At
UN on Child
&
Human Rights,
Culture Wars
Flare After
Kenya ICC
Abstentions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 27 --
It was the
night before
Thanksgiving
and in
the UN's Human
Right
Committee the
culture wars
flared up. On
a
resolution
called "Rights
of the Child,"
Trinidad and
Tobago took a
reservation
from
provisions on
sexual and
reproductive
health and
adolescents.
The
Holy See
echoed this.
Then Sudan
said that it
accepts the
word
"gender" only
if it means
"male or
female." Sudan
also objected
to a reference
to the
International
Criminal
Court.
And
the ICC,
sources told
Inner City
Press,
specifically
the Security
Council's
refusal to
grant the
request by the
African Union
to a one
year deferral
of the ICC's
Kenya
proceedings,
fueled an
African Group
revolt.
The
issue became
technical: the
African Group
called for a
deferral of
consideration
of a "focal
point" to the
next session
of the
General
Assembly; the
United States
and some
others opposed
"cherry
picking" parts
of the report
of the Human
Rights Council
which
did not
explicitly ask
for GA action.
Sources
on
both of those
sides told
Inner City
Press that the
incoming, just
elected Human
Rights Council
will be less
"pro-West"
than
the current
one,
"resolutions
that used to
pass, won't,"
as
one put it.
And so the
culture wars
threaten to
grow, inflamed
by
eight Security
Council
members'
refusal to
grant any part
of the
African
Union's
request.
This
position was
criticized,
diplomatically,
by the
outgoing
president of
the Security
Council, Liu
Jieyi, whose
End of
Presidency
reception
began even as
the Third
Committee
fight picked
up. Watch this
site.
Update:
the African
Group and its
supporters
voted down the
others'
amendment,
with 76 votes
to the others'
74, 18
abstentions.
Some said:
it's a new
era.
, 
