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Rights Groups Want Congo Back on UN Watch List

   Fifty  human  rights  groups  from around the world are calling on the
   U.N.  Secretary-General  and  High  Commissioner  for  Human Rights to
   reinstate  the  mandate  for  a human rights monitor in the Democratic
   Republic  of  Congo.  The  groups  say  recent  reports  of atrocities
   committed  in the DRC confirm the need for continued monitoring of the
   country's human rights record.

   Lisa Schlein | Geneva 24 December 2009
   Congolese  and  Rwandan  children  fight  for  cookies handed out by a
   Uruguayan  United  Nations  peacekeeper  at  the  entrance  to  a U.N.
   peacekeeping  encampment  in  the  heart  of  territory  controlled by
   Rwandan Hutu rebels near village of Kimua

Photo: AP

   Congolese  and  Rwandan  children  fight  for  cookies handed out by a
   Uruguayan  United  Nations  peacekeeper  at  the  entrance  to  a U.N.
   peacekeeping  encampment  in  the  heart  of  territory  controlled by
   Rwandan  Hutu  rebels near the village of Kimua, eastern Congo, 02 Oct
   2009

   The  Democratic  Republic  of  the Congo has been off the U.N.'s watch
   list  since  March  2008  when the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council
   buckled under pressure from a number of states.
   Egypt,  other Arab and African states, and Russia were among those who
   spearheaded  the  move  to fire the expert appointed to keep an eye on
   Congo's human rights situation.
   Executive Director of the human rights group U.N. Watch, Hillel Neuer,
   calls this a cynical maneuver.
   He tells VOA the conflict in the Congo reportedly has killed some five
   million  people  in  the  past 10 years.  He acknowledges human rights
   experts cannot put a stop to such huge violations.
   "But,  it is one extra voice," said  Neuer.  "It is one critical voice
   that  can  take advantage of the spotlight that the U.N. provides, the
   podium  the U.N. provides and to be the voice for the voiceless.  And,
   the governments at the Human Rights Council, the majority in the Human
   Rights  Council oppose this because they do not want scrutiny of their
   human  rights abuses.  And, it is time for the international community
   to  say  no to this.  It is time for the human rights community to try
   and make a difference and bring back the monitors who could be a voice
   for those victims."
   Neuer  says  the  Council action on the Congo is not an exception, but
   part of a pattern that has been emerging since the Council was created
   in 2006.
   He says a new majority of non-democratic nations has taken over to the
   detriment  of  human rights.  He says this group openly declares it is
   opposed   to   any   investigation  on  countries,  claiming  this  is
   discriminatory.
   "The  result  was  that in the past three years, since the Council was
   created  replacing the former Human Rights Commission, the expert, the
   monitor  on  human  rights abuses in Liberia was fired.  The expert on
   human  rights  violations  on  Cuba,  the monitor was eliminated.  The
   expert  on  Byelorusse was eliminated.  The six-man team on Darfur was
   eliminated.   And,  you  go on and on.  Now there are about 10 or less
   left.  And, one by one they are being picked off," said Neuer.
   The  coalition of 50 human rights groups calling for the reinstatement
   of  the  monitor  on  the  DRC  includes  14  African non-governmental
   organizations  and  36  more  from  countries such as Iran, India, the
   United States and several European nations.
   Neuer   says   UN  Secretary-General  Ban  Ki-moon  and  Human  Rights
   Commissioner  Navi  Pillay  can  effectively use their so-called bully
   pulpits  to  push  and  prod  the  international  community to be more
   serious in its pursuit of human rights.

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