Obama Administration Will Respond to 'UN Human Rights Review
Obama Administration Will
Respond to 'UN Human Rights Review'
CNS News
The United States' human rights record will be back in the spotlight at the UN Human Rights Council next week, when the US delegation provides its response to more than 200 recommendations made by other governments, ranging from liberal democracies to the repressive regimes ruling Libya, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and China.
The recommendations cover a broad range of issues, from combating "Islamophobia" to scrapping Arizona's controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070.
March 18 marks the final step in the process known as the United States' first universal periodic review (UPR), an examination supervised by the Human Rights Council that every UN member state is expected to undergo every four years.
In a three-hour "interactive dialogue" last November, the US delegation explained its human rights policies and heard comments and criticisms from scores of other country delegations.
Since then, the US has considered a total of 228 recommendations made by various governments, and next Friday it will present the HRC with its response, indicating which recommendations it accepts and will act on, and which ones it rejects.
The council will then vote to adopt the UPR outcome report.
Many of the recommendations were put forward by governments hostile to or critical of the US Among them:
Libya said the US must make accountable those responsible for gross violations of human rights in American prisons and prisons under US jurisdiction outside its territory. Victims should be compensated. Muammar Gaddafi's government also expressed concern about racial discrimination and intolerance against people of Muslim, Arab, African and Latin American origin, and advised the U.S. to end racial discrimination in the housing, education, health care, social security and labor sectors.
Iran said the US should put "gross violators of human rights" and "war criminals" on trial at the International Criminal Court. The US should invite UN experts to visit the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and "secret prisons" elsewhere. Iran also said the U.S. should adopt legislation against "Islamophobia" and insults against Islam and the Qur'an...
Other recommendations included tackling climate change (Venezuela, Nicaragua); ending the embargo of Cuba (Bolivia, Nicaragua, Sudan); including the US in the annual State Department report on human rights around the world (Algeria); and suspending or scrapping the death penalty (Russia and multiple others).
Venezuela called for a "fair" US immigration policy and Ecuador stated that the US government should repeal and not enforce "discriminatory and racial laws" such as Arizona's SB1070.
http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/711
