The UN Human Rights Council should be abolished

UN Watch
In 2009, the UNHRC passed a resolution praising Sri Lanka, took no action on Iran and passed 18 resolutions counterproductive to human rights

The UNHRC fails to achieve its main goal – fostering and promoting human rights, due to its politicized decision-making. Despite the fact that the UNHRC resolution stated that “members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights”, this body serves mostly as a tool used to cover up HR violations, thanks to the principle of bloc voting.

Some countries are not willing to have their HR violation stories exposed, therefore they cooperate with other countries which have these intentions as well, in order to create saliency of new public issues, thereby leaving serious violations unresolved. The phenomenon of bloc voting is confirmed by General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary, who criticized them for not dropping rhetoric and bloc voting, instead of defending the citizens from getting abused. [[http://reut.rs/hKltAd]]

Numerous NGO’s and human rights organizations claim that the council is under control of a bloc of Islamic and African states, usually backed by China, Cuba and Russia (due to overwhelming majority), to achieve mutual protection from criticism.[[http://bit.ly/cKtJmr]] This results in cover ups of the violations in the countries, which never get to the specific procedures within the UNHRC. The citizens voices cannot be heard because of the governments protecting their reputation, and serious violations are neglected. The UNHRC cannot respond to individual complaints, conduct studies, provide advice, and engage in promotional activities if they do not pass the vote acknowledging HR violations in first place.

The impact of the voting-based decision-making, and absence of an objectively determined criteria when defining HR violation, is that the members are able to block HR violation, to achieve their interests.

Presenting a substitute for the former UN Human Rights Commission, the UN Human Rights Council was constructed to make a platform for improvement in terms of the violation of the human right, and provide a clear monitor and analysis of the problem. However, the problem of unequal protection of human rights in different regions persists. The Israeli-Palestine issue had taken over one third of the capacity of the Council to manage issues and has recently increased to 48.1% [[http://bit.ly/f1EePk]]. This questions the ability of the UN Human Rights Council to manage severe issues in certain regions and shows how neglected other regions are. We agree that the issue at hand is a serious one, but there are too much resources focused on one region making it difficult for the Council to properly respond to the issues in other regions.

An appropriate example of neglect is the situation of Darfur [[http://bbc.in/ra1R58]] [[http://bit.ly/oUo01U]], where extreme violation upon ethnic groups, are escalating to the level of genocide. Due to severe HR violations international control, advisory and help in general is needed. The voting body of the Council has decided not to examine the situation or offer help despite of massive demonstrations demanding UN assistance. In this specific example, the UNHRC are going against their principles and objectives to protect any country in which violation appears [[http://bit.ly/11ELfu]].

Furthermore, the Council not only fails to acknowledge human rights violations in certain regions, but also fails at improving the situation in regions where it (the Council) is constantly present. The human rights situation in East Jerusalem is in a steep decline, Palestinian families are forcefully evicted to make place for Israeli settlements [[http://bit.ly/fvILc5]]. Whether a system of this kind is to be implemented in order to monitor and regulate any other region and advise an issue of this nature.

The Human rights council has come under mounting criticism that it failed to secure human rights for the same reasons that the HR Committee did. The main reason why this body was considered ineffective was the limited ability to investigate human rights abuses around the world and because many of its members were considered to be in violation of human rights. Some of the members of the old commission were human rights abusers like China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.[1] Yet we face a situation where current members in the UNHRC include China ,Russia, Pakistan and Cuba, states that are facing serious violation of human rights at the moment.[2][3] This creates a situation where countries with HR violations who win seats in the council can protect each other from inquiries.

This political nature of the committee was another reason why members put their preference for multilateral consensus ahead of their duty. As previously mention the UNHRC makes no changes in solving this problem due to the existing bloc voting[4]that enables the council to solve human rights abuses.

