Three months ahead of elections for membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council, Syria’s nomination is coming under intense and increasing opposition from diplomatic delegations and NGOs in New York.
Syria’s U.N. envoy Bashar al-Jaafari says that the campaign falls within a strategy aimed at destroying Syria's image as a member state “which respects human rights and United Nations conventions”.
Jaafari accused the United States, France, Britain and some Arab countries of being responsible for this campaign.
These countries "don’t want us to be in Human Rights Council because we will be equivalent to them", he said, adding that there are defamatory lines indicating “that the regime kills its people and violates human rights.”
A spokesman for the French delegation to U.N., Fredrick Young said that Syria “has no place today in an institution aiming at universal respect for human rights, an institution which formed an international and independent committee to investigate the crimes committed on the ground [in Syria]”.
British U.N. envoy Lial Grant, who spoke in front of the General Society last week, said that "it is strange that Syria presented itself to Human Rights Council elections. Syrian membership will undermine the credibility of this important commission".
The General Assembly of the United Nations is expected to vote in New York in November to elect 14 countries for a three-year-membership in the Human Rights Council which consists of 47 state and is located in Geneva.
Countries nominated from Asia and the Pacific are China, Syria, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Jordan, which was nominated less than a year ago. It is worth noting that Iran withdrew its nomination recently.
Deputy executive manager at Human Rights Watch Ian Levin says that his organization will launch a campaign with other organizations to prevent Syria from getting a seat.
Levin considers that "the nomination of Syria, if continued, will be an incredible insult to Syrian people.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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