UNGA TAKES ACTION ON THIRD COMMITTEE RESOLUTIONS

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001207

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR IO/RHS, DRL/ML; EMBASSIES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNGA PHUM KSOCI KDEM
SUBJECT: UNGA TAKES ACTION ON THIRD COMMITTEE RESOLUTIONS

REF: A. USUN 1111

B. USUN 131888


1. SUMMARY: On December 18, the UN General Assembly took
action on Third Committee resolutions, adopting 39 draft
resolutions by consensus and 17 by vote. Five remaining
resolutions, which had budget implications and needed review
by the Assembly's Fifth Committee, were adopted on December

24. The Organization of the Islamic Conference,s defamation
of religions resolution passed by vote, as did the human
rights resolutions on North Korea, Iran and Burma. An
Iranian no-action motion failed by a margin of 15 votes. The
United States remained isolated in voting against resolutions
on the rights of the child and the right to food, but picked
up a little support in voting against a Russian resolution on
contemporary forms of racism and a Cuban resoltion on the
right to development. During the December 18 session, a
group of 66 countries presented a statement on sexual
orientation and gender identity, urging the decriminalization
of homosexuality, and a group of mostly Islamic countries
presented a counter-statement. END SUMMARY

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CONSENSUS RESOLUTIONS
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2. The UNGA adopted the following Third Committee draft
resolutions by consensus: A/63/423/1, entitled &Enlargement
of the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees;8 A/63/423/2,
entitled &New international humanitarian order;8
A/63/423/3, entitled &Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees;8 A/63/423/4, entitled
&Assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in
Africa;8 A/63/424/1, entitled &Realizing the Millennium
Development Goals for persons with disabilities through the
implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning
Disabled Persons and the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities;8 A/63/424/2, entitled &Follow-up to the
Second World Assembly on Ageing;8 A/63/424/3, entitled
&Implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for
Social Development and of the twenty-fourth special session
of the General Assembly;8 A/63/424/4, entitled &Follow-up
to the implementation of the International Year of
Volunteers;8 A/63/424/5, entitled &United Nations Literacy
Decade: education for all;8 A/63/425/1, entitled
&Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of
violence against women;8 A/63/425/2, entitled &Trafficking
in women and girls;8 A/63/425, entitled &Future operation
of the International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women;8 and A/63/425/4, entitled &Supporting
efforts to end obstetric fistula.8


3. Draft resolutions adopted by consensus continued:
A/63/425/5, entitled &Follow-up to the Fourth World
Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the
twenty-third special session of the General Assembly8 (NB:
the U.S. disassociated from consensus on this resolution);
A/63/427, entitled &Indigenous issues;8 A/63/429/1,
entitled &Universal realization of the right of peoples to
self-determination;8 A/63/428/3, entitled "International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination;" A/63/430/Add.1/1, entitled &Torture and
other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;8
A/63/430/Add.2/2, entitled &The role of the Ombudsman,
mediator and other national human rights institutions in the
promotion and protection of human rights;8 A/63/430/Add.2/3,
entitled &Regional arrangements for the promotion and
protection of human rights; A/630/430/Add.2/5, entitled
&National institutions for the promotion and protection of
human rights;8 A/63/430/Add.2/6, entitled &International
Year of Human Rights Learning;8 A/63/430/Add.2/7, entitled
&Effective promotion of the Declaration on the Rights of
Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and
Linguistic Minorities;8 A/63/430/Add.2/8, entitled &Human
rights and extreme poverty;8 A/63/430/Add.2/10, entitled
&Subregional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in
Central Africa;8 A/63/430/Add.2/13, entitled &Enhancement
of international cooperation in the field of human rights;8
A/63/430/Add.2/14, entitled &Elimination of all forms of
intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or
belief;8 A/63/430/Add.2/16, entitled &Missing persons;8
A/63/430/Add.2/17, entitled &Protection of migrants;8
A/63/430/Add.2/18, entitled &Protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism;8
A/63/430/Add.2/19, entitled &International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;8
and A/63/430/Add.2/23, entitled "Committee on the Rigths of
the Child" (NB: the U.S. disassociated from consensus on this

resolution).


4. Draft resolutions adopted by consensus continued:
A/63/430/Add.5, entitled &Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol
thereto;8 A/63/431/1, entitled &Preparations for the
Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice;8 A/63/431/2, entitled &Improving the
coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons;8
A/63/431/3, entitled &Strengthening the United Nations Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its
technical cooperation capacity;8 A/63/431/4, entitled
&United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of
Crime and the Treatment of Offenders;8 A/63/432, entitled
&International cooperation against the world drug problem;8
and A/63/433, entitled &Programme of work of the Third
Committee for the sixty-fourth session of the General
Assembly.8

