MORE JORDANIAN REACTION TO PROPOSED UN HUMAN

UNCLAS AMMAN 006353 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM JO UNGA SUBJECT: MORE JORDANIAN REACTION TO PROPOSED UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REF: A. STATE 140191 ¶B. AMMAN 5104 ¶C. AMMAN 6200 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. The head of the Human Rights Directorate of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry is supportive of the U.S. proposal for a new Human Rights Council (HRC) at the UN. However, he held back from fully endorsing all of the details of the proposal, with an eye still on the Arab group's, and especially Egypt's, emerging position. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Poloff met August 4 with Minister Counselor Ziad Majali, head of the Human Rights Directorate of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, to hear Majali's reaction to ref A points of clarification regarding the creation of a new HRC. Majali echoed his sentiments from an earlier meeting (ref B),saying that as a matter of principle, the GOJ agrees to the U.S. proposal for the HRC. Majali was happy to see that his concerns about membership requirements were addressed by the new points, though he stopped short of a complete endorsement of the U.S. proposal in its entirety. ¶3. (SBU) In Majali's view, the most important next step is to get broad agreement in principle to the proposal, and then work out the details at the upcoming UNGA. He hoped that other Arab countries, particularly Egypt, were receiving the same information as he, and was interested to know the reaction of the GOE on the HRC proposal. ¶4. (SBU) Majali said that while he agrees with the proposed membership requirements for the HRC (i.e., that countries subject to Security Council sanctions not be eligible) he believes that a new membership requirement might be in order for the Security Council itself. Since, according to ref A points, one measure at the disposal of the HRC would be to recommend Security Council review of a country's human rights violations, Majali argued that it would be a conflict of interest to have a Security Council member investigate its own alleged human rights abuses, but offered the unrealistic remedy of limiting membership in the Security Council to countries that are completely "in line" with UN agreements on human rights. HALE