NGO Campaign to Remove Libya welcomes new EU draft
NGO Campaign to Remove Libya welcomes new EU
draft
But to stop
atrocities, victims need No Fly Zone and concrete
measures
For
Immediate Release
GENEVA, February 24, 2010 - UN
Watch, which heads the Global NGO Campaign to Remove Libya
from the UN Human Rights Council, welcomed a new EU draft
for tomorrow's meeting that calls for suspension of the
Qaddafi regime from the world's top human rights body.
Click here for text of EU's new draft
resolution.
"The original draft ignored the fact that Libya's council membership is a moral obscenity that must be rectified immediately," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, and an international lawyer who represents Libyan torture victims. "After our objections were widely published, the EU thankfully revised their draft. We're also grateful that that our other demands were met -- for a special session, an international inquiry, and required follow-up at the March and June sessions."
The revised EU draft resolution now "recommends to the United Nations General Assembly, in view of the gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Libyan authorities, the consideration of the application of the [membership suspension] measures." The African Group, China and Cuba objected to the provision during public consultations today, but it remained unclear if they would vote against it tomorrow.
"Because the council can do no more than call on the UN General Assembly to effect the suspension, we now urge the US, the EU and other states to convene the New York plenary to suspend Libya."
"While the council draft regrettably stops short of directly condemning Moammar Qaddafi, the resolution makes clear that his regime is regarded by the world as an international criminal. It is, of course, tragic that not a single state ever spoke out earlier. Who knows if things could have turned out differently if members of the regime knew that the world was watching and cared about the basic human rights of the Libyan people."
"The human rights council meeting is necessary, but hardly sufficient to protect victims of Qaddafi's slaughter," said Neuer. We need to see concrete international action, like a no-fly zone. The UN Security Council must take immediate action on the ground to stop the bloodbath. Meanwhile, all it has done is adopt a press statement, and a relatively mild one at that."
ENDS