UNGA debates Human Rights Council report on Syria
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E-mail Xinhua, February 14, 2012
The UN General Assembly reviewed on Monday the human rights council report on the violence in Syria.
While all of the representatives of the 33 member nations speaking at the meeting called for an end to the violence in Syria through peaceful means, not all of them endorsed the Arab and European-sponsored peace plan.
That proposal was defeated on Feb. 4 in the UN Security Council by the vetoes from China and Russia, two of the five permanent members of the council.
At Monday's General Assembly session, Belarus, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Nicaragua joined China and Russia in voicing opposition to that plan.
For his part, Vitaly Churkin, the permanent representative of Russia to the UN, said, " After his trip to Damascus on Feb. 7, the minister for foreign affairs of Russia, Mr. (Sergey) Lavrov, described a perfectly realistic strategy for resolving the situation."
"First the League of Arab States observer mission should continue its work," Churkin said. "There should be more observers so that they can be in all of the hot spots and so that they can investigate any violations of the ceasefire principles by whomever."
The League of Arab States had deployed a human rights observer mission to evaluate the situation in Syria, but retracted the mission on Jan. 28 due to violence.
Churkin said that the second step would be to engage all parties in Syria in political dialogue with a view to finding a peaceful solution.
"For the dialogue to start, anyone with any influence to bear on opposition groups who have not yet agreed to dialogue should bring effective pressure to bear on them," he said. "A proposal along these lines was a proposal by Moscow that we should have representatives and opposition groups without any preconditions meet to discuss the whole Syrian agenda."
Also speaking at the General Assembly, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said "The international community should play a positive and constructive role. The actions of the United Nations on the Syrian issue should comply with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations, help ease the tensions, help promote political dialogue and defuse disputes, and help maintain peace and stability in the Middle East region, rather than complicate the issue."
"China consistently maintains that constructive dialogue and cooperation is the only right way to promote and protect human rights," Wang said.
"On the Syrian issue, China neither shelters nor intentionally opposes anyone," Wang said. "China takes an objective, just and responsible approach."
"China is always committed to upholding the fundamental and long-term interests of the Syrian people, maintaining peace and stability of Syria and the region, and safeguarding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations," he said.
"Our purpose is to shield the Syrian people form conflicts and warfare," Wang said.
Initially, Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, the permanent representative of Syria, challenged the decision of General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser to hold the meeting.
Ja'afari called for the meeting's cancellation, citing a technicality in provisions of a General Assembly resolution on the handling of Human Rights Council reporting to the world body.
He was supported by the DPRK and Iran. Russia also spoke of the procedural problem.
Their objections were overruled, with the notation that the decision to hold the session was not a precedent-setting action.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned "The risk of a humanitarian crisis throughout Syria is rising."
Responding to Pillay's remarks on the human rights situation in Syria, the Syrian ambassador said that Pillay failed to address "the genuine reasons" which led to the current situation in his country.
Ja'afari said Pillay was making accusations without proper investigation.
Noting that the main reason for the continuing violence in his country was the lack of a proper international environment that included respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-intervention, the Damascus envoy said "It was as if all the Charter of the United Nations was being ignored, and a new draft was being written."
Syria has long accused outsiders for attacks on security forces.
"Stop killing my people ... Instead help the Syrian government protect its people," the ambassador said, adding that he wanted Syria to retain its right to be able to conduct reforms without outside interference.
