EUROPEAN COOPERATION NEEDED ON UN RESOLUTION ON

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 002159

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR IO-MLAGON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM ESOC UNGA
SUBJECT: EUROPEAN COOPERATION NEEDED ON UN RESOLUTION ON
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD


1. (SBU) Mission requests Department undertake urgent
demarches in western capitals on the UN General Assembly
resolution on the Rights of the Child. Delegation has been
participating actively in informal consultations on this
resolution and has found co-sponsors (EU and GRULAC) willing
to accommodate US concerns in some areas and divided among
themselves on others. In particular, on key US concerns
relating to the characterizations of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CROC) and references to the
International Criminal Court (ICC),there seems to be a
split, with GRULAC ready to accommodate US changes while
Europeans and Canada are more resistant. We believe that
demarches in capitals, particularly in EU countries, Norway,
Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Canada, urging acceptance of
US suggestions, which are based on previously agreed
language, would be useful.


2. (SBU) The draft resolution on the Rights of the Child has
many problems, and will not be perfect this year from the US
point of view even if demarches are successful. We recommend
strongly, however, that if our concerns on these key points
are accommodated we be allowed to join consensus on the
resolution as a whole, dealing with other problem areas with
paragraph votes or EOPs. This resolution is in an area where
the US has vital interests and a good record. Our tactic of
non-engagement in recent years has left the US isolated and
has contributed to a gradual worsening of the resolution as
sponsors have no incentive to be sensitive to US views at
all. We believe that by re-engaging actively and negotiating
towards consensus in good faith we will have the opportunity
over several years to gradually eliminate language harmful to
US interests. Fixing the references to the CROC and ICC
would represent a significant victory and be a very good
start to such a multi-year campaign.


3. (U) Suggested talking points for demarche:

-- The US has worked seriously with co-sponsors of the UN
Third Committee resolution on the Rights of the Child over
the past several weeks, with the aim of achieving consensus
for the first time in several years. The US shares with the
European and Latin American co-sponsors a concern for the
well-being and protection of children. We find it
regrettable that the UN's major document on member states'
treatment of children has been put to a vote each year since

2002.

-- Two major issues stand in the way of the US being able to
join consensus on this year's text.

-- First, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC),
to which the US is not/not a party, is characterized as THE
only standard in the promotion and protection of the rights
of the child, and the US is urged to become a party to the
Convention.

-- The US has proposed an alternative formulation for PP2
that describes the CROC in terms agreed upon at the 2002 UN
Special Session on Children, and has proposed the usual UN
way of dealing with treaty ratifications in OP 2, namely
urging states to CONSIDER becoming a party.

-- Second, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is
mentioned in two paragraphs -- OP 17 and OP 34(d). The US
has proposed an alternative formulation that refers to the
ICC in neutral, rather than congratulatory, terms for OP 17.
This formulation has been acceptable in several other UN
resolutions. We do not see a need for two references to the
ICC in this text.

-- The US hopes that key EU and other European countries will
show flexibility on these two essential points and work
constructively with the US to find a solution that will break
the current impasse and lead to a consensus on this important
human rights text.

-- The text of this draft resolution (A/C.3/61/L.16) can be
found on the UN website
www.un.org/ga/61/third/proposalslist.shtml.

End talking points.

BOLTON





BOLTON