The Swiss Telegraph Agency story published in Le Temps
May 10, 2011
Syria was forced to give up its candidacy for the Human Rights Council, a diplomatic source was quoted as saying in Geneva on Tuesday. The Asian group is expected to present Kuwait in its election scheduled for May 20 in New York.
A coalition of more than 25 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has campaigned against Damascus’s candidacy for the Human Rights Council.
One-third of the 47 member countries of the Human Rights Council are elected each year by the UN General Assembly. According to diplomats, Syria has not yet officially withdrawn its candidacy for the Council, but has begun talks with Kuwait and is haggling over its withdrawal for another position in UN bodies.
“The defeat of the cynical regime of President Bashar al-Assad is a welcome signal to its brutalized people that the world is shocked by the continuing killings in Syria,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
Last year, Iran also gave up being a candidate. Libya was elected, but the Gaddafi regime was suspended by the Council in a special session on 25 February.
The Asian group has to renew four seats this year. In January he proposed Syria, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the face of protests, India and Egypt reportedly said last week that they were withdrawing their support for Damascus’s candidacy. Original URL: http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/b9e3bb74-7b20-11e0-92a2-7b2d1dd412d7/The_Syrie_contraint_to_renounce_to_the_condidature_to_the_Council_of_the_rights_of_human.
