{"id":98749,"date":"2017-04-18T01:50:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T05:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=98749"},"modified":"2017-04-18T01:50:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T05:50:26","slug":"us-to-hold-un-human-rights-meeting-after-deal-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/18\/us-to-hold-un-human-rights-meeting-after-deal-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"US to hold UN human rights meeting after deal with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was determined to hold a Security Council meeting on the importance of human rights to international peace and security and it will happen on Tuesday \u2014 but only after the U.S. addressed objections from Russia, China and other council members. (Photo: Nikki Haley\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was determined to hold a Security Council meeting on the importance of human rights to international peace and security and it will happen on Tuesday \u2014 but only after the U.S. addressed objections from Russia, China and other council members.<\/p>\n

Haley told reporters at the start of the U.S. presidency of the U.N.’s most powerful body in early April that she wanted a meeting that didn’t \u201cpoint fingers at anyone\u201d but looked at underlying human rights issues that lead to conflict and unrest.<\/p>\n

As examples, she cited student protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad that sparked the six-year conflict, the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor who was harassed by police and not able to work that sparked nationwide demonstrations, and massive rights violations in North Korea.<\/p>\n

But Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Petr Iliichev took issue with the premise of the proposed debate saying: \u201cA general statement that international peace and security are threatened by human rights violations is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also argued that other U.N. bodies including the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and the General Assembly already deal with human rights. \u201cWhy are we taking everything to the Security Council? Then those bodies should be dismantled,\u201d Iliichev said.<\/p>\n

Haley said the U.S. wanted the debate on April 18, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefing.<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t on the Security Council \u201cprogram of work\u201d for the month because that needs unanimous agreement of all 15 council members, which the U.S. didn’t have.<\/p>\n

That set the stage for two weeks of behind the scenes discussions to see how the U.S. could get a meeting.<\/p>\n

The United States initially wanted the debate under a new agenda item for the council entitled \u201cHuman Rights and International Peace and Security\u201d \u2014 which would mean that item could be raised again and again in the council.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Mission circulated a \u201cconcept paper\u201d saying this would give council members the opportunity to reflect on the way the council addresses human rights in its work \u201cfor the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the late 1980s, the Security Council has focused on human rights issues as drivers in numerous situations, and it has authorized human rights experts and monitors for most of the U.N. peacekeeping and political missions it has authorized. The council, however, has never had a so-called \u201cthematic debate\u201d on human rights related to the Security Council’s main mission of promoting international peace and security.<\/p>\n

In order for the U.S. to get its new agenda item approved it would have had to hold a procedural vote at the start of Tuesday’s meeting and get nine \u201cyes\u201d votes to go ahead. But council diplomats said it appeared the U.S. might have only eight \u201cyes\u201d votes and seven \u201cno\u201d votes \u2014 Russia, China, Egypt, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Khazakhstan and possibly Senegal.<\/p>\n

So the United States agreed to a compromise.<\/p>\n

In a note on Tuesday’s meeting, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said Monday it is being held under an old agenda item: \u201cMaintenance of international peace and security,\u201d with a focus on \u201chuman rights and prevention of armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means no procedural vote is required and all 15 council members are now on board with the debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was determined to hold a Security Council meeting on the importance of human rights to international …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":98750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,17],"tags":[17578],"class_list":["post-98749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-w","tag-nikki-haley","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}