Cuba, Saudis, China on Rights Council

[Eugene]

Cuba, Saudis, China on Rights Council

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS May 9, 2006 (AP)— Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats
on the new U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday despite their poor human rights
records, but two rights abusers Iran and Venezuela were defeated.

Human rights groups said they were generally pleased with the 47 members elected
to the council, which will replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission.
It was discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible rights
records used their membership to protect one another from condemnation.

"The spoiler governments, the governments that have a history of trying to undermine
the protection of human rights through their membership on the old commission are now
a significantly reduced minority when it comes to the council," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. "That doesn't guarantee that the council
will be a success, but it is a step in the right direction."

<snip>

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1943579

Related: US criticises new UN rights body - BBC

[azurnoir]

1. Sour grapes

this is the first time ever the US hasn't been on it, guess who's fault that is.

[Up2Late]

2. It not just Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, there are a LOT of countries...

...with Bad Human Rights records on it.

Here's a list: <http://www.un.org/ga/60/elect/hrc/>

ELECTION RESULTS

African States: Algeria (1 year), Cameroon (3 years), Djibouti (3 years), Gabon (2 years),
Ghana (2 years), Mali (2 years), Mauritius (3 years), Morocco (1 year), Nigeria (3 years),
Senegal (3 years), South Africa (1 year), Tunisia (1 year) and Zambia (2 years)

Asian States: Bahrain (1 year), Bangladesh (3 years), China (3 years), India (1 year),
Indonesia (1 year), Japan (2 years), Jordan (3 years), Malaysia (3 years), Pakistan (2 years), Philippines (1 year), Republic of Korea (2 years), Saudi Arabia (3 years) and Sri Lanka (2 years)

Eastern European States: Azerbaijan (3 years), Czech Republic (1 year),
Poland (1 year), Romania (2 years), Russian Federation (3 years) and Ukraine (2 years)

Latin American & Caribbean States: Argentina (1 year), Brazil (2 years) , Cuba (3 years), Ecuador (1 year), Guatemala (2 years), Mexico (3 years), Peru (2 years) and Uruguay (3 years)

Western European & Other States: Canada (3 years), Finland (1 year), France (2 years), Germany (3 years), Netherlands (1 year), Switzerland (3 years) and United Kingdom (2 years)

Not that I would expect Us to be on this council, but did the US not even apply?:shrug:

[enigma000]

5. The US didn't apply

In fact, it voted AGAINST the creation of the Council.

[951-Riverside]

3. Venezuela is worst than China and Russia huh?

[TomClash]

4. Why is Venezuela a "rights abuser?"

And Cuba's human rights record is different from China's.

[Up2Late]

7. Because the Bush Cabal and the AP say so. They were a rights...

...abuser under the previous government, and they are now "abusers" the rights of Major Oil Companies, but I don't think Venezuela considers a corporation a person, like we do in the U.S.

Just another example of why not to trust anything the AP prints about Venezuela or the other Latin American countries that the Bush Cabal has recently lost control of.

[Piotr]

8. Because Venezuela has been committing Human Rights abuses.

Not only now, but for a long time. I'd say they hardly surprise anyone anymore. Well, at least not me.

I placed these links on another thread
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2240849#2260313)

Reports by Amnesty International on Human Rights violations in Venezuela including torture:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news/press/15354.shtml
http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/venezuela/document ....
http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/ven-summary-eng

In Spanish: number of documented reports of torture received by the Defensoría del Pueblo in Venezuela:
http://www.defensoria.gov.ve/detalle.asp?sec=140505&id= ...

An OAS report on torture in Venezuela dating from 2003:
http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/venezuela2003eng/chapter ...

From that report:

"357. The national NGO, Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz documented 145 cases of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, perpetrated by officials of the state security services between 1999 and the first half of 2003.<163> According to the General Coordinator of the organization, Mr. Alfredo Ruiz, the figures given in the report show that during the period documented there was a large number of violations of the right to humane treatment, the vast majority of which remain unpunished.<164>

358. According to a report by the same organization, the methods of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment used in all of these cases are both physical and psychological. The most common are to threaten to kill both the victim and his or her relatives; verbal aggression; blows and kicks; to throw them down stairs or against the floor and walls; to move them blindfolded and with hands and feet bound; isolation without food; and to leave them naked. Other methods employed are immersion of the head in clean or dirty water, burns and sexual torture. Furthermore, mistreated people are normally held incommunicado for almost a week and denied access to medical and legal services during that time. The report mentions that, according to the statistics analyzed, the populations worst affected are males aged 14 to 24 and 25 to 34.<165>"

From the Human Rights Watch overview of Venezuela page (http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/venezu12258 .... ):

"Police Killings

The killing of three innocent students in the Kennedy district of Caracas on June 27, 2005, highlighted the violence and lawlessness of Venezuela’s police forces. Leonardo González, Erick Montenegro, and Edgar Quintero died after police from the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DIM) and the Criminal Investigations Police (Cicpc) opened fire on their car when they were returning from the university. The police reportedly confused the students’ car with a vehicle they were pursuing, and opened fire when it failed to heed an order to stop. González’s body was found in the street near their car, with a bullet wound in the eye. According to an eyewitness, men in civilian clothes wearing hoods captured Montenegro and Quintero in an alley, made them lie on the ground, and shot them in cold blood. The police reportedly planted weapons on the scene to make it appear that they had been fired on first.

Hundreds of police executions have been reported over the past several years, although the problem long predates the current administration. While the Attorney General’s Office and the human rights ombudsman have denounced these abuses, little progress has been made in prosecuting the police responsible or introducing the reforms necessary to combat the practice. In August 2005, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it was investigating 5,520 presumed extrajudicial executions—involving 6,127 victims—committed between 2000 and July 31, 2005. Of 5,997 police and military personnel allegedly implicated, prosecutors have filed charges against 517, and at this writing only eighty-eight had been convicted (1.47 percent). "

"Venezuela: Torture and brutal repression by the army". Includes two images.
http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200403 ...

An article on torture in Venezuela, dating to April 2004.
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=14835


The OAS' Inter American Commission for Human Rights recently published their latest report on Venezuelan Human Rights, too. This is the same organization that published the report from the first link above in 2003.

http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2005eng/chap.4d.htm

[robcon]

6. With that group, I'm glad the U.S. isn't on it.

The UN is still irrelevant on human rights.

[Judi Lynn]

9. To refresh your memories, here's an article concerning our being booted

from the Council in May, 2001!

U.S. ousted from U.N. Human Rights Commission



May 3, 2001
Web posted at: 7:03 PM EDT (2303 GMT)


UNITED NATIONS -- In what amounts to a stinging rebuke, the United States has been voted off the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

This marks the first time the United States will not be represented on the commission since its inception in 1947. The commission investigates human-rights abuses around the world.

"It's a stunning development," one council ambassador said.

France, Austria and Sweden were chosen for the three seats allocated to Western countries that were up for election, Reuters reported. The vote was conducted among 53 nations in the Economic and Social Council, the umbrella group for the commission, U.N. officials said.

One diplomat speculated that U.S. policies on the Middle East might have swung some countries to reject its candidacy.

But according to Reuters, some diplomats said they believed the Bush administration's opposition to the Kyoto climate change treaty as well as its insistence on a missile defense contributed to the loss.
(snip/...)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/2001/US/05/03/us.human/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is it coming back to you now? The _Bush administration really chewed the scenery over this, pointing out how many inferior, undeserving countries were getting a seat there. You would have thought _Bush planned to go to war over it.

Unbelievable @$$holes, the _Bush administration.