US Ambassador John Bolton wants the five Security Council powers to have a seat on a still-disputed new UN human rights body, a move bound to anger nations who believe the five already are too dominant. Bolton told reporters on Tuesday that past traditions in the United Nations permitted the five powers to be included âon any UN body they think it is important to serve on.â He said he did not think that including the permanent five Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - on the new human rights body should be written into its bylaws. But he said, âWe will have to address the circumstances as the negotiations on the reform of the human rights commission proceed.â
At issue is the next big reform of the United Nations, a proposed human rights council that would replace the discredited Geneva-based 53-nation Human Rights Commission, which often includes the worldâs worst rights offenders. Bolton, who first mentioned including the five, known as the âperm fiveâ or âP-5,â to the Washington Post and quietly to some diplomats, has been striving to place the five at the center of UN decision-making. |