U.N. Still Not Acting to Protect Human Rights of British Hostages (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

UPDATE, 6:13 pm ET: In a press statement, which is the weakest form of statement possible, the Security Council has expressed "grave concern" for the hostages and called for an early resolution of the problem, including the hostages' release. The Council also appealed to the Iranian Government to allow consular access to the hostages, something I called for the U.N. to do two days ago (see U.N. press release). But a British attempt at a stronger statement calling for their immediate freedom failed, apparently due to Russian opposition. The AP story on the UN press statement also refers to Turkish efforts (unsuccessful so far) to meet with the hostages and mediate the crisis, as I reported here yesterday.
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Two days ago I posted on the silence of the U.N. to that point on the British hostages held by Iran. Now the U.N. has issued a statement on a discussion between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Motaki about the hostages (and Iran's nuclear issue), saying that Ki-moon “expressed his wish to see an early resolution.” WOW, that's really going out on a limb in support of human rights for prisoners! The Secretary-General should have asserted that international law mandates that (a) the Iranians allow the hostages to see representatives of the British government, and (2) the Iranians cease their illegal taping of humiliations and obviously forced "confessions" of the hostages.

But the Secretary-General isn't the only U.N. official to ignore the hostages' human rights; he's just following a hypocritical pattern set long ago by U.N. human rights "experts" who have slammed numerous countries, including the U.S. and Israel, for so-called "abuses," but are next to useless when it comes to state sponsors of terrorism. Here are links to relevant press releases by Ki-moon and the "experts" about other countries:

Myanmar: UN human rights expert calls for release of prize-winning journalist and poet

Zimbabwe: Ban Ki-moon condemns reported police beating of opposition leaders

UN expert to visit US to discuss respect for human rights in war on terrorism

UN human rights expert reports on ‘appalling’ conditions for ordinary Palestinians

UPDATE: Victor Comras reminds me of a draft UN General Assembly Resolution against Hostage Taking which was approved by the General Assembly's Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) in November 2006. The resolution is still awaiting adoption by the full General Assembly. "By the terms of the draft, the General Assembly would reaffirm that hostage-taking was a serious and unjustifiable crime aimed at destroying human rights, and would condemn all acts of hostage-taking, anywhere in the world. It would demand that all hostages be released immediately and unconditionally."

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