{"id":114331,"date":"2021-05-17T16:21:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114331"},"modified":"2021-05-17T16:21:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T23:21:57","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-18d-pt-5a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/17\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-18d-pt-5a\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 18D Pt 5a"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><strong>UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL (UNHRC)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Human Rights Council\nof the UN is, as its name indicates, the UN body which deals with human rights.\nHowever, UNHRC does not rank as one of the principal UN organizations. UNHRC is\ndesignated a subordinate body of the UN. It is not therefore, a powerful\nbody\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The principal organizations of the UN are General Assembly,\nSecurity Council, ECOSOC, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_Nations_Trusteeship_Council\">Trusteeship Council<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Court_of_Justice\">International Court of Justice <\/a>, UN\nSecretariat, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_specialized_agencies_of_the_United_Nations\">specialized\nagencies<\/a> and affiliated organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;&nbsp; UN Human\nRights Council was created in 2006 to replace UN Commission on Human rights, by\nResolution 60\/251. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resolution 60\/251, stated that<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>UN decides to establish the Human Rights Council, based in\nGeneva, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. The Assembly shall\nreview the status of the Council within five years ( clause 1)<\/li><li>&nbsp;The Council shall be responsible for promoting\nuniversal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental\nfreedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal\nmanner. (Clause 2)<\/li><li>&nbsp;The work of the Council shall be guided by the\nprinciples of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity,\nconstructive international dialogue and cooperation, with a view to enhancing\nthe promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic,\nsocial and cultural rights, including the right to development; (clause 4)<\/li><li>the work of the Council shall be\ntransparent, fair and impartial ( Clause 12)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>HRC has three regular sessions per year, in March, June and\nSeptember. HRC can also&nbsp;&nbsp; hold a special\nsession at any time, to address human rights violations, if one third of the\nHRC panel requests it. That was how the 11th Special Session of the HRC was\nconvened in 2009 to consider the situation in Sri Lanka, just one week after\nthe conflict came to an end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The UNHRC is&nbsp; &nbsp;empowered, through its Universal Periodic\nReview (UPR) to examine the HR status of all 193 UN Member States. The human\nrights position of all UN member countries come up before the HRC on periodic\nreview, every four years. The dialogue between UNHRC and the member state are &nbsp;recorded in UNHRC documents ( forget title) . &nbsp;I have looked at&nbsp; them. No member state ever admitted guilt.\nThey had explanations, excuses and where necessary, there was outright\nrejection of the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNHRC&nbsp; can pass resolutions\non a country, on majority vote, whether that country likes it or not. But the\nResolution&nbsp; will not have legal force. &nbsp;&nbsp;No\nresolution of the UNHCR can have direct legal consequence UNHRC &nbsp;can only make recommendations, said Palitha\nKohona.&nbsp; UNHRC lacks the power to act\nagainst countries. UNHRC cannot cannot\nimpose sanctions. It does not have that power either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Subhas\nGujadhur and Toby Lamarque were asked to make an assessment of the HRC\nResolutions issued over the years. Their report was published as The evolution\nand future direction of the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s resolution system\u2019<em> (2015). <\/em>They found that Resolutions\nrelating to specific countries, were a mere 7% of its total output, the rest\nwere on&nbsp; themes. The country resolution\nwere confined to 12 situations,&nbsp; mainly\nIsrael but also Sri Lanka. The authors noted that the &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10 highest ranked countries for HR\nviolations were not in this list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the\nresolutions &nbsp;were introduced by USA and\nthe European Union, 56% &nbsp;by EU and 20% &nbsp;by USA. The Council\u2019s willingness to address\ncountry-specific human rights violations is therefore heavily dependent on just\ntwo Western powers, the EU and the US. When one considers the scale of human\nrights violations that have taken place &nbsp;since 2007, it is clear that, by only\naddressing fourteen situations, the Council is guilty of&nbsp; neglecting its responsibilities, said\nGujadhur and Lamarque .&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nresolutions brought by the west mainly target developing countries,\nparticularly those in Asia and Africa, said Sri Lanka\u2019s Pathfinder Foundation. The west&nbsp;&nbsp; decides which country should be hauled\nbefore it and who should undertake the task. Sri Lanka was handled by Canada in\nthe 1980s and by USA and UK &nbsp;in 2017.