The committee was also criticized for it’s unwillingness to address real human rights concerns but rather focused only on Israel . The same mistake is being repeated by the council where 15% of the committee’s resolutions are focused on the Palestinian – Israel [5]problem and other problems are not being taken in consideration. [6]

Additionally, the newly implemented Advisory committee and complains procedure fail to deliver. The advisory committee [7] only makes recommendation on solving human rights abuses which are not being taken in consideration by the UNHRC because of the previously mentioned bloc voting. The complains procedure faces the same problem. Even if certain individuals have the right to report human rights abuses that doesn’t exclude the fact that the members still have the final word whether certain actions should be made in order to protect these individuals.

*Links in our 4th

With the previous arguments, the proposition managed to prove that the UNHRC is working ineffectively, through the politicized decision making process, the disproportional prioritizing of problems and the fact that the problems from the UNCHR are still existent. Most people would at first presume that this body makes no change regarding the respect of rights (positive or negative), but in fact it leads to constant increase of HR violations.

The citizens of the countries rely on the UN declaration of human rights, and the UN has an obligation to make great efforts in order to foster and promote these rights. Therefore we believe that every day that passes, in which the HR violations throughout all the countries are not given the appropriate attention is a day that more and more people will suffer from violators that could have been stopped with the deterrence measures developed from a stable UN human rights body. Should this body continue to exist, it will continuously harm the people around the world.

Hyperlinks from Argument 3:

[[http://bit.ly/qn0aPh]]
[[http://bit.ly/oQYtoL]]
[[http://nyti.ms/pQkDOP]]
[[http://on.cfr.org/olBwo8]]
[[http://nyti.ms/rblfU6]]
[[http://bit.ly/orgjax]]
[[http://bit.ly/nsNAGt]]

Opp is avoiding tackling our burden, claiming that if they prove a “marginal benefit” from UNHRC in few regions, they would prove it to be effective and beneficial. In fact it is squandering its invaluable position and resources.

When the truth and facts are being substituted with the “will of the majority”, it leads to ignorance of cases of HR abuse, and does major harm to the countries and the rights of the people. The council is guilty of CHOSING not to solve problems, not the lack of resources as the Opp. team claimed. The “objective decision approach” would remove this possibility while keeping all benefits team Opp is trying to prove.

Speaking of benefits, the “political support” Opp mentioned is not unconditionally tied to the politicized decision-making process. A HR body can contain government representatives that debate on the possible solutions, but they cannot vote on whether there is HR violation, since this decision will always be subjective.

More than half of the members, 24 out of 47, do not protect the basic human rights of their citizens[[http://bit.ly/m0BbPL]], which completely disproves the Opp presumption that the rotation system would help prevent the vote bloc. Whether it is China or Saudi Arabia, the situation remains the same and these countries will continue blocking resolutions when it suits them.

This body ignored 18 of the worst violators in 2010, as a result of the politicization [[http://bit.ly/cKtJmr]], which confounds the claim that we didn’t prove how HRC “exacerbates the situation”, since each blocked resolution does that, proving their own burden wrong.

At the end of the day, while refuting, prop agreed that objective decision-making is needed, but avoided to confess that it would mean abolition of HRC, but:

1. It is abolition, since the voting-based system is a “root” principle of this body, that would change everything in it;

2. They agree that this root principle is wrong, and needs a change – abolition.

The cases of Darfur and Libya are clear examples of the UNHRC turning a blind eye to serious HR violations, reacting only when extreme violations force its hand.

Concerning Darfur, there have been hundreds of thousands murdered and millions displaced during the ongoing genocide in Darfur and yet there has been no General Assembly resolution condemning Sudan for human rights violations in the past five years.[[http://bit.ly/qKQFmH]]
Despite the obvious HR violations that were known to the world for almost a decade, the UNHRC reviewed the case in 2011 with no apparent result. Furthermore, the UPR mechanism “provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations” [[http://bit.ly/fHO9Kh]]. It is far from a proper investigation and depends on the good will of the members.

Concerning Libya, we believe that expulsion from the council is too little and too late. Despite immense HR violations [[http://bit.ly/nGkn9Q]], two months prior the expulsion UNHRC produced a draft report on the country that “reads like an international roll call of fulsome praise”[[http://nyti.ms/eYt8bQ]], . Waiting for the situation to escalate before the expulsion is proof of UNHRC’s inability to cover up the abuse any longer, not an example of a body dedicated to the fight against HR violation.

