US to press anew on UN reforms

WASHINGTON – Washington’s envoy to the United Nations said in an interview published yesterday he planned to press forward in the new year with an effort to restructure the management of the world body.

John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told The Washington Post he would seek assurances the UN Security Council’s five permanent members would be guaranteed posts on a new Human Rights Council. The newspaper quoted Bolton as saying the Bush administration wanted to ensure the United States was never again denied membership in the United Nations’ principal human rights body, as happened in 2001.The Post characterised the proposal as part of a broader drive by Bolton to place the five permanent Security Council members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – at the centre of UN decision-making.”It has been a convention operating also from the beginning of the United Nations that the perm 5 serve on all standing bodies of the UN that they want to serve on, in exchange for the perm 5 almost never seeking chairmanships of any bodies,” Bolton said.He said the new Human Rights Council, which would replace the existing UN Human Rights Commission, did not necessarily need to enshrine membership privileges for the permanent five Security Council members in its charter.But the paper said Bolton indicated he would seek an informal understanding they be granted automatic membership if they chose to serve.”We’d like to see if we can get the commission abolished and the new council put in place before the existing commission meets again in Geneva in a few months,” Bolton told the Post.The paper said Bolton’s initiative was criticised by some UN diplomats, human rights advocates and others who said it would reward China and Russia, which are often criticised for rights abuses.It said others worried it might roil talks set to resume next week on how to create a new rights council.- Nampa-ReutersThe newspaper quoted Bolton as saying the Bush administration wanted to ensure the United States was never again denied membership in the United Nations’ principal human rights body, as happened in 2001.The Post characterised the proposal as part of a broader drive by Bolton to place the five permanent Security Council members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – at the centre of UN decision-making.”It has been a convention operating also from the beginning of the United Nations that the perm 5 serve on all standing bodies of the UN that they want to serve on, in exchange for the perm 5 almost never seeking chairmanships of any bodies,” Bolton said.He said the new Human Rights Council, which would replace the existing UN Human Rights Commission, did not necessarily need to enshrine membership privileges for the permanent five Security Council members in its charter.But the paper said Bolton indicated he would seek an informal understanding they be granted automatic membership if they chose to serve.”We’d like to see if we can get the commission abolished and the new council put in place before the existing commission meets again in Geneva in a few months,” Bolton told the Post.The paper said Bolton’s initiative was criticised by some UN diplomats, human rights advocates and others who said it would reward China and Russia, which are often criticised for rights abuses.It said others worried it might roil talks set to resume next week on how to create a new rights council.- Nampa-Reuters