UN panel discourages "name and shame" resolutions

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 (Reuters) A UN General Assembly committee has voted to discourage resolutions that single out abuses by individual countries, such as North Korea, Myanmar or Iran, known as ''name and ''shame'' documents.

But the vote in the social, humanitarian and cultural committee was close and diplomats believed it would be ignored, even after it is adopted by the full General Assembly.

The committee voted 76 to 63 with 26 abstentions yesterday on the resolution, initiated by Belarus and Ukraine and co-sponsored by China, Cuba, Russia, Indonesia, Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, among others. Its passage is tantamount to adoption by the General Assembly, since the committee includes all 192 UN members.

The resolution ''stresses the need to avoid politically motivated and biased country-specific resolutions'' as well as the ''selective targeting of individual countries for extraneous considerations.'' Both the General Assembly and the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, the top UN rights body, pass yearly resolutions against abusers as well as a host of other rights-related topics. Many nations believe the mechanism is being used by the United States and other Western nations against developing nations and never against themselves.

But Richard Terrell Miller, a deputy US ambassador, questioned the motives of Belarus and Ukraine, which he called ''long-term abusers of human rights.'' Miller said he agreed that biased resolutions should be eliminated but that one could start with Israel, the target of numerous resolutions adopted ''without balance.'' On the other hand, he said the United Nations had often tackled grave abuses in countries evenhandedly in documents that gave ''hope to the oppressed'' and spurred reform.

Several other countries, agreed, including Mexico, Canada, the European Union and Japan, who argued that country specific resolutions were an important tool to press rights issues.

Before the vote, US Ambassador John Bolton said the assembly's resolution proved he was right in his unsuccessful fight against the new Human Rights Council in Geneva, which the United States has not joined, despite criticism from allies.

''There's a real problem with the UN human rights machinery,'' Bolton told reporters.

''It's the reason we opposed the establishment of this Human Rights Council. And nothing has happened since the creation of the council to change our view on it,'' Bolton said.

He noted that the Council in Geneva met for the third time yesterday on a resolution against Israel but ''found itself unable -- in its busy schedule -- to deal with Burma (Myanmar) or North Korea or the Sudan.'' REUTERS PDS PM0748