*EPF309 03/21/01
U.S. Delegation Briefs on Objectives at Human Rights Commission
(Key issues will include the situations in China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran) (940)
By Wendy Lubetkin
Washington File Correspondent

Geneva -- Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, the head of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, says America's emphasis on human rights will not wane during the Bush administration.

"President Bush is very supportive of the work of this Commission" and his administration is committed to the principles on which the Commission functions, Tahir-Kheli told a press briefing March 21.

"President Bush will always be mindful of the sanctity of the individual as opposed to the state and the precious rights that keep that sanctity intact," she added.

The 57th U.N. Commission on Human Rights opened in Geneva March 19 and will continue until April 27. The six-week annual meeting at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva casts the international spotlight on human rights abuses around the globe.

This year, members of the U.S. Delegation also include Ambassador George E. Moose, permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva; and Michael Parmly, acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, both of whom participated in the March 21 press briefing.

Key objectives for the United States at the 57th Commission will include focusing international attention on human rights violations in China, Iraq, Iran and Sudan.

The successful adoption by the Commission of a Cuba resolution is also a high priority for the new administration.

Focusing attention on China's deteriorating human rights situation is also an important goal. The United States announced prior to the opening of the Commission that it will again sponsor a resolution on human rights on China.

The State Department's annual reports on human rights played an important role in that decision, according to Parmly. Although the report on China showed some areas of improvement, he said, the "global record was strongly negative."

Asked what the text of the resolution is likely to include, Parmly responded: "There are a number of areas that concern us about human rights in China and I think as many of those as possible will be highlighted: the area of political freedoms, religious freedoms, rights of minorities, the Tibet issue ... but as we look for co-sponsors, we also look for ideas.

Parmly conceded that passing a resolution on China in the Commission has been extremely difficult. Over the past ten years China has repeatedly used an obscure procedural measure known as the "no action motion" to prevent resolutions about its human rights record from coming to a vote. China is the only member of the Commission to have used the no action motion in this way.

"It is important that every country be subject to international scrutiny," Parmly said. "We the members of the Commission must speak out on the record. That is why we introduced the resolution, not because we want to score an easy victory." He noted that the United States is seeking co-sponsors for the resolution "on every continent and within every group."

Moose said the United States believes the human rights situation in Cuba is also "deserving of the continued attention, discussion and consideration of the Commission."

Cuba is now the only country in the Americas that "continues to systematically violate the fundamental human rights of its people," he said. Castro's regime rejects any outside scrutiny from international human rights observers or even cooperation with international human rights mechanisms.

"For the last two years the Czech Republic and Poland have jointly co-sponsored a resolution on Cuba, and we believe that it is because it reflects their concerns about the human rights situation there," he said. "We hope and trust that there will be a similar initiative this year, and that if there is such an initiative that it will focus where it ought to focus, namely on the human rights situation in Cuba."

Asked why the United States has rejected suggestions that its "embargo" contributes to the human rights problem in Cuba, Moose said such notions were "fundamentally flawed."

"The U.S. 'embargo' is a national decision by the United States that it will not trade with Cuba. It is not as though we are obliging Cuba or isolating it in its relations with other countries," he said.

"More to the point," Moose added, "I do not believe that any serious examination would demonstrate that it is because of any external factor that the Cuban government continues to arrest its own citizens and put them in jail, that it impinges on freedom of religion. There is simply no objective basis for saying that an external factor is what obliges the Cuban government to violate the fundamental human rights of its own citizens and this is what we believe the Commission should focus on.

"If countries can excuse their own behavior by pointing to one external factor or another, then the whole underpinning of the human rights system is in jeopardy," Moose said.

Chechnya is also likely to be an important issue at the Commission this year, according to Parmly. "I believe there will be a resolution on Chechnya this year," he said, noting that delegations which voted for a resolution last year calling on Russia to carry out an inquiry into human rights abuses in Chechnya were "disappointed" with Russia's response.

Information about the U.S. Delegation to the Commission and statements made by delegation members during the 57th Session can be found on the Internet at: http:://www.humanrights-usa.net

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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