UNHRC clearly failed in the above cases. Examples of the U.S. state department praising its own success in the council on its own web site presented by the Opp fail to persuade us when compared to the above-mentioned cases.

Finally, Opp claimed: “the mere fact that a similar body was erected right when the committee was abolished, inherently testifies to how essential such a body is” . That fact actually shows that the problem with HR violations is a serious one and a body regulating it will be created when it is abolished. It does in no way prove that the body should work on the same principles as the commission and the coun

In this debate the Opp team took the burden: “if we can show you even a marginal benefit arising from the UNHRCs existence, then it is enough to want to keep the UNHRC.”This burden was engulfed by ours- showing how the time and resources UN has to invest in HR are squandered on UNHRC, and better spent a successor working on objective criteria when determining HR violations.

Even if we debate on the OPP burden we proved with overwhelming evidence that the council causes much greater harm by ignoring violations, giving wrong and biased assessment of the situation, enabling terrible HR violators the chance to protect themselves, compared to the benefit from the few stray resolutions it manages to get right. The examples of Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Darfur, Libya, Russia and China confirm this point. This point alone is enough to abolish the UNHRC

We showed that one of the main reasons for the dysfunctionality of the UNHRC is the politization and the bloc voting, preventing the body from reacting to OBVIOUS HR violations. Currently, the bodies meant to solve this problem are incapable of the task. The 3 years rotation especially when limited by the regional system (prioritizing location over HR protection) keeps yielding HR violators as members, and even if it somehow magicaly worked,3 years is simply too long to wait for proper membership. The UPR on the other hand is far from a proper investigation and depends on the good will of the members

UNHRC SHOULD be abolished because one of the main problems, the politicized decision making process when determining the existence of HR violations is a key component of the current Council. Team Opp acknowledged this problem and suggested: “ criteria can be set by the same body that erected the UNHRC and elects its members – the General Assembly”. However, because it is a key component that affects all others, it can only be changed with abolition as team Opp agreed in their 5th argument contradicting their first claim.

Opposition also failed to prove UNHRC equally spreads western and eastern HR ideals. This point was proven wrong by the LGBT resolution they offered themselves, a resolution imposing ultra western values on the member states contradicting their core values and sharia law

In conclusion we have the negative case offering a UNHRC that turned a blind eye to genocide and massive HR abuse while obsessing with Israel and committing 70% of its resolutions to it. By doing this the council did harm to the HR situation in the world, broke its own goals and objectives (as proven in our last refutation) and has no benefits to show for the wasted time and resources

Abolishing UNHRC will result in the creation of a successor deciding on set criteria.This resolves the politizacion problem and its symptoms. The UNHRC will HAVE to acknowledge HR violations if they fit the criteria, resulting in proper protection of HR optimal usage of UN resources and keeping the benefits of international cooperation

The opposition opened their negative constructive case, with an argument that consists of no constructive material at all and does not lead to achieving their burden of proof. Opp claims that the raison d’être for UNHRC is the fact that there is no other body available at the moment, without providing providing real benefits from the council.

In fact, it was never the duty of the Proposition to find or design another superior body, rather to prove that since the “root” characteristics of the existing Council result in covering up of HR violations and neglect of serious violations in many critical regions of the world, UNHRC should be abolished.

The opposition failed to take into consideration that the UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), a body which was abolished due to the high level of criticism that it allowed countries with no respect for human rights to be members. Deductively we conclude the following:

It is more than logical that should this council be abolished, the UN will not leave its job to either of the two institutions for which prop dedicated a whole argument, but rather create a new body which would succeed the old one. If the UN’s decision to abolish is based on the Aff arguments, that body will not have the “root” characteristics of the council nor its weaknesses.

Moreover, as we clearly stated in our 1st argument, we believe that lacks of objective-based decision making, causes immense harms (as the bloc voting and disproportionate focus). Therefore we consider this principle essential for an intergovernmental HR body, proving we still have a cause and a goal.