\nCertain third world countries have grouped together to counter this. It was\nthis group that supported Sri Lanka during the special session in May 2009,\nsaid Pathfinder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pathfinder\nobserved that the developed countries in the west and the oil rich Gulf\ncountries are rarely, if ever, summoned before HRC. The sole exception to this\nis Israel. HRC has passed many resolutions against Israel, to the fury of\nIsrael. In 2017, HRC adopted 5 such resolution in one session despite\nopposition from US and UK. Israel and\nCuba have ignored UHRC&nbsp; Resolutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNHRC is not well off financially. UNHRC receives only 3.7 per\ncent of the&nbsp; UN regular budget. This&nbsp; is insufficient for the work of the UNHRC and\ndonors have to step in. UNHRC&nbsp; web page&nbsp;&nbsp;\ncalled for donations in 2017. IN 2020&nbsp;&nbsp; it was announced\nthat UN is having a financial crisis,&nbsp;\nand &nbsp;had cut down the funds given\nto the UNHRC.&nbsp;&nbsp; UNHRC has had to reduce\nsome of its activities such as lunch time meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two thirds of the UNHCR budget comes from voluntary\ncontributions &nbsp;from\nMember States and other donors. &nbsp;in 2017,\nthe leading donors were United State of America (USD 450,360,2382), Germany (476,918,6683)\nEuropean &nbsp;Union (436,036,9864),\nJapan (152,359,7735) United &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Kingdom (136,219,3706) Sweden (111,958,9457)\nNorway (98,941,9568). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019 the leading donors were United States of America (1,706,832,053,\nand 33,898,591)&nbsp; Germany (390,479,234 )Sweden\n(142,556,147, and 22,687,329),Japan (126,466,093 and 29,780,084) United Kingdom\n(122,408,890) Norway (94,345,776) Denmark (91,641,152)Netherlands (72,362,386).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because&nbsp; they provide most of the funds Western\ncountries have a hold on the HRC, said critics. They control appointments to\nthe HRC and OCHRC. Most of the staff in the HRC are\nwhite.&nbsp; &nbsp;There are unusually high numbers\nfrom US, UK, France, Germany,&nbsp; and Italy\nin the HRC&nbsp; . Some junior staff are paid\ndirectly by member countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Countries have objected to the imbalanced representation in the HRC and\nOHCHR.During the 2012 session, Sri Lanka, along with Cuba and Pakistan\nsuccessfully sponsored a resolution seeking transparency in funding and\nstaffing the UNHRC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\ncomplained that that 80% of the UNHRC\u2019s funding requirements are supplied by\npowerful nations such as the United States and its allies. &nbsp;And key positions in the UNHCR are mostly held\nby &nbsp;&nbsp;persons who have served in the\nforeign services of such countries. &nbsp;This\naffects the impartiality of the UNHRC, they said. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The structure\nof the UNHRC will lead to problems, sooner or later. UNHRC consists of a\nrotating body of UN member states, sitting in judgment over the rest. This\ncreates two UN groups, HR pure and HR guilty\u201d. This is the only UN body, in\nmy view, which has got itself into this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resolution 60\/251 tries to solve this problem by declaring \u2018When\nelecting members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the\ncontribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights, may\nsuspend the rights of membership in the Council of a member of the Council that\ncommits gross and systematic violations of human rights.&nbsp; (Clause 8) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, some\nmember countries of the HRC objected to China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia\nholding seats in the HRC. \u2018Too many repressive regimes have found a place on\nthe United Nations Human Rights Council, We must vote in countries&nbsp; that they have good human rights records\u2019,\nsaid UK sanctimoniously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the\nplenary session of the HRC in 2016, an NGO called UN Watch protested about the\ninclusion of China, Russia and Cuba in the Council.&nbsp; Cuba promptly brought in a point of order. An\nNGO has no right to adversely comment on the composition of the HRC, said\nCuba.&nbsp; Cuba will obstruct if the NGO\ntries to do so again. China, Russia, Pakistan, Venezuela, agreed with Cuba that\nthey had every right to sit on the HRC. USA, UK, Netherlands and Canada disagreed. (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nAOAEsI8HdA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UN General Assembly&nbsp;&nbsp; has, from\nthe start, had its doubts about this new Council.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Organization is still under observation.\nWhen the UNHRC was created, the UN General Assembly decided that the work and\nfunctioning of the new HRC should be reviewed five years after it had come into\nexistence, and the review should take place at the level of the General\nAssembly. At this review, the status of the Council would also be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first review of the UHRC took place in 2011.The General\nAssembly decided to&nbsp; continue&nbsp;&nbsp; the Human Rights Council as&nbsp; a subsidiary body&nbsp; and to re-examine its position at a date&nbsp;&nbsp; no sooner than ten years and no later than\nfifteen years from 2011. (Resolution 65\/281 of 17.6.2011.) This means that\nUNHRC will come up for review before the UN General Assembly in 2021 or between\n2021 and 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;It is likely that at this\nsecond review, a firm decision will be taken whether to continue with the UNHRC\nor not. This means that at present, the future of the UNHRC is uncertain. It is\ncertainly not a powerful, entrenched body of the UN. (continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAMALIKA PIERIS UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL (UNHRC) The Human Rights Council of the UN is, as its name indicates, the UN body which deals with human rights. However, UNHRC does not rank as one of the principal UN organizations. UNHRC is designated a subordinate body of the UN. It is not therefore, a powerful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}