Finland takes part in UN Human Rights Commission

Violators can block resolutions against themselves

Makarim Wibisono

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For the first time in ten years, Finland has been chosen as a full member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The 53 member states began their six-week regular session in Geneva on Monday.
      Membership on the commission gives Finland the opportunity to take issue with the violations of human rights. However, getting resolutions passed may not be easy, because the members of the commission include countries with notoriously poor records in human rights, such as China, Cuba, Nepal, Russia, Zimbabwe, and Sudan, whose representatives can block passage of resolutions criticising their own countries.
      The Human Rights Commission has a vast agenda with about 100 proposed resolutions. Most of these are thematic - concerning issues such as discrimination against minorities, and violence against women, for instance.
      The most intense debate is expected in connection with resolutions concerning specific countries. This year proposals are expected on at least Sudan, Nepal, North Korea, and Burma.
     
In recent years the commission’s political horse-trading has received more attention than any concrete improvements in human rights, and it is feared that this year’s session might prove just as ineffective.
      In addition to the fact that a number of notorious violators of human rights are members of the commission this year, many are not pleased with the choice of Indonesia’s Makarim Wibisono as the commission’s chairman.
      "The commission has become a refuge for governments like Sudan, which should be in the dock rather than on the top UN rights body," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, speaking to the Associated Press.
      Martin Scheinin, a Finnish Professor of international law, also feels that it is problematic that countries with an indifferent attitude toward human rights are getting more power on the commission.
      "When resolutions concerning individual countries become political decisions, a certain selectiveness in the handling of violations is involved", he says.
     
However, Tarja Kantola, Chairwoman of the consultative committee on international human rights, feels that it is better for those countries to be present in Geneva.
      At the meeting, Finland plans to focus on human rights issues related to women, children, minorities, the disabled, and indigenous peoples.
      Finland also plans to organise a panel discussion in Geneva on discrimination against sexual minorities.
      Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja is scheduled to speak at the conference today, Tuesday. Tuomioja also does not feel that the UN Commission on Human Rights is the right place to take up Finnish concerns over the plight of the Finno-Ugric Mari people, which has been a focus of attention in Finland recently.
      "A better place would be bilateral negotiations between Finland and Russia", Tuomioja said on Monday.
     
The UN Human Rights Commission has not succeeded in passing a resolution on Chechnya for years. Foreign Minister Tuomioja said that Finland plans to take part in debate on the Chechnya question in a common front with the EU.
      Tuomioja also feels that the work of the commission has meaning. "Otherwise, these countries would not work so hard to block resolutions", he explained.
      Johanna Suurpää, head of the Human Rights Unit of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, says that there are, perhaps, too many issues to be handled at the meeting. Although she does not want to be too pessimistic, she notes that it is difficult to push resolutions through with all of the manoeuvring that is taking place.
      "This is, nevertheless, a global forum, where human rights can be discussed on an international level every year."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mari people complain of continued persecution by Russian officials (1.3.2005)

Links:
  United Nations Commission on Human Rights

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