NEWS

House Foreign Affairs Committee

U.S. House of Representatives

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican

CONTACT:  Sam Stratman, (202) 226-7875

                            Lee Cohen, (202) 226-1139

May 17, 2007

For IMMEDIATE Release

Ros-Lehtinen Comments on Selection of 14 New Members for UN Human Rights Council

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commented today on the selection of 14 nations to be members of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Established in 2006, the Council reviews allegations of human rights abuses by UN member nations. Statement of Ros-Lehtinen:

Today’s selection of 14 new members of the Human Rights Council only reinforces the disappointment felt by many of us since its inception last year.

I have little hope that the newest members, Angola, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, among them, will improve the already dismal record of the Council in addressing systemic human rights abuses in the world today.

While Israel, a democracy, is consistently singled out for criticism, the Council has not had the courage to condemn genocide in Darfur, the sprawling gulags of North Korea, the repressive actions by Cuba against pro-democracy activists, or bloody military repression in Burma.

Today’s newest members - including a number of repressive regimes - will do little to stem the hemorrhaging of the Council’s already shrinking credibility.

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