The UN 'Human Rights' Council- UPR and Durban Week 1

So what can I say about my internship so far at the UN? It has been interesting… I am at the UN most days at the moment, the Durban Preparatory Committee for the Durban Review conference is taking place so I am covering that, taking notes and reporting anything of interest. So far nothing life shattering or any worse than would be expected when you learn about the normal proceedings that go on here at the Geneva ‘human rights’ headquarters.

When you walk in, the UN grounds are very impressive, the first thing you see when you get there is an enormous broken legged chair, commemorating the victims of landmines in the entrance. Immediately behind all 192 member states flags lead up to the entrance. The grounds themselves are also beautiful, huge and majestic with a view of the lake and peacock wandering freely. It is all so grand, peaceful and impressive, unfortunately however the impressiveness pretty much ends the second you walk into one of the halls and witness the proceedings there.

Last week the first Universal Periodic Session (UPR) was held. This process was hailed as one of the fundamental differences between the old Commission on human rights and the new supposedly ‘improved’ Human Rights Council. However being at the first session you realise what a joke this too has become. The first state under review was Bahrain, the week before I read some of the reports submitted by NGOs and official UN bodies about Bahrain. You read about the prevalence of torture, discrimination of Women and the Shia majority and the frequent use of the Death Penalty and wonder how Bahrain is going to defend itself in the upcoming Review. However sitting in the plenary session on Monday, I found myself asking is this the same country I was researching last week and wandering if I should rather be booking my next holiday to Bahrain considering all the “noticeable improvements” it is alleged to have made in the past few years. Each state under review is invited to first give a presentation and then the floor is opened to other states for question and recommendation. During Bahrain’s review the Arab and African states swamped the floor, with only a sprinkle of western democracies making any mild statements of criticism. The session consisted of successive states patting Bahrain on the back complementing her for the tremendous steps made towards promoting human rights, referring to Bahrain as a “pioneer who has set a very high standard to follow.” It was crazy, it completely undermined the entire process and any hopes that this new process will be helpful in addressing real human rights violations. The reviews that followed pretty much went along the same lines with Islamic states complementing each other on improvements from everything from women’s rights to freedoms of expression. Despite NGO submissions proving the contrary.

The past week of ‘Durban’ has been surprisingly calm, pretty much the same play of the “cool kid” states that belong to the OIC or Arab group making statements about all the great measures they have taken in preventing racism, racial discrimination and Xenophobia. One thing I have certainly learned is that over hear the truth is completely irrelevant, a childish concept that is just not fashionable in this forum. States claim what they want and no one cares to verify it. (Not that any one cares much if you do-the truth is harsh and boring after all.) Before the conference started I was reading a letter submitted by Iran on all the mechanisms they have put into place to protect human rights and fight racism, including setting up institutes to promote women’s rights, educational policies promoting equality and measures put into place to protect minorities. If even a fraction of these claims were true I’m prepared to start wearing a headscarf and convert to Islam…there is just no ways! What kills me is ho they get away with it!

Right now I am waiting for the morning session to begin its currently 10:45am the session was meant to begin at 10:00 so much for the UN being professional, the chair has not even arrived. As for the chair thats another story, she is the previous Libyan ambassador and clearly sympathetic to her colleagues and their allies. Each Islamic state begins its statement with obsequious flattering of the chair on the “excellent job she is doing in chairing the council.” In fact a woman representing the victims of the holocaust has been repeatedly chastised by both Egypt and Algeria for not “thanking the chair” and addressing her with “the appropriate level of respect”. This same woman has caused quite a stir. She has been interrupted every time she has offered a statement by the chair who says she is not speaking on the topic under discussion even when she clearly repeats the topic and relates it to her subject matter. The points she has brought up include insisting that anti-Semitism is a specifically Jewish matter. Algeria and other have been referring to anti-Semitism as effecting Arabs as well as they are “also Semites.” Another issue that keeps coming up is “contemporary forms of racism.” Which is pretty much the Islamic states way of changing the subject to focus on the alleged increase in Islamaphobia since September 11th. They continually try bring up issues such as “state sponsored terrorism:”, the vandalising of Muslim graves in France and other examples of how Islamaphobia and Arab-phobia are now crucial issues that must be deal with. They use this as pretext to try open up the original Durban Plan of action, leaving the possibility of a repeat of the Durban Fiasco. However when the same NGO representative, brought up the idea that Anti-Zionism is in fact a ‘new manifestation of racism’ that certainly didn’t go down to well….

Anyway for now all same old, Monday should get interesting as they are discussing the accreditation of a Jewish Canadian NGO that Iran has called to be blocked from participating, we will have to wait and see the outcome…