Finally, by stating that this measure can be applied to UNHRC as an additional criteria (objective DM),Opp confirmed that the current system is harmful, but refused to confess that it would mean abolition. Just as UNCHR was abolished due to strong criticism, it is more than obvious that changing a root principle is abolition as well

There are few points that were obviously neglected by the Opp. In the next few examples, we provide on the ground results, in the countries where they claim to be improvement:

a.Guinea: the 2010 Human rights report[1], explicitly describes numbers on violations, detected by the investigators. Among them we mention the beatings and torture, violence and discrimination against women and forced labor. Therefore, any of the actions proposed by the opp never worked, nor resulted with improvement. Not very surprising, when we analyze the source, US State department. We perceive no “concrete results”, only good old government barging.

b.LGBT is a resolution that was barely passed with 19 countries voting against it [2]. Among them, are mostly the notorious HR violators. We believe this resolution will do very little in member countries like Saudi Arabia where the penalty for homosexuality is death. Morover, it is highly optimistic to expect change in countries where citizens are starved for basic rights.

c.Sadly, we see no real results, on how the protection of HR was increased in Israel. Considering the 2011 Report by Falk, and the reported situation, Israel is facing numerous problems where Palestinians are evicted form their homes[3], and cases when the government oppresses the UNHRC presence. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the council was committed to a “preconceived outcome,” in theGoldstein Report [4] proving obsession with Israel more than anything else

The protection of the HR is defined as aiming to preserve more of the HR in most regions. Given the fact how 70% of all UNHRC country-specific criticisms have been on Israel and how the UNHRC never adopted a single resolution critical of states like China, Syria, Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe we can see how it’s protection is not fairly distributed around the globe, nor where it is needed.

[1] http://1.usa.gov/qL47Mr
[2] http://huff.to/l4QyRn
[3] http://nyti.ms/CUrzE
[4]http://bit.ly/cKtJmr

The Opp is trying to prove that by abolishing the UNHRC, we will lose a body that represents the eastern region and values, since the western world is over-represented already. What team Prop is going to show is that this body is certainly not a representative of eastern values, so abolishing it will not create a single harm in that term.

For starters, the Opp bases this entire argument on the assumption that HR campaigns are oriented westward. In order to prove a claim of this magnitude, we believe stronger and less subjective evidence that the Supreme Islamic Council of Canada is required. A local religious organization aimed at spreading Islam. [[http://bit.ly/oM7jCR]]

Even if we accept the unfounded assumption that many of the international HR organizations favor western perceptions of HR, we intend to prove UNHRC has always promoted western ideals. In the previous argument Opp presented the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resolution as a grand UNHRC achievement. [[http://bit.ly/kAC3Bs]]

First of all, it was past amid strong criticism of South Africa (the sponsor) by some African nations. Furthermore, bearing in mind that Muslim countries are governed by Sharia law, homosexuality is seen as one of the biggest criminal acts and is punishable with death in many countries (Saudi Arabia a member of UNHRC included). This means that contrary to what negation is saying, even the UNHRC is promoting progressive western ideals, in direct conflict with the eastern values.

Team Opp claims that “abolishing UNHRC will be seen as an act against the involvement of the rest of the world” but its successor will be an international body as well so we don’t see how this could happen.

Finally, presuming that abolishing the council will cause “hostility towerds other HR bodies” is a big logical leap that was not proven, especial when we take in consideration its inability to protect HR and its pro west HR perception.

Team Opp agrees that there is a problem with the decision making system, but instead of abolishing a body founded on a broken principle, they try to patch it up claiming the problem is temporary due to the 3 year rotation. In those 3 years countless violations were covered up, as many resolutions blocked and unbridled genocides took place . That aside, the status quo clearly shows that the rotation is unable to filter the HR violators, especially when it is additionally limited by the regional system (prioritizing location over HR protection).

