[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 143 (Tuesday, September 25, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10782-H10785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OPPOSING SINGLING OUT ISRAEL'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 557) strongly condemning the United
Nations Human Rights Council for ignoring severe human rights abuses in
various countries, while choosing to unfairly target Israel by
including it as the only country permanently placed on the Council's
agenda, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 557
Whereas Article II of Chapter I of the United Nations
Charter states that ``[t]he Organization is based on the
principles of sovereign equality of all its members'';
[[Page H10783]]
Whereas the former United Nations Human Rights Commission
was widely discredited for its incessant attacks against
Israel and for granting membership to Cuba, Zimbabwe, China,
Saudi Arabia, and other countries that were notorious human
rights violators;
Whereas the United Nations General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution establishing the United
Nations Human Rights Council, stating that ``members elected
to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the
promotion and protection of human rights'';
Whereas the resolution also stated that ``the Council shall
be responsible for promoting universal respect for the
protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for
all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal
manner'';
Whereas China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia are members of the
United Nations Human Rights Council;
Whereas in the past year that the United Nations Human
Rights Council has been in existence, the Council has held
four special sessions to address pressing human rights
situations;
Whereas of the four special sessions, three sessions were
held for purposes of condemning Israel for alleged human
right abuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in Lebanon,
and the fourth session was a non-condemnatory expression of
``concern'' regarding the situation in Darfur, Sudan;
Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Council has failed
to condemn serial abusers of human rights throughout the
world, including Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, China,
Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and others;
Whereas, on June 19, 2007, a Department of State
spokesperson specifically identified Burma, Cuba, North
Korea, Zimbabwe, and Belarus as countries that merit
consideration by the United Nations Human Rights Council due
to their ``serious human rights violations'';
Whereas during its fifth special session, the United
Nations Human Rights Council voted to make Israel the only
country permanently included on its agenda; and
Whereas United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated
he was ``disappointed at the Council's decision to single out
only one specific regional item, given the range and scope of
allegations of human rights violations throughout the
world'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) strongly condemns the United Nations Human Rights
Council for ignoring severe human rights abuses in other
countries, while choosing to unfairly target the State of
Israel;
(2) strongly urges the United Nations Human Rights Council
to remove Israel from its permanent agenda;
(3) strongly urges the United Nations Human Rights Council
to hold special sessions to address other countries in which
human rights abuses are being committed, adopt real reform as
was intended for the Council when it replaced the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights, and reaffirm the
principle of human dignity consistent with the original
intent envisioned at the Council's establishment;
(4) strongly urges the United States to make every effort
in the United Nations General Assembly to ensure that the
United Nations Human Rights Council lives up to its mission
to protect human rights around the world, in accordance with
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/251
establishing the Council; and
(5) strongly urges the United States to work with the
United Nations General Assembly to ensure that only countries
that have a well-established commitment to protecting human
rights are chosen to serve on the Council.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. Smith) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Washington?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I want to thank Representative Campbell for bringing this issue to
the floor.
It has long been my view that the United Nations can be, and in many
cases is, a very, very useful organization. It gives the countries of
the world a chance to come together in one place and discuss issues
that they can work together on but, perhaps as importantly, to discuss
their differences. It was set up so that, hopefully, that process would
reduce more violent conflict, that they could discuss these issues,
figure out a way to work together, and move forward.
I also feel that it is a very appropriate role of the United Nations
to look throughout the world and see where injustice is being done,
identify it, and try to fix it.
Unfortunately, too many times that becomes politicized and focused,
and in particular it becomes politicized and focused on the nation of
Israel. With all of the problems that are going on throughout the
world, all of the countries, all the despotic governments out there
causing no ends of grief for their people, the one country that the
United Nations continues to focus on is a free democracy in the Middle
East, Israel. And they continually focus on them to the exclusion, in
many cases, of far, far greater problems in other parts of the world.
Now, certainly I recognize the United Nations should be involved in
the Middle East. There is unquestionably a conflict there between
Israel and their neighbors in the Palestinian territories. Resolving
that difference and helping the Palestinian people to set up their own
country that will protect its people is incredibly important. But,
again, unfortunately, the focus of the U.N. seems more to criticize and
attack Israel to the exclusion of other problems.
So I want to thank Mr. Campbell for bringing this resolution, which
very simply asks, I guess, the United Nations to stop doing that, to
stop focusing on Israel, and to have a broader focus on the problems of
the world and do not unfairly criticize the nation of Israel. It
undermines, rather than helps, any effort to resolve the conflicts in
the Middle East.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 557, introduced by
my friend Congressman John Campbell of California and his Democratic
coauthor also from California (Mr. Berman).
