United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is sure a UN human rights council would be able to work with the United States, even if the US were to vote against its being established.
Annan was speaking after meeting former president Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
”Even if the US is not able to vote for the council, it will be able to work with the council,” said Annan.
The US has said it will vote against the establishment of the council when the ballot takes place on Wednesday.
Annan noted that the US has done ”so much” for human rights in the past.
The 191-member UN General Assembly has been unable to agree on a replacement for the current UN Human Rights Commission, criticised for including among its 53 members notorious human rights abusers such as China, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported on Wednesday.
The US was opposed to a draft proposal for a council with 47 members that would be elected by a simple majority of the General Assembly, insisting instead on a smaller body whose members would be elected by a two-thirds majority.
Annan is in the final year of his decade at the helm of the UN.
Asked about his retirement plans, he said he would like to move to Africa and live in his home country of Ghana — ”and spend some time outside”.
Mandela commended Annan for being ”a man who can identify with the masses”.
”I don’t despise other secretary generals, but some of them were rather ‘high up’,” Mandela said.
Annan proceeded from Mandela’s offices to the Hector Peterson Memorial in Soweto. He was on the final day of a three-day visit to South Africa. His next destination is Madagascar. — Sapa