GENEVA (March 18, 2001 2:22 p.m. EST) - Suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and continued crackdowns on Tibet make China a top target for U.S. officials when the United Nations Human Rights Commission opens Monday.
Washington plans to take the lead on China by sponsoring a resolution condemning the world's most populous country for what it says is a deteriorating rights situation.
However, the resolution faces a formidable obstacle: a counter-resolution by China. On nine other occasions, China has succeeded in blocking full debate on its human rights record.
Rights groups said they suspect Washington hasn't got the stomach for the slow process of bringing other members of the 53-nation commission on board. Success, they said, hinges on how avidly U.S. leaders lobby foreign governments for support.
"We fear that this announcement was made for domestic consumption in the United States, to calm U.S. public opinion," said Reed Brody, advocacy director of Washington-based Human Rights Watch. "Up to now, no great efforts have been made to have this resolution adopted."
The six-week commission meeting opens in Geneva with a statement from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.
Member nations are expected to spend up to a week discussing the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Last fall, an extraordinary meeting of the commission mandated Robinson's office to appoint a commission of inquiry to examine allegations of Israeli human rights abuses. That report is expected to be made public March 26 or 27.
Another crisis to be taken up at the meeting is Chechnya.
Last year, Russia became the first permanent member of the U.N. Security Council formally rebuked by the commission. Moscow was criticized for "disproportionate and indiscriminate use of Russian military force, including attacks against civilians" in the breakaway region.
Robinson, in a report prepared for this year's meeting, said Russia failed to heed international calls to allow an independent inquiry into human rights violations. Meanwhile, "disappearances and killings, corruption, abuses and harassment at checkpoints" continue, she said.
The new president of Congo, Joseph Kabila, also is expected to address the commission.
For the United States, China remains a top human rights priority. The State Department's annual report said thousands of religious institutions had either been closed or destroyed and hundreds of Falun Gong members imprisoned in the past year.
Second on the Americans' priority list is Cuba. Last year's censure resolution criticizing "continued repression of members of the political opposition and the detention of dissidents" passed - but this time Washington must first resolve disagreements with its allies.
The Czech Republic again is planning to take the lead against Cuba by proposing the resolution. But U.S. officials are furious that the proposed text also attacks the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Last weekend, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Czech President Vaclav Havel to delete the embargo reference, saying it was a mistake to mix economic and human rights issues.
Other countries on the commission's agenda have been the subject of censure resolutions year after year, including Iraq, Iran, Rwanda, Congo and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Human Rights Watch said it feared the commission was becoming less effective because the countries criticized for rights violations increasingly are also members of the commission.
Among this year's new members: Algeria, Congo, Kenya, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam - nations that themselves have been accused of serious human rights violations. Three countries - Cuba, Libya and Syria - are on the U.S. terrorism list. One-party states include China, Cuba and Vietnam.
"Having governments like this is like having foxes guarding the chicken coop," said Brody. His group believes countries join the commission in order to avoid criticism of their own records.
"It is hard to believe that Libya and Syria and Vietnam are actively going to take part in finding solutions for another country's human rights problems," he said.
Many of those countries have regularly refused U.N. human rights' experts requests to visit the country. A standing invitation for such visits should be a minimum standard for commission membership, Brody said.