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