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UN General Assembly approves landmark text
on death penalty, affirms practice of censuring human rights
violators
The Democracy Coalition Project (DCP) has published
its annual voting record of U.N. member states on select
human rights resolutions put before the 62nd session
of the General Assembly. DCP’s 2007
UNGA scorecard and analysis
examines the voting positions taken by all U.N. states on
five adopted resolutions that were considered barometers of
a country’s approach to key human rights issues before
the UN: a landmark resolution on a moratorium on the use of
the death penalty and resolutions on the human rights situations
in Myanmar, North Korea, Iran and Belarus. This year, all
“no action motions” were rejected, and a broad cross-regional
group of states pushed through the groundbreaking death penalty
measure after two failed attempts in 1994 and 1999.
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Human Rights Council Report Card: Government
Positions on Key Issues 2006-2007
The Democracy Coalition Project has released
an independent analysis of government performance during the
first year of the new UN Human Rights Council entitled “Human
Rights Council Report Card: Government Positions on Key Issues
2006-2007.” The analysis charts the positions of governments
on key proposals related to insititutional reforms and country
specific situations of major concern to the human rights community.
The conclusions of the report underscore the need to develop
cross-regional coalitions in order to build a credible and
vigorous UN human rights system. The report is designed to
help human rights advocates as they pursue strategies to strengthen
the Council's attention to serious human rights issues; it
will also help them evaluate how governments measure up as
candidates for election of new Council members. DCP plans
to publish these report cards on an ongoing basis.
For information on the methodology used and
an anlysis of the findings, click
here.
To view the full chart on Government Positions
on Key Issues 2006-2007, click
here.
To view the chart on Establishing a credible
Universal Periodic Review mechanism, click
here.
To view the chart on Protecting the Independence
of the Special Procedures, click
here.
To view the chart on Addressing Country
Human Rights Situations, click
here.
To view the chart on Addressing Country-Specific
Human Rights Situations:
Darfur, click
here.
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Community of Democracies Convening Group
Calls on the UN General Assembly to favor states with better
human rights records in Council elections
On May 15, 2007, the Convening Group of the
Community of Democracies released a statement
regarding the UN Human Rights Council elections which
called on the membership of the United Nations to "favor
those States which have demonstrated a genuine commitment
to human rights, both in practice and in their pledges."
The statement reiterates the commitment made by Community
of Democracy governments at the III Ministerial Meeting in
Santiago to consider the candidacy of countries contributing
effectively to the promotion and protection of human rights.
Further, the 16-member Convening Group also recognizes that
the resolution establishing the Council "intended for
UN member states to have a real choice in selecting its members."
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Democracies Secure UN Censure of Worst Human
Rights Violators
The UN General Assembly's Third Committee
adopted four key country resolutions despite efforts by spoiler
states to end the practice of naming and shaming the worst
violators, according to a new survey by the Democracy Coalition
Project. The survey, released on 11th December 2006 to commemorate
the 58th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration
on Human Rights, analyzes the voting patterns of UN Member
States at the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations.
The analysis
is based on a scorecard
that records the voting on five country resolutions condemning
human rights abuses in selected states; it also covers a sixth
resolution introduced by Belarus and Uzbekistan which sought
to undermine the importance of country-specific resolutions.
The study showed that efforts to block UN censure of human
rights violators had failed, with members of the UN Democracy
Caucus voting overwhelmingly for the four country resolutions
that succeeded. The scorecards also showed a poor record by
leading members of the Community of Democracies, including
members of its Convening Group.
To view an op-ed on Commonweath countries' voting patterns
based on DCP's scorecard, click
here. The op-ed ran in printed and online media in Zimbabwe,
Jamaica, Maldives, Sierra Leone, Grenada, Sri Lanka and Caribbean
states.
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Community of Democracies issues statement
on elections to the UN Human Rights Council
On 5th May 2006, the Community of Democracies
issued a statement
encouraging members of the United Nations to vote for states
that have demonstrated a genuine commitment to human rights
in the forthcoming elections to the new Human Rights Council.
The statement reiterated the Community of Democracies' 2005
Santiago Ministerial Commitment to support "the candidancy
of countries contributing effectively to the promotion and
protection of democracy and human rights worldwide in bodies
which focus on elements of democratic governance."
