GENEVA, 13/03/07 - The Netherlands has put itself forward for extended membership of the UN Human Rights Council. The Hague also wants the organisation strengthened.
The Netherlands currently sits on the Council, which was set up last year to succeed the UN Commission for Human Rights. The term for its participation expires this year.
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen announced the Dutch candidacy yesterday in a speech at a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The next period is for three years.
The Netherlands wants the new 'universal periodic review' to be an effective instrument. If a country is not according to this instrument complying with human rights demands, then the review should have real consequences, stated Verhagen. He also wants guarantees that NGOs continue to be involved in the council's activities.
Verhagen called on the UN Human Rights Council to support the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC promulgated its first indictments last month, against two Sudanese top officials. The minister said he was disappointed by the lack of cooperation by the Sudanese government with the investigation by Human Rights Council rapporteurs.
Verhagen already said last Friday to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Louise Arbour that he wants the UN Human Rights Council's position strengthened. The Council's predecessor, the Commission, was insufficiently occupied with human rights in individual countries, such as Sudan and Myanmar, in the Dutch view.
Verhagen expressed fears to Arbour that if the Council does not work for improvements in practice, people will lose faith in it. Verhagen and Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders consider human rights must at the international level become an integral part of development and foreign policy, including anti-terrorism policy.
Koenders wants women's rights high on the Council's agenda. He does not want a separate ambassador for women's rights, but rather that all UN organisations involved with women's rights work together with the Human Rights Council.
