Statement delivered by Ms Lara Nassau, First Secretary, Australian Mission to the United Nations, in explanation of vote in the General Assembly Plenary on the Human Rights Council resolution
22 December 2007
(As delivered)
The new Australian Government is strongly committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and wants the Human Rights Council to play a strong, positive role in promoting and protecting human rights around the world.
The Council’s institution-building package contains a potentially useful set of tools and working practices, including the innovative Universal Periodic Review mechanism.
We welcome the continuing role in the council of UN Special Rapporteurs and the increasingly interactive dialogues with them, which have generally improved and assisted Council consideration of country and thematic human rights issues, including on issues of particular concern to Australia and countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The new Special Sessions have also proved useful in dealing with pressing situations in Sudan and, recently, Burma.
That said, we remain of the view that the Human Rights Council’s institution-building package is unbalanced. We were deeply disappointed at the unnecessary inclusion of a separate standing item focusing exclusively on the ‘human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories’, which contradicts the Council’s founding principles of non-selectivity and objectivity.
Given these concerns, Australia will maintain its vote against this resolution. We remain strongly committed to working constructively and actively with Council and non-Council members alike to ensure this new body is able to respond effectively to urgent human rights situations.