Watchdog slams UN, EU’s human rights ‘cowardice’
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BRUSSELS — The UN and EU stand accused of “cowardice” for claiming to tackle human rights abuses in places like China through soft diplomacy, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Monday.
Highlighting its claim, the report on global human rights violations was issued in Brussels the same day the European Union hosted controversial Uzbek President Islam Karimov amid protests.
The New York-based NGO’s executive director Kenneth Roth lambasted “the failure of the expected champions of human rights to respond” to violations in 100-plus regimes.
In his eyes, the fundamental error made by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others is to place the focus on discreet cooperation, a euphemism for “other interests at stake.”
Roth cites a “tepid” response to repression in Myanmar, noting that the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in Nov. 23 was not matched on 2,100 other political prisoners..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110126com6.html
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