US President Barack Obama’s administration announced on Tuesday it would run next month for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council — a body the Bush administration had shunned.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the US wanted a seat to help reform the body from within, the State Department said.
Speaking to reporters, Rice echoed criticism from those in Congress and the administration of former president George W. Bush who said the Geneva-based body routinely demonized Israel but ignored human rights abuses in other parts of the globe.
The world community had largely charged that the Bush administration acted on its own and even illegally.But Rice said the only way to change the body was to join its ranks.
“The decision is in keeping with the Obama administration’s ‘new era of engagement’ with other nations to advance American security interests and meet the global challenges of the 21st century,” Gordon Duguid, a department spokesman, said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the new administration’s decision: “Full US engagement on human rights issues is an important step toward realizing the goal of an inclusive and vibrant intergovernmental process to protect human rights around the globe.”
Clinton, who is in Europe, said in a statement that “human rights are an essential element of American global foreign policy” while vowing that Washington will work with others to carry out UN principles on human rights.
“We believe every nation must live by and help shape global rules that ensure people enjoy the right to live freely and participate fully in their societies,” she said.
In a conference call with UN correspondents, Rice pledged that if elected, the US would work to reform the body when it faces a review in 2011 of its structures and procedures: “We’re very committed to bring about the serious reform that the council needs.
“The principal problem is there has been too little focus on the most egregious abuses of human rights ... and too much focus, unbalanced focus we believe, on other issues that don’t merit the amount of time,” she said. “Yes, of course, we mean Israel.”
The next round of elections to the council will be held on May 15 in the UN General Assembly in New York when members will be elected to a three-year term.
The Bush administration opposed the council after it was set up in March 2006 and refused to be a member. It said the body had lost credibility because of its repeated criticism of Israel and what it called a failure to confront major rights abusers.
But critics abroad said the US, during Bush’s term in office, had lost credibility on human rights over alleged torture of terrorism suspects in the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in Iraq.
The international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the move a step toward more engaged and effective US leadership on human rights.
“Active involvement by the US will bring new energy and focus to the Human Rights Council’s deliberations and actions, helping it become a more credible force for human rights promotion,” HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS