US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Donahoe at the UN in April 2011 - Photo UN/Pierre Albouy
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Seven countries were singled out by US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Donahoe Wednesday when she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the US “remains deeply disturbed by ongoing human rights violations around the world”.
Iran, Burma, DPKR, China, Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe came in for sharp criticism in specific areas, in her Donahoe’s statement.
The US accusations came on the same day as the highly controversial death by lethal injection of an inmate in Georgia, found guilty of murder. Troy Davis maintained his innocence even as he was being injected. Amnesty International’s programme to abolish the death penalty has accused the US of human rights abuses for the use of the death penalty by several states.
Switzerland and Geneva hosted numerous international meetings and dignitaries this week
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “International Geneva”, as the city likes to profile itself when talking about the UN and other international organizations, has had a more than usually busy week.
Highlights:
Wednesday 15 June: The UN Human Rights Commission looked at allegations of human rights abuses in Cote d’Ivoire and the current situation there, with a large number of countries speaking. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that in the six months since the UN set up a hotline for human rights abuses in December more than 12,000 calls have been received. UNHRC unofficial report with speakers’ summaries. The UNHRC also passed a statement calling on Syria to give the UN high commissioner access to the country.
Thursday 16 June: The International Labour Organization at its centenary annual Conference, adopted a set of international standards to improve “the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide”. The standards have been two years in the making and, for the first time, take ILO standards into the informal economy. Text of the new Convention
The two week conference has seen a stream of dignitaries and has included presentations by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The UNHRC adopted a new set of guiding principles on business and human rights drawn up by Professor John Ruggie of Harvard. It covers state but also corporate responsibilities and gives guidelines for meeting them in several areas including the rights of indigenous peoples, women, national or ethnic groups, religious and linguistic minorities, children, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers and their families as well as business adherence to international law in situations of armed conflict.
Friday 17 June: the UN staff magazine, UN Special, carries a new feature on the nine-storey multi-coloured glass front building on the Rue de France that will be completed in November.
At the end of last week the World Trade Organization noted that it had submitted to the G20 an inter-agency report by 10 UN agencies on managing food prices, to the G20, at its request, “Options for G20 consideration on how to better mitigate and manage the risks associated with the price volatility of food and other agriculture commodities, without distorting market behaviour, ultimately to protect the most vulnerable”.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World headlines about endless casualties and aid organizations being kept out of Sri Lanka’s conflict area have died away, last week’s news, but the battle to find out what really happened and how many died may be only beginning, media reports 29 May show. Le Temps and Le Monde jointly carry an article by reporter Philippe Bolopion in Colombo that accuses the Sri Lankan government of hiding the real number of deaths and the UN of collusion out of fear that its ability to work in the country would be compromised. In the UK, The Times front-page story Friday 29 May says that 20,000 civilians – three times the official number – were killed.
The Times story is based on photos taken on the beaches in the conflict area, UN documents as well as “witness accounts and expert testimony.” The numbers are in fact the same as those published a day earlier by Le Monde, which also cites UN sources. The photos were taken for The Times. Le Monde refers to satellite images taken by Unosat of the conflict area, which reportedly show shelling damage, possibly after the date when the Sri Lankan government said it had stopped.
In Geneva Wednesday 28 the Human Rights Council, an independent inter-UN organization, rejected a Swiss-European draft resolution to investigate possible war crimes in Sri Lanka and instead adopted a Sri Lankan counter-resolution. Human Rights Watch condemned the UNHRC move, saying it had “passed a deeply flawed resolution on Sri Lanka that ignores calls for an international investigation into alleged abuses during recent fighting and other pressing human rights concerns.”
