SPAIN DISAGREES WITH U.S. APPROACH TO THEMATIC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 001773 SIPDIS SIPDIS DRL/MLGA FOR GIANNI PAZ IO/RHS FOR AMY OSTERMEIER E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/12/2017 TAGS: EUN PREL UNGA SUBJECT: SPAIN DISAGREES WITH U.S. APPROACH TO THEMATIC RESOLUTIONS REF: A. STATE 122654 ¶B. MADRID 1357 Classified By: DCM Hugo Llorens for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Spanish Deputy DG for Human Rights Fernando Fernandez-Arias told Poloff that Spain respectfully disagreed with most of the content of reftel demarche, but would entertain the idea of a religious intolerance resolution in the Third Committee if absolutely necessary. He said the EU would oppose Third Committee review of the UNHRC report. Calling the death penalty resolution the big project of the EU for this General Assembly, Fernandez-Arias acknowledged that the situation in the U.S. was distinct from other nations but said Spain will not support any softening of the resolution. On the Rights of the Child resolution, Spain would support a UN recommendation for a Special Representative, and he expressed his belief that the U.S. should join the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Finally, he said that President Zapatero would sign the Convention on Enforced Disappearances during his September visit to New York, and he expects that Spain will ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities before the end of the year. END SUMMARY. //SPAIN OPPOSES THIRD COMMITTEE REVIEW OF UNHRC REPORT// ¶2. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to Spanish Deputy Director General for Human Rights Fernando Fernandez-Arias on September 10. Fernandez-Arias said that Spain understands and appreciates the U.S. position but respectfully disagrees with most of it. On Third Committee review of the UNHRC report, he said that the EU would not want to open the report up to revision by any number of nations including Burma, North Korea, Russia, and the PRC, among others. While the report was certainly not fully satisfactory, the EU and Spain feel they can work with the framework established by the report, and they do not want to see forward movement derailed in the Third Committee. As reported previously (ref B), Spain wants the UNHRC to become a principal body of the UN alongside the UNGA, UNSC and ECOSOC, not a sub-body subject to Third Committee oversight; therefore, Spain will support sending the report directly to the plenary. //NO SOFTENING ON DEATH PENALTY// ¶3. (C) Fernandez-Arias said the resolution on a universal moratorium of the death penalty is the EU's "big project" for this General Assembly, and he said Spain would not be open to softening the language. He said Spain is part of the group of hard-liners that includes France and Italy who are firmly and completely opposed to the use of the death penalty under any circumstances. He said the EU is convinced that capital punishment does not serve any purpose as a deterrent, and the world would be better off without it. Fernandez-Arias noted that the EU makes a formal protest in every instance of capital punishment worldwide, including with Iraq on the execution of Saddam Hussein, but especially in cases of execution of adulterers, minors, mentally disabled persons, and homosexuals. ¶4. (C) Fernandez-Arias acknowledged that the U.S. has the rule of law and proper judicial due process, and he further noted that many of the individual U.S. states approve of capital punishment. While the EU and Spain understand U.S. opposition to the resolution and the certainty of a U.S. vote against it, he said that the EU would view poorly a U.S. campaign on the issue in the Third Committee. //RIGHTS OF THE CHILD// ¶5. (C) Spain will support the creation of a Special Representative on Violence Against Children, and Fernandez-Arias sought to clarify that this was not an EU initiative but an internal UN recommendation that the EU endorses. He said he understood the U.S. would likely vote against the standard text of the Rights of the Child resolution, though he said he did not understand why the U.S. would not join the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which he called an important institution that poses no threat to U.S. sovereignty. //RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE// ¶6. (C) Spain will support a resolution on religious intolerance at the UNHRC, based on the impracticality of running a resolution in Geneva, then only a few weeks later MADRID 00001773 002 OF 002 in New York. Fernandez-Arias attributed this to the Portuguese presidency, which he said lacked the resources and will to run the resolution in both venues. However, he said that Spain would support a resolution in the Third Committee if it appeared that a strong measure on defamation of religion would be passed. He noted that Spain had led negotiations for the 2006 religious intolerance resolution, gaining 99 co-sponsors, and he recalled that the United States was the resolution's first cosponsor. In future years, he said the EU's ideal would be to have a resolution at the UNHRC spring session and in the Third Committee in the fall. //NEW CONVENTIONS// ¶7. (C) Fernandez-Arias said that President Zapatero would use the occasion of his September visit to New York to sign the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, though Spain would probably not be able to complete the ratification process before the Convention enters into force. He also said that Spain would likely ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the end of the year. AGUIRRE