Human rights groups denounce Human Rights Council candidates

May 07 2008, 11:00

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Five countries vying for seats on the UN Human Rights Council - Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Gabon and Zambia - fail to protect human rights and should be disqualified from membership, two rights watchdog groups said in a report Tuesday.

But Freedom House and UN Watch said Gabon and Zambia are virtually guaranteed seats because candidates are chosen by regional groups and Africa has an uncontested slate in the May 21 election.

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch's executive director, criticized democratic countries in Africa and elsewhere for failing to compete for seats on the council where they could become advocates for human rights.

"Instead, they lend international credibility to repressive governments that routinely violate the rights of their own citizens," he said in a statement.

New York-based Freedom House, which promotes freedoms worldwide, and Geneva-based UN Watch, which monitors the UN's performance based on its Charter, evaluated the 20 candidates for council seats on their records of promoting human rights at home and at the United Nations.

Their report gave "questionable" ratings to three candidates with mixed human rights records - Brazil, East Timor and Burkina Faso.

It gave "qualified" ratings to Ghana, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Argentina, Chile, France, Spain and Britain.

The Human Rights Council was created in March 2006 to replace the widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission, and one aim was to keep some of the worst human rights offenders out of its membership. But it has been widely criticized for failing to change many of the commission's practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country.

The United States was virtually alone in voting against the establishment of the council, arguing that the new body was only marginally better and would not prevent rights-abusing countries from membership. Washington has chosen to remain off the council,

The Geneva-based council is composed of regional groups that give dominance to Africa and Asia, each with 13 countries. If they vote as a 26-member bloc, they have an automatic majority. Western Europe and North America together are represented by seven countries.

The council's current membership includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia, whose human rights records have been widely criticized. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Gabon and Zambia, whose rights records were called "dismal" on Tuesday, are also council members, but their terms are expiring and they are seeking reelection.

The 192-member General Assembly will elected 15 members to the 47-member council on May 21 - four each from Africa and Asia, three from Latin America, and two each from Eastern Europe and Western nations. Candidates must get at least 97 votes - an absolute majority - to win.

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