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Replies
by Burundi,
Bahrain &
Egypt at UN
HRC, Zeid
Light on Sri
Lanka
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
15 -- As the
UN Human
Rights Council
29th ended its
first day on
June 15, there
were only five
rights of
reply: Burundi
to the EU,
Bahrain to the
US, Egypt to
the UK and
Japan and
South Korea
to, who else,
North Korea.
Burundi's
representative
said that
military
figures who
fled the
country had
been with the
coup attempt,
and that now
NGOs from
outside the
country were
stirring up
youth; the
word “terrorism”
was (mis) used.
The youth wing
of the ruling
party, it was
argued, is not
a militia.
Really? What
about the journalists
who've fled,
as the Free UN
Coalition for
Access has
asked?
Bahrain
and Egypt both
argued that
their legal
system treat
people fairly,
something that
for example
Maryam
Alkhawaja and
Mohamed Fadel
Fahmy among
many others
might disagree
with.
North Korea
was told, by
the repliers,
to cooperate
with the UN;
meanwhile
DPRK's mission
to the UN in
New York
issued two
press
releases,
about nuclear
weapons and
about
inter-Korean
relations.
Also at the UN
in New York,
Morocco told a
committee that
Western Sahara
is its; Chile
replied that
it is called
Western
Sahara, not
“Moroccan
Sahara.”
One of
the NGO
speakers said
that
Australia, in
a right of
reply, should
say whether it
has paid human
smugglers to
turn their
boats around.
Libya was
called on to
speak in the
afternoon
session but
was not
present.
Sri
Lanka spoke of
how it
respects
migrants'
rights, after
Prince Zeid in
his speech in
the morning
went notably
light on them.
What will his
report, by
September,
have to say?
What will have
been revealed
by then about
his OHCHR, and
the
Secretariat in
New York, and
the cover
up of French
soldiers'
alleged child
rapes in
Central
African
Republic?
Why didn't the
speaking NGOs
raise this?
Ah, UN. We'll
continue to
cover this -
and #HRC29.
* * *
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reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
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Press at UN
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