(C) BRAZIL DEFENDS UNHRC VOTES ON LEBANON AND GAZA

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 001772

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/22/2016
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNHRC BR
SUBJECT: (C) BRAZIL DEFENDS UNHRC VOTES ON LEBANON AND GAZA

REF: A. SECSTATE 136467

B. BRASILIA 1680 (NOTAL)

Classified By: Political Counselor Dennis W. Hearne, for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary. Brazil defended its votes in favor of UN
Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions on Lebanon and Gaza
when presented with demarche (reftel A). Marcia Adorno, the
Foreign Ministry's chief of the Human Rights Division, told
poloff on August 22 that Brazil opposes unbalanced
resolutions, considered the August 11 resolution unbalanced,
but she defended Brazil's vote in favor of it and said Brazil
believes the Human Rights Council cannot be blind to the
situation in Lebanon. She said Brazil wants to depoliticize
the Council and has proposed a Global Human Rights Report to
help achieve that goal. In the meantime, she said, Brazil
wants the HRC to adopt the Universal Periodic Review. End
summary.


2. (C) Marcia Adorno, chief of the Human Rights Division at
the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, told poloff on August 22 that
the HRC "cannot pretend it is not seeing" the situation in
Lebanon, and defended Brazil's vote as a choice between
inaction and support for an imperfect and unbalanced
resolution that had merit because it created a fact finding
mission. She insisted that, for Brazil, the resolution does
not single out Israel, and said Brazil does not support
resolutions on countries, but rather on situations. For this
reason, she continued, Brazil has not supported resolutions
identifying Cuba as a human rights violator, although it had
supported resolutions on African countries. She admitted
that it depends on the "political moment" and said that
decisions of this type are made above her level. She said
Brazil wants a balanced evaluation of any situation such as
Lebanon and favors balanced resolutions.


3. (C) Adorno added that the (now defunct) Human Rights
Commission had become a forum for attacks, while in Brazil's
view the new HRC should be a forum to protect human rights.
With that in mind, and to depoliticize the Council and
promote human rights through technical cooperation, Brazil
has proposed that the HRC prepare a Global Human Rights
Report, but in its absence the next best thing would be the
Universal Periodic Review, now under study in a working group.


4. (C) Comment: Adorno's admission of past inconsistencies
in Brazil's HR voting record revealed a less than total
conviction in her position. She was unconvincing in her
position that she did not believe these votes erode the HRC,
even as she admitted they were unbalanced. End comment.
Sobel