UN rights body sidelines report praising Libya

A United Nations report hailing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's rights record was on Thursday sidelined by the world body's Human Rights Council just a few days before it was due to be adopted. The report, reflecting a three-hour debate in the council last November, included praise for Libya from a range of countries who last Friday agreed that Gaddafi was a gross rights violator and backed his country's removal from the body.
Rights activist groups said the decision by the steering bureau of the council to postpone adoption of the report would avoid embarrassment for Islamic, African and countries like Cuba who had earlier lauded Gaddafi as a democrat.
Hillel Neuer of UN Watch said the main effect of the report, compiled after a review of Libya's record last November, "was to bolster Gaddafi's oppressive regime, demoralise his victims and harm the reputation of the UN" US ambassador to the council Eileen Donahoe said the report should not be adopted until "the voices of the Libyan people, and not just the voice of the Gaddafi regime, can be reflected" in the final text. Gaddafi struck at rebel control of a key coastal road for a second day on Thursday but received a warning he would be held to account at an international war crimes tribunal in the Hague for suspected crimes by his security forces.
Countries who praised Libya during the November session, part of the five-year-old council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process of all UN member states, included Iran, Algeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan and Myanmar. But last Friday several of these who are members of the council - including Pakistan and Algeria - supported a resolution launching an international inquiry into the ongoing crackdown on protestors and asked the UN General Assembly to suspend Libya's membership in the 47-member Geneva forum. The General Assembly, in which all UN member states sit, unanimously agreed to the move on Tuesday - less than a year after three quarters of countries in the New York body had approved Libya's accession to the rights council.