COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES AMBASSADORS REGROUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GENEVA 002628

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IO/RHS, DRL/MLA, L/HRR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2016
TAGS: PHUM UNHRC
SUBJECT: COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES AMBASSADORS REGROUP
FOLLOWING HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL SESSION

Classified By: Political Counselor Velia De Pirro for reasons E.O. 1295
8, 1.4 (b)(d).

Summary
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1. (U) Ambassador Tichenor hosted Community of Democracies
Convening Group (CD/CG) ambassadors Oct. 13 to discuss the
second Human Rights Council (HRC) session and ways for the CD
to play a more meaningful - and visible - role in Geneva by
taking common positions on issues, making joint statements,
and possibly introducing draft resolutions at the next
session. Opinions of the last HRC session ranged from
disappointment (U.S., Peru, Romania) to self-congratulatory
elation (India, South Africa) with the remainder falling
somewhere in between. Few members had concrete proposals to
make on what the CD/CG should focus. Most members, led by
Chile, railed against an eleventh-hour attempt by Mali to get
a Washington-originated CD/CG statement read into the record
of the HRC session without first consulting Geneva-based
CD/CG members. End Summary.

Second HRC Session Gets Mixed Reviews
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2. (U) The group recognized that the Human Rights Council was
in a transitional stage, but most also agreed that pressing
issues should have been raised at the last session.
Ambassador Tichenor said that the United States was
disappointed that the Council could not find a way to address
Darfur or begin to lay the ground work for dealing with other
serious human rights issues. Peru and Romania expressed the
same concerns, with the Romanian representative going as far
as saying that members seemed more keen on protecting
regional group interests than human rights. To a few raised
eyebrows, an upbeat Indian PermRep Swashpawan Singh said he
thought the Council was off to a great start and praised it
for finding consensus on 1503 Complaints Procedures. He
stressed that the Council was simply at the stage of
gathering materials for a foundation and would need lots of
political capital if it were to succeed. He further remarked
that no one should expect the HRC to be something entirely
new. South Africa agreed and said the Council was still in
Commission (on Human Rights) mode and it was too early to
expect concrete results. Also focusing on the bright side,
the Philippines and Poland gave high marks to the interactive
dialogue portion of the last session.

Getting the CD/CG Active in the Council
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3. (U) Ambassador Tichenor suggested that the Community of
Democracies play a more substantive role in the Council's
first transitional and formative year. While agreeing with
the need to build a strong foundation for the new body, the
Ambassador also cautioned that it should not come at the
expense of failing to address serious human rights issues.
Chilean PermRep Juan Martabit was joined by a chorus of
ambassadors and other representatives in saying that the
CD/CG meeting was long overdue and encouraged members to
start looking for ways to get the CD more active in the
Council. He suggested preparing a statement for the third
session scheduled for Nov. 27-Dec. 8. Philippines PermRep
Enrique Manalo said that despite coming from different
regions and having different approaches, CD/CG countries
share common positions on a number of thematic issues, which
could be raised at peer review and mandate review working
group meetings or even in a joint draft resolution. He,
Moroccan PermRep Mohammed Loulichki, and Indian PermRep Singh
encouraged members to come up with a list of core issues on
which everyone could agree. PolCouns noted that previous
attempts to get a joint statement had failed, but another

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attempt would be discussed by CD/CG experts before the next
ambassadors' meeting. Singh said that the CD/CG should not
focus exclusively on the Council and should look to being
more active as a group in other UN bodies.

CD/CG in Geneva Protects Own Territory
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4. (U) Near the end of the meeting, Chilean PermRep Martabit
raised the issue of the Washington-originated CD/CG statement
on NGOs that the Mali PermRep had attempted to have read into
the record at the last day of the second HRC session. While
he fully supported the text, Martabit and most attendees said
they were disappointed at Mali - whose representative was not
in attendance - for the way in which it was introduced. They
were insistent that any text introduced at the Human Rights
Council should originate from Geneva and not Washington, New
York or elsewhere.

COMMENT
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5. (C) The CD/CG in Geneva needs some serious resuscitation.
While most participants seemed genuinely pleased that an
ambassadors-level CD/CG meeting took place - the last one was
in May - no one answered the Ambassador's call at the meeting
for a volunteer to host the next lunch. Mission Geneva
volunteered to again host the group. (NOTE: Italy has
subsequently agreed to host the lunch preceding an
experts-level meeting to discuss common CD
issues/values/priorities and views. END NOTE.) India and
South Africa continue to show reluctance to any kind of joint
CD/CG effort in the Council. The Indian PermRep's suggestion
of expanding CD/CG efforts beyond the UN human rights body
may have been an attempt to divert our focus away from the
Council. Mali, the current chair, has not been engaged in
CD/CG activities in Geneva, but this has more to do with its
staff of four persons rather than a lack of enthusiasm. Post
will attempt to work with our traditionally-strong CD
partners -- i.e., Chile, Poland, South Korea, and Romania --
and other expert level colleagues to develop a core list of
thematic issues that may be further fleshed out into a
possible joint general statement for the next Council session
as well as into joint positions for the upcoming UPR and
mandate review working group meetings. End Comment.

TICHENOR