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Democracy Coalition Project Releases Scorecard
of Voting Patterns on Human Rights abuses by UN Member States
at the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations
The Democracy Coalition Project has carried
out a study on the voting patterns of UN Member States at
the 60th General Assembly of the United Nations. The analysis
is based on a scorecard
that records the voting on the seven country resolutions condeming
Human Rights abuses in specific states that were presented
to the General Assembly's 3rd Committee in the Fall of 2005.
Six of the seven resolutions were approved, a trend that shows
an increase in censure of Human Rights violations by the international
community.
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Democracy Coalition Project Releases Scorecard
of Voting Patterns at the 2005 UN Commission on Human Rights
Following the 2005 UN Commission on Human
Rights the Democracy Coalition Project prepared a scorecard
on the voting patterns of Community of Democracies and non-Community
of Democracies countries. The scorecard was released with
the latest appeal
issued by the Campaign
for a United Nations Democracy Caucus and was sent to
the Permanent Representatives to the UN of Community of Democracies
countries to further illustrate the need for their support
of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal
to reform the UN Human Rights System.
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UN Democracy Caucus Recommends Positive Consideration
To Four UN General Assembly Resolutions
After the first meeting of the UN Democracy
Caucus on November 1, 2004 Chile, which chaired the meeting,
issued a press
communiqué announcing the Democracy Caucus recommends
that all members of the Community of Democracies give positive
consideration to four draft resolutions when they are up for
vote at this year's UN General Assembly. The four draft resolutions
are: “Torture and other inhuman or other degrading treatment
or punishment” submitted by Denmark; “Promotion
and cooperation among religions,” submitted by the Philippines;
“Enhancing the role of regional and subregional and
other organizations and arrangements in promoting and consolidating
democracy,” submitted by Romania, United States, Peru
and Timor-Leste; and “Improvement of the status of women
in the UN system,” submitted by Australia.
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DCP Releases Scorecard of Voting Patterns
of UN Democracy Caucus Countries At 59th UNGA (2004)
On January 10, 2005 DCP released an analysis
and scorecard
of the voting patterns of members of the UN Democracy Caucus
on key country resolutions at the 59th UN General Assembly.
The analysis shows that there is little consensus among UN
Democracy Caucus members to condemn even some of the worst
violators of human rights, as some democratic governments
continue to prioritize regional or north/south alliances when
casting votes.
The Democracy Coalition Project’s assessment
suggests that democratic regimes are not inclined to vote
as a unified bloc for resolutions critical of human rights
violations, but instead to continue to vote along regional
and sub-regional lines. Non-democratic regimes, on the other
hand, remain united against any move to erode the principle
of “non-intervention in sovereign affairs,” regardless
of the severity of the documented abuses against unarmed civilians.
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DCP Survey of UN Human Rights Commission
Voting Shows Mixed Results for UN Democracy Caucus As India
and South Africa Veto Efforts to Censure Zimbabwe, Cuba
On May 10, 2004 the Democracy Coalition Project
released a comparison of the voting records of the 53 governments
represented on the UN’s top human rights body in 2004.
This analysis reveals that non-democratic regimes were united
in opposing strong resolutions critical of the human rights
situation in countries like Sudan, China and Zimbabwe. In
striking contrast, democratic countries were inconsistent
in their support of more critical resolutions. Notably, South
Africa and India, which serve on the Community of Democracies
steering committee, repeatedly chose to align themselves with
non-democratic regimes in blocking censure motions.
To read the entire press release and see the
survey, click
here.
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UN Human Rights Commission Overwhelmingly
Passes Resolution on Democracy Promotion
At the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Commission,
Romania and other democratic members of the Commission sponsored
a resolution calling on the UN to work with regional and sub-regional
intergovernmental organizations and other interested organizations
on the ways and means of promoting democratic values and principles.
To read the resolution “Enhancing the
Role of Regional, Subregional and Other Organizations and
Arrangements in Promoting and Consolidating Democracy”
endorsed by the UN Democracy Caucus click
here.
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Enhancing U.S. Leadership At The United Nations
This report of an Independent Task Force sponsored
by the Council on Foreign Relations and Freedom House was
chaired by David Dreier and Lee H. Hamilton, with Project
Directors Lee Feinstein and Adrian Karatnycky The Independent
Task Force endorsed the creation of a UN Democracy Caucus.
To view a copy of the report, please visit the
CFR website: www.cfr.org
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