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Updated version with signatures (9 March 2006) Action Urged to Create a Worthy Human Rights Council - Joint Statement by UN Watch and the Transnational Radical Party Following the announcement by the UN General Assembly President of further consultations on the draft resolution to create a new Human Rights Council, UN Watch and the Transnational Radical Party urge all Member States - especially democracies -- to speak out for critical improvements to the current draft. Specifically, Member States should ask President Jan Eliasson for three key changes: 1. Restore Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Two-Thirds Threshold The Annan Plan of March 2005 required candidates for Council seats to pass a two-thirds threshold of General Assembly votes. As a result, one-third of General Assembly members could block unqualified countries. If coherently applied, this rule would allow democratic States to keep off notorious human rights offenders such as Sudan. Regrettably, the existing draft fails to redress what Mr. Annan and many others recognize as the greatest flaw of the current Commission: its membership. We recognize that the text's proposed requirement of an absolute majority for election to the Council is an improvement over the existing situation, whereby full control lies in the hands of the regional groups. Yet when the General Assembly was recently asked to condemn Sudan for human rights crimes, no more than 79 out of 191 countries were willing to go on record opposing the Khartoum regime - and the resolution failed. If the General Assembly cannot muster a majority to cite Sudan for violations, it is difficult to expect a majority to suddenly support full exclusion. In addition, regional groups should be required to submit more candidates than allotted seats, to ensure that nominations are actually put to a vote instead of the result of horse-trading -- a process that has yielded election of the worst regimes. 2. Remove the Anti-NGO Clause in Operational Paragraph 11 If adopted, this clause would place non-governmental organizations under the constant threat of restrictions on their ability to speak out freely at the Council for human rights victims. In veiled language, the clause insists on "ensuring the most effective contribution" of NGOs and other observer entities. In the context of the relentless attempts by certain Member States to curb NGO participation, this provision is intended as a sword to be wielded against the historic right of NGOs to attend, observe and actively participate in all proceedings and debates of the new Human Rights Council, including by submission of oral and written statements. In recent years, several NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières and the Transnational Radical Party, were threatened with suspension by member states seeking to censor NGO criticism of their human rights records. 3. Remove the Blasphemy Clause from the Preamble's Paragraph 7 The clause that answers the demand of 56 Islamic States to prohibit blasphemous defamation of prophets and religions, following the cartoon controversy and the anti-Denmark riots, is anomalous, contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and has no place in the charter for a new human rights body. Although watered down, the provision introduced in the current text would impose special demands on the media to respect religion. Contrary to previous UN statements on the matter, the text omits any balancing language in favor of freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Several other UN mechanisms are dealing with this issue and there is no reason for its inclusion in this text. The clause is an attempt to appease the violent agitators who burned buildings and killed innocent people with a grant of international legitimacy. Finally, we call on the Community of Democracies, an alliance founded in 2000 and now numbering over 100 nations, and its Democracy Caucus at the UN, to take its rightful place in leading the push for the needed reforms. Democracies must stand up and unite -- putting aside regional and other alliances -- to make a lasting contribution to human rights and the UN. Failing to do so would result in a failure not only for the UN, but for the world's democracies as well. Hillel Neuer UN Watch Matteo Mecacci Transnational Radical Party