A Council is born

Yesterday, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution creating a Human Rights Council to replace the much recriminated Commission on Human Rights. The text was adopted with 170 countries in favour, 4 against (US, Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau) and 3 abstentions (Iran, Belarus and Venezuela).

Much can be said about the reasons behind a “no” vote on the part of the United States. However, the reason officially put forward was that the text was not strong enough.

Now let’s look at the distinguished delegate from the Islamic Republic of Iran:
She said that “country-specific resolutions should not be approved” and was concerned that “the suspension of the rights of membership in the Council, … , might be used as a pretext by certain States, in their politically motivated attempts to pursue their national interests.”

Looks as if Iran is taking the text personally…


The full debate can be found here.