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RIGHTS: Tripped Up by Honduras, UN Council Turns to Middle East

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Sep 15 2009 (IPS) - The United Nations Human Rights Council set a firm precedent in favour of the international isolation of the de facto government that took over in Honduras after a Jun. 28 coup removed President Manuel Zelaya.

On Tuesday, the Council confirmed the decision to order out the Honduran ambassador to the U.N., Delmer Urbizo.

U.N. police escorted Urbizo out of the Council Monday in Geneva on the first day of its session, which runs through Oct. 2.

The representatives of Brazil and Argentina objected to Urbizo's participation, pointing out that the Organisation of American States (OAS) had refused to recognise the de facto government in Honduras.

In the name of the Latin American and Caribbean nations, Mexico demanded that the session be suspended until the issue was resolved.

But in countries like Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar and Fiji there are certain similarities with the situation in Honduras. Because of this, diplomats from African nations and from India as well expressed concern that by expelling a national representative, the Council was setting a precedent that could threaten those three countries and others in similar situations in the future.

The president of the Council, Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, consulted the U.N. General Assembly Credentials Committee in New York.

Along with the Committee's response and copies of a letter sent by Patricia Rodas, Zelaya's foreign minister, confirming that Urbizo does not represent the overthrown government, Van Meeuwen issued a statement saying "I informed and consulted parties concerned, as well as the Bureau (of the Human Rights Council) and regional groups, and appropriate action was taken on the issue."

With his statement, he backed the decision to order the Honduran ambassador out of the session.

He also said there was consensus in the Council that the General Assembly's decision on the recommendations of the Credentials Committee report would be followed.

The Council thus showed that it was in compliance with General Assembly policies and was not taking unilateral positions with regard to the recognition of national representatives, which cleared up the doubts expressed by the representatives of African nations.

The debate on the case of Honduras and the point of order that was raised, which delayed the start of the Council's session by more than a day, would appear to have caught the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the secretariat of the Human Rights Council and the president of the Council off guard.

A week ago, Meeuwen said in response to a question during a press conference that the case of Honduras would not interfere with the Council's tight schedule.

Middle East

Diplomatic sources said the U.N. High Commissioner, the secretariat and Meeuwen himself have been concentrating for weeks on the situation in the Middle East, which would appear to be the central issue in the current session.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who was finally able to present her report Tuesday after the delay, said "Conflicts continue to exact a tragic toll in Afghanistan, Colombia, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere."

But it is the conflict in the Middle East that will clearly be the focus of one of the most heated debates in the present session, as reflected by the report released Tuesday by a four-member U.N. fact-finding mission that investigated the 2008 conflict in Gaza. The team was led by Judge Richard Goldstone, a former South African Supreme Court justice.

The investigation found serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Israel's Dec. 27, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009 military attack on the Gaza Strip, which caused the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

The report, mandated by the Human Rights Council in April, says there is evidence "that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity" during the conflict in Gaza.

It also says there is "evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel."

The fact-finding mission recommended that the U.N. Security Council require Israel to present it with a report within six months on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations identified by the investigation.

It also recommends that the Security Council set up a body of independent experts to report on the progress of the investigations and prosecutions that Israel should conduct.

And "if the experts do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceeding are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor," the mission said.

According to the investigators, "Israel violated its duty to respect the right of Gaza’s population to an adequate standard of living, including access to adequate food, water and housing."

The team also recommended that the same expert body report to the Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza authorities with regard to the crimes committed by the Palestinian side, and said that in the absence of good faith and independent proceedings, the Council should refer this as well to the ICC prosecutor.

For its part, rights watchdog Amnesty International said all relevant U.N. bodies must act promptly, and in coordination, to implement the recommendations of the Goldstone report.

In particular, the Human Rights Council should endorse the report and recommendations and request that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon refer it to the Security Council, said Donatella Rovera, who headed an Amnesty field research mission to Gaza.

The International Commission of Jurists, an independent organisation, welcomed the Goldstone report. "For too many years, both Israelis and Palestinians have failed to investigate, prosecute and bring to justice the alleged perpetrators of these crimes. This failure is resulting in a permanent impunity operation," said ICJ acting secretary-general Wilder Tayler.