By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 24, updated -- Amid doggerel about defamation of religion, Durban III and the death penalty, the UN's Third (Human Rights) Committee brought its work to a close on Tuesday night. After 11th hour amendments to the Durban resolution -- calling for a September meeting to commemorate the controversial September 2001 World Conference Against Racism, erased from most people's history by the attacks on the World Trade Towers -- among the Security Council's Permanent Five members, the UK and United States voted against it, Russia and China for it, while France abstained.
While some explanation seemed in order -- see update below -- the speeches after that vote and before the close of the session moved from South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China to India for the Asian Group praising Committee Chair Tommo Monthe for suggesting they “fry the snake in the oil of the snake.” Alongside Finland's praise for the Vienna Cafe there were complaints about the frozen voting machines.
In an annual ritual, the UK delivered a doggerel poem complete with jokes about applying the death penalty to the session. Egypt responded in verse, slipping in lines about Durban and vilification of religion, asking what would be next, human rights and grocery shopping?
Monthe spoke last, awarding himself the gavel and his notes. The representative of Syria, leaving service on the committee, joked that Foreign Occupation would remain an issue close to her heart.
Down in Washington, incoming House powerhouse Ileana Ros-Lehtinen issued a press release calling on the US to “stay away from Durban III, deny it U.S. taxpayer dollars, and oppose all measures that seek to facilitate it.”
As the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairperson next year, the budgetary implications -- largely laughed off by the Committee on Tuesday night -- will become more serious. Watch this site.
