UN rights council up and running despite friction

GENEVA, June 19 (Reuters) The new United Nations human rights watchdog earned mixed reviews today after the treatment of Cuba and Israel caused friction among major powers.

The European Union, Canada and the United States attacked the singling-out of Israel's role in the occupied Palestinian territories for continued special investigation.

The United States said this raised ''serious questions'' about whether the new body could be unbiased.

But generally members of the 47-state Human Rights Council, and activists, were relieved that after a year of sometimes bitter discussion, the council had managed to hammer out an accord on how it would work.

Germany's ambassador Michael Steiner, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called the charter covering the body's rules of working a decisive step.

''Clearly this is a compromise. We are not completely satisfied with the result ... (But) it is quite a significant achievement that we have reached consensus,'' he said.

''It is not a perfect text but it represents the maximum common understanding,'' said China's representative Jingye Cheng.

The council was set up by the General Assembly last year to try to burnish the UN's image on human rights protection and had until Monday night to reach a deal on how it would operate.

The deal risked unravelling today after Canada sought to reopen debate on the package after a consensus appeared to have been reached late yesterday. It lost a vote 46-1.

''SUBJECTIVE AND PARTIAL TREATMENT'' The council's charter preserves the watchdog's right to appoint special investigators for countries where the human rights' records are of particular concern, something which many developing states have long opposed.

Cuba and Belarus are both accused of abuse, particularly of political rights. But they did not appear on the list of nine special mandates, which included North Korea, Cambodia and Sudan, carried forward from the Human Rights Commission, the council's discredited predecessor.

''Canada regrets that the (council) ... singles out one situation (Palestine) for politicised, subjective and partial treatment,'' said Canada's representative Perry Cormier. Votes to censure Cuba on the old commission were always close.

''We have put an end to the illegitimate anti-Cuban mandate imposed ... by the United States,'' Cuba's ambassador Juan Antonio Fernandez said. ''For Cuba, it is a day of victory and celebration.'' The main innovation of the council, compared with the commission, is that all countries, even members of the Security Council, will periodically have their rights' records examined.

Human Rights Watch said the jury was out on how effective the council would be.

''The process approved by the council seems more intent on not offending the country under review than it does on addressing human rights abuses,'' the advocacy group said.

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