U.S. Criticizes UN Rights Council Over Belarus, Cuba

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

U.S. Criticizes UN Rights Council Over Belarus, Cuba

June 20, 2007 -- The United States has expressed disappointment that the
United Nations Human Rights Council has terminated the mandates of
independent experts who studied the rights records of Belarus and Cuba.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Belarus and Cuba were
"two of the world's most active perpetrators of serious human rights
violations."

McCormack criticized the council's new rules that permitted special
scrutiny of Belarus and Cuba to be halted.

The United States, which has previously expressed concerns about the
council, is only an observer, not a member, of the body.

Earlier, the current special rapporteur for Belarus, whose post will be
abolished under the new rules, said the council's move sent a "wrong and
worrying" signal to Minsk.

Adrian Severin, a Romanian law expert, said President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka's authoritarian government would react with triumph to this
and victims of repressions would lose "a necessary tool" to defend their
rights.

The move came at a meeting of the 47-nation council in Geneva on June 18.

Russia is reported to have led demands for the end of the mandate of the
monitor for Belarus.

Belarus and Cuba are accused of human rights abuses, particularly of
political rights.

(AFP, Reuters)

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