The activities of the United Nations Human Rights Council during its
first year in operation has been a travesty, but it should not come as
any surprise to us.
Over the summer the council, which embraces serious human rights
abusers as members, celebrated its first birthday by giving gifts to
repressive dictators and Islamic radicals. It stopped unfinished
investigations into human rights conditions in Cuba and Belarus and
created a permanent agenda item relating to Israel, the only country
singled out for such scrutiny.
Darfur, apparently the Human Rights Council sees no problem in
southern Sudan.
{time} 1245
North Korea, no evil there. China, according to the U.N. Human Rights
Council, there are no human rights abusers in that workers' paradise.
The bloody repression in Burma, in Zimbabwe, the council members have
never heard of these actions. Unfortunately, these are exactly the
consequences that many of us expected given the flaws inherent in the
council's creation. For example, there are no criteria for membership
in the council. Certain regional groups also are given greater power
than democratic countries. And special sessions are easier to call,
with Israel being the target for condemnation.
The council's structure and agenda are hopelessly compromised by
political manipulation. The only country, again, singled out for actual
condemnation has been the democratic State of Israel, which was the
subject of three special sessions and 75 percent of all council
resolutions and decisions expressing concerns about human rights
conditions.
In June, because of such outrages, the House adopted an amendment
that I proposed to the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill
which prohibited United States funding for the council. Mr. Campbell
and Mr. Berman's resolution before us today presents this body with
another important opportunity to protest the farce, the insult, the
travesty, the sad joke that the U.N. Human Rights Council has become.
I urge unanimous support for its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
[[Page H10784]]
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman).
Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time,
and I thank my friend from California (Mr. Campbell) for coming to me
with the idea of a resolution on the subject of the distorted, unfair,
hypocritical, self-mocking agenda of the United Nations Human Rights
Council and the need for the Congress of the United States to speak to
their conduct.
Last year, I thought that when the United Nations decided to create a
human rights body to replace the thoroughly discredited Human Rights
Commission, there might finally be a chance for an open, respected
forum for promoting basic liberties and rights and holding countries
accountable that failed to do so, rather than a body on which would be
placed some of the worst human rights abusers in the world.
The commission, as many of you know, was composed of many such
countries whose own human rights records were far from laudable. While,
for example, Zimbabwe, a former member of the commission, was busy
leveling thousands of homes and leaving an estimated half a million
people homeless, the commission was preoccupied with issuing successive
reports condemning Israel.
I sincerely hope that the council will live up to its charter and
become an impartial and forceful proponent of human rights around the
world. Unfortunately, some have argued that the council, by spending an
inordinate amount of time vilifying Israel, is even worse than the
commission. It has passed one-sided resolutions condemning Israeli
human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, calling several
extraordinary sessions on Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza, and
appointed successive rapporteurs to investigate alleged Israeli war
crimes.
As Uzbekistan's jails continue to fill with thousands of prisoners,
many of whom, according to the State Department, have been brutally
tortured, the council was painfully silent. To be a human rights
activist in Uzbekistan is to take one's life in one's own hands, yet
the council has continued to shirk its responsibilities by failing to
take a stand against these horrific human rights violations.
Rather than taking the regime in Khartoum to task, as the gentlelady,
the ranking member of the committee, pointed out, taking Khartoum to
task for its brazen and continued support for the janjaweed militias in
Darfur, widely acknowledged to be responsible for horrific crimes
against Darfurian civilians, the council has issued only a tepid
expression of concerns. This shameful record led The Washington Post to
describe the council as a ``ludicrous diplomatic lynch mob.'' Even U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has publicly admonished the council's
unwillingness to pursue an evenhanded human rights agenda.
I want to make clear the criticisms I level and others have leveled
against the council should in no way be viewed as an indictment of all
the work of the United Nations, much of which is indispensable and
serves our national interest as well as global peace and security. And
while it has not been without its share of mistakes, the U.N., through
its countless peacekeeping operations, poverty alleviation efforts and
disease prevention programs, has proven to be worth its weight in gold.
We stand here today to criticize the Human Rights Council, which has
an obsessed view of one country and only one country in terms of a
human rights agenda, because we know that the U.N. can do better than
they did in the creation and the rules governing that council.
I ask you to support this resolution because I believe that, while
the council is still in its infancy, we can work to maximize the
chances that it develops into a respected and forceful champion of
human rights, not simply another proxy in the vitriolic campaign
against Israel.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time
as he may consume to the author of this measure, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Campbell).
