats from its region.

Western countries persuaded Bosnia to become a candidate last week, and then lobbied the General Assembly membership vigorously for Bosnia as the only way to stop Belarus' bid.

In the first round of voting, Slovenia won a seat handily, but Bosnia came in second with Belarus third, setting up an immediate runoff, which then secured Bosnia's position.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, hailed the outcome as "heartening." He noted, "Some have called Belarus the last dictatorship of Europe."

The decision avoided what would have been a serious embarrassment for the United Nations' human rights organization, which in the past has attracted scorn for permitting participation by countries like Cuba and Libya.

Last week, the United Nations came in for renewed criticism on a similar front when it elected Zimbabwe, a country with one of the world's most battered economies and rights records, to be chairman of its Commission on Sustainable Development.

Today's election in the General Assembly chose 14 new members for the 47-member Human Rights Council, the Geneva-based body created last year to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission.

Elected along with Slovenia and Bosnia were Angola, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Italy, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Qatar and South Africa.

The only other seat that was contested was for Western Europe, where Italy defeated Denmark on a runoff ballot.

The council, while more restrictive in its membership than the previous commission, has performed poorly in its first year, devoting all its energies to denouncing one country, Israel, while taking no action in cases like the turmoil in Darfur.

The United States decided not to be candidate for the council either last year or this year, saying that the body, while better than its predecessor, still fell short of what it should be to be credible and effective

There was also concern that, given the hostility in the United Nations to American actions in Iraq, the United States might not be able to win a place.

"This bodes well for the reform of the Human Rights Council that is very much needed," Mr. Khalilzad said of today's vote.

Steve Crawshaw, the United Nations advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said that rights group were particularly galvanized by the prospect of Belarus on the council.

"Belarus's track record is, frankly, appalling," he said, "It has no real civil society, no freedom of expression, its elections have been deemed absolutely not to be free or fair, there is no breathing space, and the U.N. special envoy to Belarus has been blocked from visiting the country."

Asked why Bosnia, a country with a recent past of rights abuses, was a better candidate, he said, "Bosnia's record is far from perfect - Human Rights Watch has repeatedly criticized it on a number of issues - but Belarus is simply in a league of its own."

Earlier this month, two watchdog groups - UN Watch and Freedom House - expressed disapproval of three other candidates for the panel, Angola, Egypt and Qatar, calling them "authoritarian regimes with negative U.N. voting records on rights issues and are not qualified to be council members." All three were elected to the council today.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/world/europe/17cnd-nations.html