U.S. Isolated in Opposing Plan for a New U.N. Rights Council

[Rose Siding]

The United States has found itself isolated in its opposition to a proposal to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission, and its pledge to vote against adoption of the plan has thrown the United Nations into turmoil.
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"It's an open question whether Bolton's throwing all the cards up in the air is meant to improve the council or to prove that the U.N. can't reform itself and therefore should be abandoned," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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In an interview on Friday, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, the General Assembly president, who wrote the final text, said: "I definitely don't want to have an isolation process vis-à-vis the U.S. This is the country of Eleanor Roosevelt and the Bill of Rights. The U.S. belongs on this council, and I want the U.S. on board."
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Mr. Roth also contended that Mr. Bolton's absence last fall and winter from some 30 meetings of the group drawing up the proposal led other countries to conclude that the United States was not fully committed to it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/international/04natio...