Amid
Children
& Armed
Conflict
Speeches,
Haiti Coercion
& Congo
Abuse Not
Addressed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 11
-- Children
and armed
conflict was
the topic at
the UN Human
Rights Council
on Tuesday
morning, and
by the
speeches,
everyone's
hand were
clean.
Uruguay, from
which four
"peacekeepers"
serving in
Haiti are
charged with
sexual abuse
or "coercion"
of a young
man, did not
mention that
case, but
rather
requested more
information
about Syria
from the
incoming UN
expert on
CAAC, Leila
Zerrougui.
Zerrougui
was
most recently
the deputy to
the UN envoy
to the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
Roger Meece,
and in that
capacity
provided a
defense, some
say
obfuscation,
of
peacekeepers'
inaction
during the
mass rapes in
Walikale in
the DRC.
Her defense of
UN negligence,
tellingly,
didn't stop
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon from
giving
Zerrougi this
new job.
Some
of Tuesday
morning's
speakers did
bristle at
Zerrougui or
the
mandate.
Pakistan, for
example,
alleged the
mis-use or
mis-filing of
this special
mandate
holder's
stand-alone
report as part
of the
country's
Universal
Periodic
Review.
Thailand
on
the other hand
smiled and
spoke of the
protocols it
has joined,
and said how
much it looks
forward to
working with
Zerrougui.
It was
hard not to
note that
Thailand, like
Pakistan,
India,
Colombia and
others has at
the UN in New
York sharply
questioned the
CAAC mandate,
at least under
former envoy
Radhika
Coomaraswamy.
Might
Zerrougui be
weaker on the
issue than
Coomaraswamy?
Time -- but
not
this debate --
will tell.
Watch this
site.
, 