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VOTED RESOLUTIONS
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5. The UNGA adopted the following Third Committee draft
resolutions by vote:
A/63/435/Add.1, entitled &Report of the Human Rights
Council,8 which passed 121-7(U.S.)-58;
A/63/426, entitled "Rights of the Child," which passed
159-1(US)-0;
A/63/428/1, entitled &Inadmissibility of certain practices
that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism,
racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,8
which passed 129-2(U.S.)-54;
A/63/428/2, entitled "Global efforts for the total
elimination of racism, racial discrimination, sexophobia and
related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of
and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of
Action," which passed 109-13(US)-35;
A/63/429/2, entitled &Use of mercenaries as a means of
violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right
of peoples to self-determination,8 which passed
125-52(U.S.)-5;
A/63/429/3, entitled &The right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination,8 which passed 173-5(U.S.)-7;
A/63/430/Add.1/2, entitled &Equitable geographical
distribution in the membership of the human rights treaty
bodies,8 which passed 128-55(U.S.)-2;
A/63/430/Add.2/1, entitled &Moratorium on the use of the
death penalty,8 which passed 106-46(U.S.)-34;
A/63/430/Add.2/4, entitled &Combating defamation of
religions,8 which passed 86-53(U.S.)-42;
A/63/430/Add.2/9, entitled &Globalization and its impact on
the full enjoyment of all human rights,8 which passed
129-54(U.S.)-4; and
A/63/430/Add.2/11, entitled &The right to development,8
which passed 182-4(U.S.)-2


6. Draft resolutions adopted by vote continued:
A/63/430/Add.2/12, entitled &Human rights and unilateral
coercive measures,8 which passed 132-54(U.S.)-0;
A/63/430/Add.2/15, entitled &Extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions,8 which passed 127-0-58(U.S.);
two oral amendments proposed by Uganda on behalf of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, attempting to insert
language related to persons under foreign occupation and to
delete language referring to sexual orientation were rejected
in respective votes of 71-75(U.S.)-22 and 60-78(U.S)-28;
A/63/430/Add.2/20, entitled &The right to food,8 which
passed 184-1(U.S.)-0;
A/63/430/Add.2/21, entitled &Respect for the right to
universal freedom of travel and the vital importance of
family reunification,8 which passed 121-4(U.S.)-60;
A/63/430/Add.2/22, entitled &Promotion of a democratic and
equitable international order,8 which passed 124-55(U.S.)-7;
A/63/430/Add.3/1, entitled &Situation of human rights in the
Democratic People,s Republic of Korea,8 which passed
94(U.S.)-22-63;
A/63/430/Add.3/2, entitled &Situation of human rights in
Myanmar," which passed 80(US)-25-45;
A/63/430/Add.3/3, entitled &Situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran,8 which passed 69(U.S.)-54-57;
Iran,s no-action motion was rejected in a vote of
69-84(U.S.)-25, and Iran,s proposed oral amendments striking
Operative Paragraphs six and seven were rejected in
respective votes of 50-72(U.S.)-50 and 50-71(U.S.)-51; and
A/63/434, entitled &Programme planning,8 which passed
175-3(U.S.)-2.

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SEXUAL ORIENTATION STATEMENTS

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7. Following the December 18 action on human rights
resolutions, the Permanent Representative of Argentina read a
statement on behalf of a group of 66 countries reaffirming
the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity, and urging decriminalization
of homosexuality. The full text can be found at
http://www.droitslgbt2008.fr/. In a separate side event,
French minister for Human Rights Rama Yade, Netherlands
Foreign Minister Verhagen and seven human rights activists
representing civil society in a number of countries held a
panel discussion on the topic. The non-binding statement,
which is not an official action of the General Assembly but
merely an expression of the point of view of a nubmer of
member states, is the first time the issue of sexual
orientation has been taken up at the GA. The U.S. was not
one of the signatories of the declaration (ref B),despite
requests from the main co-sponsors, France and Brazil, and
several U.S. NGOs. A counter-statement on behalf of the
members of the OIC and others was written by the Egyptian
delegation and read by Syria immediately after the reading of
the statement by Argentina.

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EXPLANATIONS BY DELEGATIONS
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8. Statements during the meetings were limited to
Explanations of Procedure or Vote that were not previously
made in the Third Committee, but Egypt and Singapore echoed
their statements of strong opposition to the death penalty
moratorium resolution (ref A). Syria, speaking on behalf of
a large group of mostly Arab, African, and Central Asian
States, expressed concern regarding the inclusion of a
reference to sexual orientation and gender identity in the
resolution on extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary
executions, arguing that there is no definition or basis of
such in international law. In contrast, Argentina, on behalf
of a large group of Latin American and European States, urged
States to investigate and offer protections against human
rights violations of persons because of their sexual
orientation or gender identity. A number of delegations
delivered Explanations of Position on the draft resolution on
the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was adopted by
consensus during the December 10 UNGA plenary commemorative
meeting on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The statements were similar to those made
in the Third Committee (ref A),with some lauding the
Optional Protocol,s passage, and others echoing concerns
regarding the individual complaint mechanism, and the
judicial difference between economic, social and cultural
rights and civil and political rights. Although the United
States remained isolated in the GA plenary in voting against
the Cuban right to food resolution, it picked up a few votes
on two other resolutions it opposed: the Russian resolution
on contemporary forms of racism (joined by the Marshall
Islands) and the Cuban right to development resolution
(joined by the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Ukraine).
Khalilzad