UNITED NATIONS, March 16. Pakistan on Wednesday stressed that the new Human Rights Council created to replace the much-criticized Human Rights Commission should build safeguards against arbitrary and discriminatory targeting of developing countries, especially Muslim states.
Addressing the General Assembly after the vote, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram expressed concern that the resolution which established the HRC had not removed underlying reasons for the politicisation and confrontation, which had become hallmark of the CHR.
He said that the Geneva-based CHR “was discredited not so much by the worst violators but the readiness of some States to condemn each other, rather than help each other”.
He criticised that the HRC resolution had been adopted by a vote instead of a consensus and said: “It has also been the consistent position of Pakistan, and that of the United for Consensus Group (UFC), that decisions on UN reform should be adopted by consensus, or the widest possible agreement or without a vote.”
“Therefore, it is regrettable that the assembly has been called upon to vote on this draft resolution. We hope that this will not have a negative impact on other UN reform issues”, he said.
Endorsing the statement made by Yemen on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Conference, Mr Akram said that the Council and the General Assembly “have a moral and legal responsibility to promote respect for religions, prophets and cultures and to halt and reverse the phenomena of Islamophobia.”
The OIC had proposed that provisions relating to respect for religions, prophets, and cultures should be accommodated in both the pre-ambular and operative part of the draft resolution.
He said that the OIC was ready to engage in a dialogue to “reach agreed decisions. We note your assurance in this context and hope that such action would be pursued in view of the urgency of the issue”.
He said that Pakistan had believed for many years that the “UN human machinery is in need of a comprehensive overhaul,” adding that the 2005 Summit, however, focused only on replacing the CHR by a new Human Rights Council. “We are not convinced that the new Human Rights Council will, in itself, significantly, improve the manner in which human rights are considered within the UN.”
Noting that the membership of the council reflected an equitable distribution of seats among the General Assembly’s five regional groups, Mr Akram said that procedures for election to the Human Rights Council, stipulated in OP-8 “are unprecedented, specially for a subsidiary organ”.
The operating paragraph 8 in the Human Rights Council resolution endeavours to remove member states who are considered abusers of human rights by a two third vote in the UN General Assembly when its reviews the membership periodically.
Mr Akram proposed that “having established this precedent, similar benchmarks of performance and commitments should also be incorporated for election to other UN bodies, specially the economic bodies, e.g. fulfillment of agreed commitments, such as the 0.7 per cent ODA; should become benchmarks for election to Ecosoc”.
