UNITED
NATIONS - The United States is getting its groove
back, and not a minute too soon.
The
UN Economic and Social Council scheduled voting Monday
that diplomats said was virtually certain to return
the US to the UN Human Rights Commission, from which
it was unceremoniously booted off last year. It was
the first time that the nation mainly instrumental
in creating the commission in 1947 -- in large part
because of the indefatigable Eleanor Roosevelt, who
was also its first chairperson -- had not occupied
a seat there.
The Council's action was attributed to a failure
by US diplomats to lobby nearly hard enough in
the runup to elections, as well as widespread
resentment among UN members that Washington had
allowed the nation's dues to the Organization
to mount to some $2 billion and was making irregular,
unacceptableconditions for payment of the arrears.
The Bush administration's perceived opposition
to multilateralism and reluctance to join a UN
majority in support of international treaties,
including those affecting the environment, were
cited as other factors for members' antipathy.
Sept. 11 produced a change of heart in the White
House and the Congress, influenced by recognition
that the UN could be a useful ally in the campaign
against terrorism. Most of the huge debt now
has been paid and the US has softened somewhat
its former go-it-alone ways.
In response and in a friendly gesture to Washington,
both Spain and Italy withdrew recently as candidates
in the contest that was due to be decided Monday
with a narrowed field including the US, Australia,
Germany and Ireland for seats allotted to the
West. All of them were expected to win election.
But they must wait until 2003 to take their places.
The Human Rights Commission, which meets regularly
in Geneva, just concluded a lackluster session
whose relative inaction was a clear result of
the absence of the US, although American diplomats
did their best on the sidelines to get member
states to exhibit a bit of backbone against the
worst rights offenders.
The commission
sidestepped proposed discussion on violations
and widespread repression in China,
agreed not to get involved in rights violations
by the Russians in rebellious Chechnya and called
off its regular investigations of the rights
situation in Iran, one of the states identified
by President Bush in his "axis of evil" speech
to a joint session of the Congress earlier this
year.
In other setbacks attributable in part to the
US delegation's absence, opponents of a move
to look into Robert Mugabe's abusive regime in
Zimbabwe blocked a proposed inquiry. There was
one success from the US standpoint: the commission
decided not to proceed with a resolution that
would have required that measures against terrorism
also comply with international; humanitarian
law. Washington has been criticized, including
by Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, for its treatment of detained terrorist
suspects.
The 53-nation commission is not set up to ensure
that only serious advocates of human rights are
members. China, Cuba, Democratic Congo, Libya,
Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan are all on board
and none of these is simon pure as a protector
of human rights. But then, according to its critics,
the US isn't either.
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