CZECHS ON UNGA COUNTRY RESOLUTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 001407 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/10/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL UN EZ SUBJECT: CZECHS ON UNGA COUNTRY RESOLUTIONS REF: A. STATE 182267 ¶B. STATE 183547 ¶C. STATE 184178 ¶D. STATE 184156 ¶E. PRAGUE 1252 Classified By: Acting DCM Michael Dodman for reasons 1.4 b+d ¶1. (C) Summary: The Czechs support the U.S. position on the five UNGA Third Committee country resolutions, but are considering negotiating on some of the Belarus-sponsored retaliatory resolutions. End summary. ¶2. (C) Acting DCM discussed UNGA Third Committee country resolutions and retaliatory resolutions (refs A-C) on November 9 with Czech MFA UN Department Director Jan Kara, and November 10 with MFA Human Rights Department Director Veronika Stromsikova. On the five country resolutions in the Third Committee, Stromsikova said the Czech Republic supports the U.S. position in all cases. On the Belarus-proposed retaliatory resolutions, Stromsikova said the Czech Republic strongly supports the EU consensus that the United States resolution must be rejected (as must Iran's Canada resolution). But the other two Belarus resolutions are more complicated. The Czech Republic believes there is basis to negotiate on the resolution condemning the use of country resolutions, given the Czech view that such resolutions should only be applied in the case of "grave" abuses. Stromsikova admitted that it would likely be difficult to come up with an acceptable text, but said the Czechs (with EU partners) were not yet ready to abandon the effort. ¶3. (C) Stromsikova said the Czechs had not yet determined their stance on the resolution on secret places of detention. Terming the Belarus text "cleverly drafted," Stromsikova said that many EU members, including the UK, were prepared to begin negotiating on the resolution. She said the GOCR, like most other EU members, thought it important that the UNGA take up the question of secret detentions. She rejected the USG assessment that the issue was adequately covered in other UNGA resolutions. Specifically, she suggested that the USG had hurt itself on this by successfully scaling back the language in Mexico's resolution on human rights while fighting terrorism -- a more robust Mexican resolution could have permitted the EU to reject the Belarus proposal. ¶4. (C) On the question of No Action motions, Kara noted that the Czechs would support the EU practice of opposing No Action motions, although he admitted that there are instances where such procedural tactics can be helpful. Reviewing the defeat of U.S. efforts to win support for an amendment to the UNGA Cuban embargo resolution dealing with human rights (ref D),Kara said the result was unfortunately close to his prediction weeks earlier that an attempt to add human rights language to the embargo resolution would fail on procedural grounds (ref E). GRABER