Failing to Protect: the UN and the Politicization of Human Rights

www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com FAILING TO PROTECT www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com ROSA FREEDMAN Failing to Protect The UN and the Politicisation of Human Rights A www.ebook3000.com A Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Copyright © Rosa Freedman, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Freedman, Rosa Failing to Protect The UN and the Politicization of Human Rights ISBN 978-0-19-022254-3 Printed in India on acid-free paper www.ebook3000.com For Andrew (and Alfie) www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Author’s Note xi Prologue xiii 1. International Law: What Law? 1 2. The UN: A Brief xplanationE 11 3. International Humanitarian Law, Criminal Law, Human Rights Law 25 4. Univ ersal Rights or Cultural Relativism? 37 5. UN Human Rights Machinery 47 6. Look! We Did Something: South Africa and Israel 57 7. Stop Shouting, Start Helping: Post-colonialism, Human Rights and Development 69 8. Human Rights of Migrants: What Rights? 79 9. The ‘Great’ Powers 87 10. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Hidden Abuses Across the World 97 11. The ‘Good uys’G 119 12. It is Not All Doom and Gloom 127 13. Alternatives: A Radical Proposal 141 14. Alternatives: A Less Radical Alternative 151 15.âAlternatives: Reform 163 Notes 169 Index 209 vii www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful to Michael Dwyer for encouraging me to write this book. Michael and Jon de Peyer have both been incredibly patient throughout this project, as have Andrew and Alfie. I am also very appre- ciative of the friends (Antonia Mitchell, Ed Perchick, Fiona de Londras, Hannah Simon, John Baldwin and Sorah Grossman) and family (Gill, Jeremy, Seth and Sophie) who read drafts or parts of the book and pro- vided such insightful and honest comments. I am similarly grateful to the two anonymous peer-reviewers. Finally—because I do not believe that the acknowledgements section ought to read like an Oscars accep- tance speech—I want to thank Olivia Klevan who, despite refusing to read a word I write, always goes above and beyond in terms of her sup- port, advice and encouragement. ix AUTHOR’S NOTE The United Nations does many good things around the world: from health to labour, from refugees to financial aid, from humanitarianism to diplomacy. I do not aim to provide an overall assessment of the Organisation. Au contraire. This book is focused on one area that the UN covers, and one aspect of that area in which the UN fails to accom- plish the duties with which it has been entrusted. It is about the UN’s work on international human rights and its failure to protect individuals from grave violations and abuses. The aim of this work is to explain why the UN fails to protect human rights. It is not aimed at the specialist reader, although s/he may be interested in the examples and analysis. The specialist reader might wonder why I have not covered humanitarian intervention, Responsibility to Protect (‘R2P’), or any one of a num- ber of other interrelated topics. Those issues are discussed in other works, although there clearly is a need to disseminate that information to a non-specialist audience. But in order to make this book readable, accessible, and to remain focused on the task at hand, I have not devi- ated from international human rights other than where it is necessary to explain the overlap with other international laws and legal mechanisms. This book is intended to start a conversation amongst the wider public. It is time that we start asking questions: about how our money is being spent at the UN, about the nature of the bodies contained therein, and about how the UN can be reformed to ensure that it is able effectively to undertake its duties. I hope that this book will provide a spark that will ignite. xi PROLOGUE On 17 March 2008, I witnessed Mr Gibreil Hamid, a refugee from Darfur, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council. Mr Hamid’s statement to the Council was brief. He mentioned three incidents within a conflict that had already claimed 200,000 lives and 1 displaced two million people. Mr Hamid’s hands remained steady as he talked, but his eyes flickered nervously as he addressed people who were supposed to hold power to end such atrocities. Concisely and precisely, he told the Council how a report delivered earlier in the day demonstrated that ‘the Government of Sudan is violating human rights and international humanitarian law, with physical assaults, abductions and rape’. He described how government forces rounded up and killed 48 civil- ians praying in a mosque in Muhajiriya; how, after government planes had dropped bombs on Habila, those same soldiers entered the village to steal animals, shoot inhabitants and set fire to the houses. He went on to recount that in West Darfur armed men had attacked a group of ten women and girls. A sixteen-year-old girl from the group had been gang raped, and at least three other women were whipped and beaten with axes. Police and soldiers refused to intervene. Nestled in the heart of the UN’s compound in Geneva, the Human Rights Council and its adjoining meeting rooms span three floors of a rather drab-looking building tucked away towards the back end of the UN compound. The Serpentine Bar, next to the Council Chamber, allows delegates to sip their lattes while looking out across a stunning view of Lake Geneva. Government delegates, human rights activists and xiii PROLOGUE UN staff mill around the building during Council sessions. Many wan- der in and out of the Chamber itself, even when victims who may have travelled halfway across the world are delivering statements or entering into dialogues. The meeting oomsr around the Chamber are filled with formal meetings, bringing together government delegates, regional groups and politi- cal blocs, and with informal meetings organised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The atmosphere is relaxed, particularly amongst state representatives, with much of the ‘real’ work being done behind the scenes prior to the Council’s official session. Diplomats and their teams keep to themselves, although the Serpentine Bar and the outdoor smok- ing areas are places where everyone intermingles. Even in those areas, however, the hierarchies remain obvious. The dress codes vary according to the individual’s role. The more expensive the clothes, the more likely it is that the delegate holds significant power. But power does not neces- sarily equate to knowledge or understanding of human rights. Indeed, the opposite often is true. The men and women holding power tend not to be based in Geneva, or if they are they tend not to attend Council sessions other than on days designated for top-level delegates. On the High Level Segment days, when ambassadors and other key state government officials attend the Council’s session, the clothes and briefcases in and around the Council signify money and importance. All too often, that is a signal that the individual has flown in for the occasion; knows little about human rights; and has required in-depth briefings from his or her human rights team the previous evening. While Mr Hamid portrayed these events, delegates within the Council continued their conversations. People wandered around the Chamber, talking on mobile phones, rustling papers or gathering up their belongings. The webcast of his statement shows people walking into and out of the row directly behind the speaker; the hum of voices accompanies Mr Hamid’s words. This brave man, who had survived unspeakable atrocities, had made the long journey from Africa to Geneva to tell his story, to speak of the suffering of his people, to ‘tell the truth of what is happening’ in Darfur. Almost incredibly, his words were ignored by the very people in whom he had put his faith and hope. Government delegates, for whom human rights violations exist in numbers, in theory, in the abstract, simply ignored the man standing before them who had witnessed those horrors xiv PROLOGUE with his own eyes and whose words begged the world to stop the suffering of his people. Mr Hamid’s message was clear. He asked ‘this Council to please stop praising Sudan for its “cooperation”. Mr President, attacking little girls is not “cooperation”.’ Later, at the very same session, Council members ignored the pleas of this survivor.

Load more