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By Xiong Lei

Several recent cases of human rights abuses that took place prior to Monday's opening session of the United Nations Human Rights Council raise questions about how the agenda will be set for this new UN body.

First and foremost are the simultaneous suicides of three detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay on June 10. UN human rights experts have joined mounting protests against the prison camp, calling for the immediate closure of this US military base on Cuban territory.

The three victims, two from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen, were not the only prisoners at the camp to have endured years of harsh treatment without ever standing trial.

The irony is that the violator of these prisoners' human rights is none other than the country that always points the finger at other "abusers of human rights."

The root cause of human rights violations at the Guantanamo prison camp is not the existence of the prison itself, but the regime behind it. If the world fails to condemn such violations of human rights, I doubt if we will ever be able to prevent other violations elsewhere in the world.

But unless such violations surface by chance, some so-called "human rights watchers" in the West will say nothing about that superpower. They prefer to point the finger at "abuses" of human right in some developing countries, despite these nations' efforts to improve and develop their human rights.

These "human rights champions" used to be very influential when it came to setting the agenda of the UN's former Human Rights Commission. They managed to turn the commission into an arena for "witch-hunting." The only problem was that they always seemed to miss the point, and never targeted those posing the greatest threat to human rights globally those who resort to wars against sovereign states and do not give a damn about the cost in innocent lives.

However lofty the excuses are for such invasive wars, such violent acts have never solved human rights problems. On the contrary, human rights conditions have worsened in the invaded countries, as the people lost their basic right to personal security.

And those who have resorted to such wars have also managed to launch their own assault on human rights. Meanwhile, the "witch-hunters" inside and outside the Human Rights Commission were always quick to single out so-called abusers of human rights. But it must always be remembered that those countries damned as "abusers" never had their troops insult, attack or murder civilians, nor did they establish secret detention camps or torture inmates.

I hope these "witch-hunters" will not be able to mislead the new UN Human Rights Council. Developing countries should have a much greater say in setting the council's agenda.

These "witch-hunters" twisted the function of the old commission from promoting human rights worldwide to naming and shaming governments not to their liking.

This, in fact, prevented the promotion of human rights, as it detracted public attention and diverted victimized governments from their efforts to improve human rights.

True, human rights conditions in some developing countries are far from perfect.

But "witch-hunting" is not the way forward. These countries can only be helped by constructive criticism.

To some extent, every country falls short of the standards set by UN human rights conventions.

But some "witch-hunters" are particularly eager to censure certain countries for their so-called poor human rights records, while failing to understand what socio-economic assistance these countries require in their pursuit of improved human rights.

In doing so, they turn the UN into a stick which they use to beat whoever they dislike. Such an approach is useless and a complete waste of resources.

That is why I hope the UN Human Rights Council does not fall in the trap of those biased "witch-hunters."

It should function like a clearing house rather than a courtroom, showing respect of the sovereignty of every member.

After all, no nation can guarantee its people's human rights when its sovereignty is undermined.

The UN Human Rights Council should identify the real threat to global human rights. Apart from terrorists, true abusers of human rights such as warmongers must also be checked.

The author is a council member of China Society for Human Rights Studies.

(China Daily June 20, 2006)