On
HRC, ICP Asks
of Sri Lanka,
Free Press
&
Covered-Up
Child Rapes in
CAR
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
15 -- When
countries
running for
seats on the
UN Human
Rights Council
appeared in
the ECOSOC
Chamber to
take questions
on July 15, it
was a staffer
from the
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights who
moderated.
Inner City
Press ran to
the room to
asked
questions; not
called on, it
tweeted
this question:
on OHCHR
cover-up of
child rapes in
the Central
African
Republic,
what's the HRC
oversight
role?
When that
question was
read out,
Switzerland's
Ambassador
Paul Seger
said the issue
had injured
the reputation
of the UN and
OHCHR and that
the Human
Rights Council
might have to
take it up,
once Ban
Ki-moon's
“independent”
panel issues
its report,
due in
mid-September.
Slovenia and
Georgia also
responded.
In the
interim, Inner
City Press ran
to the ECOSOC
Chamber a
second time,
from the
Security
Council
stakeout, and
asked about
the the delay
in the report
on Sri Lanka,
due in March,
to September,
and about
freedom of the
press,
specifically
but not only
in South
Korea. Video
here.
Seger said the
UN was not at
its best on
Sri Lanka;
South Korea
argued that
press freedom
is only
abridged for
national
security. (One
wonders.)
Georgia also
responded on
press
freedoms;
Inner City
Press was thus
glad to have
asked the
question for
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
FUNCA.
The
exercise on
July 15 was on
balance a good
one, and leads
one to wonder
again why at
least this, if
not direct
debate, is not
possible or
even required
in the race
for the next
Secretary
General. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
