[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.

                          ____________________