DEMARCHE ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTIONS: FRENCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 008159 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2014 TAGS: PHUM PREL FR SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTIONS: FRENCH RESPONSE REF: STATE 236869 Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso ns 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to MFA DAS-equivalent for Human Rights in the Directorate of United Nations and International Organizations Affairs Beatrice le Fraper du Hellen on November 9. She indicated that France would co-sponsor all of the reftel resolutions and would vote against any resolutions introduced by Belarus to draw attention away from its human rights record. ¶2. (U) Le Fraper du Hellen raised several thematic resolutions currently before the General Assembly. She noted that France would not be able to accommodate the US wish to withdraw language on the ICC from the resolution on political disappearances. France also has reservations, she said, about US positions on reproductive health with regard to resolutions on women's issues. Discussions continued, she noted, regarding cloning. ¶3. (U) The MFA continues to hope that an agreement will be reached among all WEOG countries on a rotating membership for the Human Rights Commission; however, le Fraper du Hellen continued, differences on these substantive issues could prove a stumbling block to agreement on the rotation procedure. ¶4. (C) Comment. The MFA official's suggestion that support for a WEOG UNCHR rotation plan may be contingent on satisfactory resolution of substantive differences on thematic resolutions is new. Until this point, France has been willing to explore a rotation plan, as long as a compromise acceptable to all WEOG members could be found (and French equities protected). The suggestion of a substantive quid pro quo from le Fraper du Hellen may have simply been an off-the-cuff remark from a relatively junior Quai official not representative of GOF policy -- or an indication of a shift. We will attempt to pin this down in future contacts with the Quai. End comment. Wolff NNNN