Russia and China avoided censure at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights yesterday, but in a welcome move, the U.N. rights body for the first time proposed that special rapporteurs investigate human rights violations in North Korea and Belarus, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Commission’s votes show that powerful countries like Russia and China can still get away with murder, torture and the silencing of critics,” said Joanna Weschler, Human Rights Watch's U.N. Advocacy Director. “Commission censure is increasingly limited to politically isolated countries.”
The Commission, holding its annual six-week session in Geneva, yesterday rejected resolutions on Chechnya, China and Zimbabwe, but adopted measures on North Korea, Cuba, Belarus and Turkmenistan. Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the Commission has increasingly avoided resolutions expressing concern about human rights violations in specific countries, and instead has turned toward broader measures such as technical assistance.
The 53-member Commission rejected a resolution on Chechnya by a vote of 23 to 12. Just days before the vote news emerged about the discovery in Chechnya of the bodies of nine men who had clearly been extrajudicially executed. Torture and arbitrary detention remain rampant in Chechnya, despite Russian government claims that the situation is "normalizing.”
The United States had sponsored a mildly worded resolution on China that encouraged the Chinese government “to make substantive progress in systemic reforms to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” However, China was victorious in a procedural initiative, the “no-action motion,” to prevent the resolution from coming to a vote, as was Zimbabwe on a resolution addressing abuses in that country.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern that countries with poor rights record use the no-action motion to block the discussion of their own human rights practices.
“The Commission’s purpose is to publicly air the human rights situation in any country, especially in the case of egregious violators,” said Weschler. “It's time for the Commission to put an end to the use of procedural mechanisms to keep violations off the table.”
In a positive move, the Commission called for the appointment of a special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea. Human Rights Watch urged the North Korean government to allow visits by the special rapporteur to the country to examine its human rights conditions.
Human Rights Watch also applauded the Commission's decision to censure Cuba's human rights record, noting that a number of Latin American countries voted in favor of the resolution on Cuba. The resolution deplores the “actions which occurred last year in Cuba in respect to sentencing of political dissidents and journalists,” a reference to the heavy sentences handed down to 75 nonviolent Cuban dissidents a year ago and to the summary executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry.
The Commission also criticized abuses in Turkmenistan. Human Rights Watch called on the Turkmenistan’s bilateral and multilateral interlocutors to press the government to implement the resolution.
Meanwhile, voting on the critical Sudan resolution was postponed until April 22, the next-to-last day of the Commission’s session. Human Watch Rights urged the Commission to hold the Sudanese government accountable for crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur and to reinstate the mandate of a special rapporteur for Sudan.
Despite a recent ceasefire in Darfur, the human rights and humanitarian situation in Darfur remains appalling. Thousands of civilians have fallen victim to government-backed militias and government forces.
“The mass nature of abuses in Darfur call for urgent action,” said Weschler. “The Commission needs to promptly restore the mandate of a special rapporteur for Sudan.”
