The 55th session of the annual United Nations Commission on Human Rights will take place in Geneva from March 22 – April 30. The Commission is the UN’s largest and most publicized human rights event.
Analysis: The capacity of the Commission to promote and protect human rights requires a depoliticized, committed effort from its 53 Member States. Urgent problems need real solutions. UN Watch proposes that the Commission, among its many items scheduled for discussion, act boldly upon the following three issues.
1. Currently, the Commission principally confines its human rights examination to either State behavior or thematic problems. Escaping the Commission’s notice, however, are atrocities perpetrated by some rebels, guerrillas, terrorist organizations, and other groups unaffiliated with national governments.
Non-state actors have been responsible for the political execution of Red Cross nurses in Chechnya, tourists in Yemen and Uganda, and human rights defenders in Columbia. The Commission should investigate the deplorable actions of these groups, and encourage governments to hold them accountable for their human rights abuses.
2. For too long, the Commission has ignored the Middle East conflict in favor of a political examination of Israel. This year, the Commission should fairly examine the human rights record of all parties in the Middle East.
The Commission should abolish the current UN Special Rapporteur to the Palestinian territories, and appoint instead a Special Rapporteur to investigate human rights violations in the region.
3. The Commission should debate and, unlike last year’s session, pass resolutions condemning the human rights records of both China and Cuba. Neither country has ratified the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The international community recognizes the basic freedoms which these governments deny their citizens. China recently circumvented its revised Criminal Procedure Law and sentenced several political dissidents to lengthy prison sentences. Cuba, in response to the easing of the US embargo, has instituted a series of harsh new penalties for dissidents. This repression deserves public denunciation in a public forum.
Taking action on these issues will help the Commission in its effort to depoliticize its proceedings and ensure its relevance.
