UN Assembly rejects resolution on Sudan human rights

Nov 23, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — A U.N. General Assembly panel refused to consider on Wednesday a European-proposed resolution that would have condemned human rights violations in Sudan, such as killings and rape in the Darfur region.

Ambassador Sichan Siv, the United States Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and a female aide, left, walk out of the group’s meeting to protest a vote giving Sudan a third term on the UN’s Human Rights Commission, the world body’s human rights watchdog, Tuesday, May 4, 2004, at the UN in New York. Siv called the vote an absurdity. (AP) .

The draft resolution before the assembly’s social and humanitarian committee called on the Sudan government to end the culture of impunity, disarm marauding Janjaweed militia in Darfur and and stop the forced relocation of refugees around Khartoum and elsewhere.

But Nigeria, representing the African Union, said no action should be taken so as not to endanger peace agreements and negotiations in Sudan.

African nations called the resolution divisive and destructive and objected to singling out one nation, although the panel has recently approved resolutions against Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Burma, Iran and North Korea.

In response, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, representing the European Union, said, “There can hardly be a situation of human rights in more urgent need of the world’s attention than the situation in Sudan.”

“Despite the efforts of the African Union, civilians are still being killed, rape is still widespread and the situation of hundreds of thousands of displaced people remains dire.”

“The European Union is concerned by the message that the African procedural motion sends about the international community’s concern for the situation in Darfur and in Sudan more widely,” he said.

The African Union has monitors in Sudan and is the main bulwark against further atrocities.

The Security Council six months ago voted to put a travel ban and an assets freeze sanctions against individuals responsible for extreme violations in Darfur, where 2 million people have been driven from their homes.

But nothing has been done. Britain recently decided to draw up a list of individuals, with the help of European members and the United States, to submit to a council committee.

However, diplomats say this may not be approved by Russia and China, who along with Arab nations, have been reluctant to take action action against Khartoum.

(Reuters)