UN watchdog groups denounce 5 nations (including Sri lanka) vying to join rights council

Five countries trying to win seats on the UN Human Rights Council - Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Gabon and Zambia - fail to protect human rights and should be disqualified from membership, two watchdog groups said in a report.

But the groups, Freedom House and UN Watch, said Tuesday that Gabon and Zambia are virtually guaranteed seats because candidates are chosen by regional groups and Africa has an uncontested slate in the election, scheduled for May 21.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which is based in Geneva, criticized democratic countries in Africa and elsewhere for failing to compete for seats on the council, where they could become advocates for human rights.

"Instead, they lend international credibility to repressive governments that routinely violate the rights of their own citizens," Neuer said in a statement.

Freedom House, based in New York, promotes human rights worldwide, while UN Watch monitors the international body's performance based on its charter. Both evaluated the 20 candidates for council seats on their records of promoting human rights at home and at the United Nations.

Their report gave "questionable" ratings to three candidates with mixed human rights records - Brazil, East Timor and Burkina Faso.

"Qualified" ratings were given to Ghana, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Argentina, Chile, France, Spain and Britain.

The Human Rights Council was created in March 2006 to replace the widely discredited and highly politicized Human Rights Commission, and one aim was to keep some of the worst human rights offenders out of its membership. But the council has been widely criticized for failing to change many of the commission's practices, including putting much more emphasis on Israel than on any other country.

The United States was virtually alone in voting against the establishment of the council, and Washington has chosen to remain off the council.

The Geneva-based council is composed of regional groups that give dominance to Africa and Asia, each with 13 countries.

The council's current membership includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia, whose human rights records have been widely criticized. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Gabon and Zambia, whose rights records were called "dismal" on Tuesday, are also members.

Source: IHT