This is very obvious when we take a look at the HR situation of the current members that came to be through that system:

Saudi Arabia
One of very few governments never to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Right –the basic charter of fundamental freedoms on which the council itself is based–the Kingdom does not allow women to drive; punishes homosexuality and other nonviolent “crimes” by flogging, forced amputation or death [[http://bit.ly/rqwb8G]]

Cuba
Authorities have jailed scores of dissidents, protesters and others, often through the use of a “dangerousness” provision that allows the detention of Cubans on suspicion that they might break the law in the future. [[http://lat.ms/bF9Edg]] Reported HR violations: beatings and abuse of prisoners and detainees, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care; harassment, beatings [[http://1.usa.gov/b2SToz]],

The situation is as bad, if not worse in China and Russia, due to spacial limitations we will only point to evidence #1 for more info.

On the point of Belarus, the reason for not getting reelected was the loss of political backing rather than the HR violations, since an abundance of HR violators were elected at the same time so it is an exception, not the rule.

The rotation system has proven unsuccessful, and even if it was perfect, it is not a reason to keep the decision process if the DMP has no benefit on its own.

Refuting our first argument team Opp stated:

Opposition
Prop itself hints at an alternative way around bloc voting, stating that there’s “absence of an objectively determined criteria when defining HR violation”, but this is certainly no reason to put an end to this important council. Rather, a criteria can be set by the same body that erected the UNHRC and elects its members – the General Assembly.


Now they changed their strategy, claiming that such criteria cannot exist in a UN body. In this argument they agree with us that the criteria would in fact mean abolition, and that POLITICS come before HR in the UNHRC.

UNHRC is comprised of 47 rotating members. Compared to GA’s 193 we see a clear limitation of the “politization” and participation of “all nations worldwide”. The absolute veto power of members of the Security Council is another example. Different bodies have different needs; partially limiting the politicization in order to achieve effectiveness is not a new concept in the UN, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be used if it brings sufficient benefits.

Replacing the political approach with criteria (when determining if HR violation occurred)will not undermine the intergovernmental structure of the body,nor decrease cooperation. It is only natural that the members of the body will AGREE upon the criteria as they AGREE on the statute when a new body is created. As we stated earlier, the members will still vote on actions, strategies, recommendations etc.

When a body needs a decade to react on a genocide, (in spite of massive pleas for help from the citizens) there is obviously a malfunction in that body. In our previous arguments we showed how the mechanisms present in the status quo are unable to stop bloc voting, allow major HR violators to become members and avoid prosecution, and allow obvious violations to be ignored.

If partially limiting the politization solves these problems it is reasonable to do so.

To claim a list of passed resolutions is proof on its own for the success of UNHRC is illogical. “Analyzing 30 key UNHRC resolutions of the last year, this report finds that a majority of 18 were actually counterproductive to human rights. Resolutions that praised Sri Lanka after it killed an estimated 20,000 civilians; praised Sudan for its “progress”” etc.[[http://bit.ly/aEAnhX]] [[http://bit.ly/pxUD8y]]

Some of the main principles and objectives of UNHRC.

– Make improvement on the human rights situation on the ground.
– Ensure universal coverage and equal treatment of all states.
– Not be overly burdensome to the concerned state or to the HRC agenda.
– Not be overly long, it should be realistic and not absorb disproportionate amount of time, human and financial resources.

To see how well HR are being protected we need to examine the situation on the ground. We have proven with overwhelming evidence in the cases of Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Darfur, Libya, Russia, China etc. that the council ignores violations, gives wrong and biased assessment of the situation and enables terrible HR violators the chance to protect themselves, ergo Improvement on ground has not been achieved.

A short clarification on Libya . The UNHRC draft report praised Libiya as a capable protector of human in spite the fact they have been violating HR for decades. They reacted only after Gaddafi forced their hand, attacking the protestors. The segment of the article we linked is not flagged, and its sources are legitimate (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, the Guardian, The Economist etc).

On the remaining 3 principles we refer to the situation in Israel. The council spends disproportionate amount of time and resources on Israel compared to the other countries, it is burdensome to the country and has been reported to have a bias against Israel. [[http://bit.ly/mSLUFi]]

In conclusion, it is clear that UNHRC is not fulfilling its own principles and objectives as Opp claime