A Last Post on the UNA Blog
Today is my last posting for "The People Speak" UNA-USA Weblog. To see my post for today, click here. Also, it is reposted below.
Topical Relevance
While the discussions have been critical of the Human Rights Council for its possible insufficient reforms, inaction regarding Darfur and Sri Lanka, handicap of United States noninvolvement, bias against Israel, and the sometimes general ineffective nature of the United Nations, the Council is showing itself to be an important forum for human rights topics that do not receive enough attention and an avenue for making countries publicly defend their human rights records. In only the first few days of its second session, the Human Rights Council has already had substantive reports and discussions on violence against women, trafficking in persons, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, racism and xenophobia, torture, arbitrary detention, summary executions, and the independence of judges and lawyers. This is just a sampling of human rights issues that the Council will monitor and facilitate awareness for the international community. The Special Rapporteurs have conducted investigations in dozens of countries in order to fulfill their important mandate to investigate, observe, and advise on these human rights topics. While the discussion of these human rights issues may not be as newsworthy as civil wars and war crimes, they do have the capacity to impact daily life on a broad scale. In the process of raising these issues, China, Singapore, an Iran were motivated to use their right of reply and defend their actions against, respectively, the Falun Gong and Baha’i, and Nepal and Jordan addressed allegations of torture. This high profile discussion lets those countries know that their actions are being actively watched. Even if the tools to punish violations of human rights go unused, is there an impact on countries just by knowing that they could be shamed and blamed? An argument could be made that “bad actors” simply do not care about international opinion, but the fact that countries are agreeing to comply with the Special Rapporteurs and look further into the allegations may indicate that there is relevance to the Human Rights Council’s work.
Topical Relevance
While the discussions have been critical of the Human Rights Council for its possible insufficient reforms, inaction regarding Darfur and Sri Lanka, handicap of United States noninvolvement, bias against Israel, and the sometimes general ineffective nature of the United Nations, the Council is showing itself to be an important forum for human rights topics that do not receive enough attention and an avenue for making countries publicly defend their human rights records. In only the first few days of its second session, the Human Rights Council has already had substantive reports and discussions on violence against women, trafficking in persons, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, racism and xenophobia, torture, arbitrary detention, summary executions, and the independence of judges and lawyers. This is just a sampling of human rights issues that the Council will monitor and facilitate awareness for the international community. The Special Rapporteurs have conducted investigations in dozens of countries in order to fulfill their important mandate to investigate, observe, and advise on these human rights topics. While the discussion of these human rights issues may not be as newsworthy as civil wars and war crimes, they do have the capacity to impact daily life on a broad scale. In the process of raising these issues, China, Singapore, an Iran were motivated to use their right of reply and defend their actions against, respectively, the Falun Gong and Baha’i, and Nepal and Jordan addressed allegations of torture. This high profile discussion lets those countries know that their actions are being actively watched. Even if the tools to punish violations of human rights go unused, is there an impact on countries just by knowing that they could be shamed and blamed? An argument could be made that “bad actors” simply do not care about international opinion, but the fact that countries are agreeing to comply with the Special Rapporteurs and look further into the allegations may indicate that there is relevance to the Human Rights Council’s work.
posted by Dr. Michele R. Lyons at 2:15 PM
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