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. I thank the gentlelady from Florida for
yielding, and I thank the gentleman from Washington for his support and
supportive words about this bill. And most of all, I thank my coauthor
in this effort, Mr. Berman, my friend and fellow Californian, for his
involvement and effort in this bill and this important action.
And I think it is an important action, Mr. Speaker, because, as the
three previous speakers have mentioned, it's not like the world is
devoid of problems in human rights. It's not like there are not
repressive regimes in various places around the world. There is a place
for the United Nations to be talking about this, to be dealing with
this, to be trying to help this situation; but, unfortunately, this
Human Rights Council, which was supposed to be that, is clearly not
that.
Now, when this Human Rights Council was formed in 2006 to replace, as
Mr. Berman pointed out, the discredited U.N. Commission on Human
Rights, the then-U.N. General Assembly president, Jan Eliasson, said
that the council would be ``principled, effective and fair.'' And
during its establishment, the U.N. General Assembly went on to say that
this council would be responsible for ``promoting universal respect for
the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all,
without distinction of any kind, and in a fair and equal manner.''
Mr. Speaker, I applaud those words. I applaud the basis upon which
this council was established. But the facts show that in the year of
its existence, it has not followed this directive. As was pointed out,
the first three special sessions out of the first nine sessions they
had condemned Israel for their possible human rights abuses in the
occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon. The fourth one was a
noncondemnatory expression of concern regarding the situation in
Darfur.
Now, what about Belarus? What about China? What about Cuba, North
Korea, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, anywhere else in the world? They have not
even had a session to discuss them, not to mention have a mild
condemnation or a full condemnation, but multiple condemnations of
Israel, and they have now placed Israel on the permanent schedule. Now,
that is not a good thing. That means that every meeting they have, they
will be discussing what human rights violations are in Israel. But as
Mr. Berman pointed out, is Uzbekistan even on the calendar? No. Any of
these other places even on the calendar? No.
Let's look at some of the members of the Human Rights Council now.
Some of the members include Algeria, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia and
Saudi Arabia. Now, I'm very disappointed that, as it has happened, a
group that started out with such a noble cause and noble effort seems
to have a complete lack of reasoned objectivity with their obvious
inherent discrimination against Israel. And it appears they have become
a refuge for human rights abusers to hang out and thereby avoid
scrutiny or condemnation of their own actions.
Just this morning, the President was in New York speaking before the
United Nations; and amongst the comments that he made was the
following: ``Yet the American people are disappointed by the failures
of the Human Rights Council. This body has been silent on repression by
regimes from Havana to Caracas to Pyongyang and Tehran, while focusing
its criticism successively on Israel. To be credible on human rights in
the world, the United Nations must reform its own Human Rights
Council.''
Mr. Speaker, that's what this bill hopes to begin the process of
doing. This Human Rights Council is a sham. It is not accomplishing
what it was set out to do, yet the objective for which it was put in
place still exists, the need still exists. The United Nations needs a
real Human Rights Council, not a cover for those who would abuse human
rights.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes
to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).
Mr. ENGEL. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I rise in
strong support of this resolution.
Yesterday, I was in front of the United Nations in demonstration of
protesting Iranian President Ahmadinejad's speaking to the United
Nations.
[[Page H10785]]
I have always been a strong believer in the United Nations because I
think that it is a good hope for world peace; but, frankly, I must say,
the U.N. discredits itself, and it discredits itself once again by
having this so-called Human Rights Council and the way it operates. And
the U.N. really discredits itself by focusing so much hatred on one
tiny little country, Israel. Whether it's in the General Assembly or
the Security Council or the so-called Human Rights Council, Israel has
become about 40 percent of the resolutions in the United Nations
totally.
It's absolutely outrageous that you have countries like Algeria,
Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, even Egypt and Russia
participating when Israel has such a better record of human rights than
any of these countries.
The problem inherent with the United Nations, unfortunately, is you
have dictatorships basically running the show. And we try to have a
democratic institution, but it's inherently not, because it's
dictatorships that are now a majority there.
It is outrageous, the Israel-bashing that goes on at the United
Nations, and I am proud of this Congress for standing up and saying
that enough is enough. People are dying in Darfur. We don't hear the
Human Rights Council be so concerned about that as they are about
bashing Israel.
So I strongly support this resolution. I think that the Congress does
itself proud by bringing truth to the American people and to the world.
And the Human Rights Council is no better than the organization that
preceded it. We need to change it, otherwise the U.N. will continue to
be discredited.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 557, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CAMPBELL of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas
and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
____________________