South Africa: Country Rejects un's Criticism of Its Human Rights ... - AllAfrica.com

Zama FeniPretoria

South Africa have rejected the United Nations (UN) Watch study which ranked it's human rights record as one the worst in the world.

In response, the Department of Foreign Personal Business was adamantine that the publicity and protection of human rights stays one of the pillars of South Africa´s foreign policy.

According to newspaper reports, the United Nations Watch, ranked South Africa human rights record alongside those of China, Russia, Pakistan, Algerie and Saudi Arabian Arabian Peninsula The section hailed the United Nations Watch study as blatantly lopsided, because it makes the feeling that the international community is only concerned about civil and political rights.

While many western states and western Non - Governmental Arrangement (NGOs) are only concerned about civil and political rights, South Africa on the other manus and many other states are concerned about all human rights - civil and political; and societal and economic, according to Foreign Personal Business interpreter Ronnie Mamoepa.

He said South Africa's protection of human rights is an attack derived from the fundamental law and the measure of rights. "We show this practically in both our isobilateral and many-sided engagements. Bilaterally we prosecute directly with states and show our concerns where we experience that human rights are being violated," he said.

In the many-sided arena, South Africa have always been among the prima states behind the reform and strengthening of the UN´s human rights machinery. As a manifestation of this, said Mister Mamoepa, South Africa chaired the dialogues that led to the creative activity of the new United Nations Person Rights Council. "We supported the creative activity of the Person Rights Council because we saw it as a organic structure with the possible to re-energize the UN´s human rights machinery and better its credibility.

"The UN´s human rights machinery, over the years, lost its credibleness owed to the jobs of dual standards, selectivity and politicisation.

"By dual standards, we intend that it only addressed itself with human rights jobs in some and not in other countries," he stated. Mister Mamoepa explained that historically, the United Nations declarations on human rights have got always targeted mainly the development countries, adding that no declarations are ever brought and passed to turn to human rights states of affairs in developed states or planetary human rights jobs created by developed countries.

This is a fact that organisations such as as United Nations Watch, Person Rights Watch and Amnesty International cognize too well.

Relevant Links

"Because of this, a jeer is made of human rights with the feeling created that certain human rights misdemeanors are tolerable because they are committed in some countries," he said.

Had the United Nations Watch rankings been based on a holistic and comprehensive appraisal of state positions, based on all the docket points of the Person Rights Council, surely South Africa makes manner better than many other countries. "We also trust that the Lord'S Day Times would look critically at some of these organisations before giving them not due credence. "It should be recalled that United Nations Watch is one arrangement that is actively campaigning to sabotage a cardinal South African enterprise at the planetary level, the World Conference Against Racism."

While the human race is grappling with and trying to happen solutions to the jobs of racial hate and intolerance, Mister Mamoepa said that the United Nations Watch stations articles on its website describing the conference as a "global festival of hatred".