US House bars funding for UN rights council
Fri Jun 22, 11:35 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives moved to prohibit US funding of the UN Human Rights Council, derided by one member as a "poisonous talk shop," as part of a mammoth funding bill passed early Friday.
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The United States has repeatedly expressed frustration with the council over its rules, targets for monitoring -- including US ally Israel -- and the way it conducts business.
The amendment, to a measure funding the State Department and US diplomacy, passed by unanimous voice vote, and prevents US funding for the overall United Nations budget from being used for the council's 15 million dollar annual operations.
"We were right to refuse to dignify that poisonous talk-shop with our membership, and we must refuse to support it with our tax dollars," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"By pulling its membership from the broader UN General Assembly without any membership criteria, the council has gone further than its predecessor in giving gross human rights violators the power to shape the international human rights agenda," Ros-Lehtinen said.
The council, of which the United States is only an observer, was formed last year to replace the discredited UN Human Rights Commission.
The United States earlier this week said it was disappointed by new rules adopted by the Human Rights Council and accused the fledgling institution of denying its own members voting rights
The 47 members of the Geneva-based council agreed to continue scrutiny of Israel and sought the abolition of independent rights experts monitoring Cuba and Belarus.
The United States said it was also concerned about what it called "procedural irregularities" employed to deny council members the opportunity to vote on the agenda.
In a statement, Ros-Lehtinen's office faulted the council for failing to condemn genocide in Darfur, the "sprawling gulag of North Korea" and political and rights abuses in Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070622...s_070622153555
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."
Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)
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