SLOVENIA: COUNTRY SPECIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000731 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, IO E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL KTIA SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: COUNTRY SPECIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTIONS AT THE UNGA THIRD COMMITTEE REF: A. A) SECSTATE 182267 ¶B. B) SECSTATE 183457 ¶1. (C) Polecon Chief met 9 November with Smiljana Knez, newly returned to the MFA from London and currently head of the Human Rights division of the Office for International Organizations to discuss reftel points. Knez said Slovenia has placed a strong priority in developing a common EU position on all the Third Committee resolutions. In principle, Slovenia supports both the Belarus and Uzbekistan resolutions sponsored by the USG. Knez said that the GOS also rejected the "retaliatory" resolution brought by Belarus on the U.S. human rights situation. At the time of the meeting, Knez thought the EU was working to salvage some aspect of one of the Belarus resolutions. Polecon Chief suggested it would require a great deal of effort in a short amount of time, and it was unlikely they would be able to come up with any revision that would be mutually acceptable. ROBERTSON