UNITED NATIONS - 14 March 2006  / www.MaximsNews.com/ The United States government appears poised for a showdown with at least 180 member states of the United Nations over the structure of a proposed new Human Rights Council. 

The rejection last week by the US of the draft resolution establishing the new council risks delaying for a long time the work of the proposed council, unraveling broad agreement among nations and leaving no alternative to the discredited Human Rights Commission. 

Even worse, the US could decide to opt out of the new council when it is formed if the resolution comes to a vote in the UN General Assembly in the next few weeks. 

Virtually all of America’s friends and allies, most of the major US-based human rights organizations, and most recently, five winners of the Nobel Peace Prize—to name a few—have come out in favor of the new council and stand opposed to the US position. 

While the current status toward a stand-off is not favorable, there is hope that the Human Rights Council will be formed with full UN support.  

It is important to note that the potential US confrontation with the UN and its member states—the most recent and most serious in a series led by US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton—could have been avoided had the US government been clearer during the past five months of negotiations over the council about what it believed it needed in order to get Congressional support for the new entity. 

A Human Rights Council has long been at the center of the US government’s agenda for UN reform. 

Clearly, the US could not get everything it wanted during the negotiation process as there was a lot of give and take between nations, but there were trade-offs being made from the outset of which the US could have taken advantage.  

UN officials and other diplomats say that US government officials have been in general disagreement among themselves and unclear about their “bottom line” regarding the council. 

The US has not been centrally engaged in the intense negotiations over the council with nations who wanted no change at all to the old structure of the Human Rights Commission. 

Few followers of the UN reform process would have anticipated that agreement could have been reached so quickly on a Human Rights Council that contains so many of the provisions for which human rights advocates had been pressing. 

The US position was not completely clear until after a draft resolution had been adopted by the General Assembly and after Amb. Bolton made an announcement to the press that the US would reject the draft resolution and gave its reasons for the opposition.  

This new Human Rights Council is a substantial improvement over the Human Rights Commission even though it may not provide for everything the US executive branch and Congress wanted. 

The membership of this new council, for example, will have to be approved by 96 nations rather than just their regional group, making it much less likely that serious offenders of human rights will be included. 

The vote will be by secret ballot for the first time. 

There is also now a formal mechanism to dump council members who turn into human rights violators. 

While there will not be a requirement of a two-thirds majority vote for members to join the council as demanded by Amb. Bolton , the effect of the new procedures will achieve virtually the same goal -- a council of members more committed to protecting human rights. 

In fact, while regional groups can make nominations for council membership, there will no longer be automatic acceptance of regional groups’ slates -- nations are to stand individually. 

Finally, the new council will meet throughout the year rather than holding one highly politicized meeting as did the commission, and will continue to use the valuable “special rapporteurs” to monitor human rights. 

The council also will provide new procedures permitting council members to review the human rights records of all nations.  

Most importantly, this new council represents a renewed commitment by virtually all member states to the core universal set of principles that forms one of the major pillars of the UN. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights—pressed to conclusion by former US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, one of UNA-USA’s most distinguished early leaders—is second only to the UN Charter as a foundation for guaranteeing human rights around the world. 

The term “universal” should mean that all states participate, that all states comply and that the values set within the declaration are valid for all human beings. 

The US needs to be a part of this precedent-setting global entity.  

The US has many objectives to achieve in the UN reform agenda that will require hard bargaining and compromise in the months head. 

This is a defining year in the life of the UN as an institution; with constructive US leadership, the UN can become a better organization for the US and the world community—but only if we can find ways to work with other member states in partnership to accomplish change.  

Last fall at the World Summit, there was a desire to take bold action on a variety of UN reforms but that desire is rapidly being replaced by mutual recrimination, frustration and uncertainty. 

Diplomacy by confrontation might work for the US once or twice but not as a regular habit on the UN floor without grave damage to the process and to US interests. 

A renewed American engagement with a spirit of cooperation would greatly improve the environment and the opportunities standing before us. 

There is much at stake and the US today can achieve great respect and collaboration by working with the member states on this important reform agenda -- specifically, the establishment of a Human Rights Council. 

The US needs this improved environment today, perhaps more than at any time in recent history.

        Amb.Luers@MaximsNews.com

Amb. William H. Luers

       William Luers was elected in 1999 president of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), a center for innovative programs to engage Americans in issues of global concern. 

UNA-USA’s educational and humanitarian campaigns, along with its policy and advocacy programs, allow people to make a global impact at the local level and encourage strong United States leadership in the UN. 

Prior to joining UNA-USA in February 1999, Ambassador Luers served for 13 years as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.  

Prior to his move to New York in 1986, Luers had a 31-year career in the Foreign Service. 

He served as US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1983-1986) and Venezuela (1978-1982) and held numerous posts in Italy , Germany , the Soviet Union, and in the Department of State, where he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (1977-1978) and for Inter-American Affairs (1975-1977). 

Luers has been a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, at George Washington University in Washington , DC , and at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University . He was also the director’s visitor at Princeton ’s Institute for Advanced Study in 1982-1983.  

Born in Springfield , Illinois , Luers received his B.A. from Hamilton College and his M.A. from Columbia University following four years in the United States Navy. He did graduate work in Philosophy at Northwestern University and holds honorary doctorate degrees from Hamilton College and Marlboro College .  

An active member of the Council on Foreign Relations and other public policy organizations, Luers serves on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The National Museum of Natural History, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Rubin Art Museum . 

He is also chairman of the Advisory Board of The Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California and of The Harriman Institute at Columbia University . 

He speaks on foreign affairs, diplomacy, the UN, and the arts, and has been widely published on foreign policy issues. He speaks Russian, Spanish and Italian.  

Luers is married to Wendy Woods Luers, founder and president of The Foundation for Civil Society. He has four children and two stepchildren.  

Ambassador William H. Luers is a Contributor to MaximsNews.