VZCZCXRO6523
PP RUEHAT
DE RUEHGV #1174/01 1361517
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161517Z MAY 06
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9540
INFO RUEHZJ/HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1331

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GENEVA 001174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM OTRA SU
SUBJECT: LEGAL ADVISER BELLINGER MEETS WITH HIGH 
COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS LOUISE ARBOUR 
 
 
GENEVA 00001174  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  While in Geneva for the U.S. presentation before 
the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva, State's Legal 
Adviser John Bellinger met May 8 with UN High Commissioner 
for Human Rights Louise Arbour.  Her agenda included a 
request for more funding, a grim report on her Sudan trip, 
and a reminder of her outstanding request for a meeting with 
the Secretary.  Arbour led by requesting formal, biannual 
consultations with the USG on OHCHR business, a request the 
U.S. delegation welcomed.  She also pressed the U.S. on 
detainees and counterterorrism practices.  She asked about 
secret prisons, secret flights, renditions, and diplomatic 
 
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assurances for returned terrorism suspects.  L/A Bellinger 
told Arbour that United States was committed to meeting its 
human rights obligations.  U.S. efforts over the past four 
years had resulted in significant improvements in both 
practices and law. L/A Bellinger and delegation have cleared 
this message. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U)  Participants: 
 
U.S.:  Legal Adviser John Bellinger III, IO DAS Mark Lagon, 
DRL/MLA Director Julieta Valls Noyes, U.S. Mission Legal 
Adviser Jeff Kovar, and U.S. Mission PolCouns Velia 
DePirro(notetaker). 
 
OHCHR:  High Commissioner Louise Arbour; Sr. Advisor Jonathan 
Prentice; Chief of Staff Shahrzad Tadjbakhsh; Paul Oertly and 
Richard Lapper. 
 
Sudan: Worse Than A Year Ago 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) In a May 8 meeting with State Department Legal Adviser 
John Bellinger, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise 
Arbour led off with a discussion on Sudan.  Arbour, who had 
returned from a week-long visit to Sudan May 5, described the 
situation in Darfur as even worse than a year ago.  She 
stressed that the security situation was precarious at best. 
Arbour worried that little progress had been made on the 
Comprehensive Peace Accord and that the new peace agreement 
would fare no better without significant pressure on the 
Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed.  Pointing to the 
Deputy Secretary's role in the just concluded peace accord, 
L/A Bellinger stressed U.S. commitment to finding a solution 
to the situation in Sudan. 
 
Appeal for More Funding 
------------------------ 
 
¶4. (U)  Arbour thanked L/A Bellinger for U.S. funding for 
OHCHR activities, noting that the USG is the largest 
individual donor to her organization.  At the same time, she 
asked for increased funding not tied to the Voluntary Fund 
for Victims of Torture. (Note: The U.S. gave the fund close 
to six million dollars in 2005 -- just over half of all its 
funding. End Note)  Arbour said it was important for OHCHR to 
carry out its mandate as the UN's lead human rights agency 
regardless of how the new UN Human Rights Council developed. 
The OHCHR Strategic Management Plan, published earlier this 
year, laid out a roadmap for OHCHR reform and activities, but 
to be successful OHCHR needed more funding. Asked about 
increasing voluntary contributions to OHCHR, IO DAS Lagon 
noted that U.S. support for the doubling of OHCHR's regular 
budget over the next five years, despite a longstanding USG 
preference for voluntary funding schemes in the UN system, 
automatically meant an increase in U.S. funding.  He 
reaffirmed U.S. continued support for OHCHR.  He highlighted 
our interest in seeing increased funding used to staff and 
expand field operations rather than the body's Geneva 
headquarters.  L/A Bellinger said that greater attention 
should be drawn to the U.S. role as the major donor to human 
rights efforts worldwide.  Too often it is taken for granted 
with little recognition for its work in promoting and 
protecting human rights. 
 
Request for Formal, Regular Consultations 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) Arbour indicated that other donors to the OHCHR held 
regular consultations with her staff about their activities, 
which she characterized as extremely helpful.  She requested 
more regular, perhaps biannual, higher-level consultations 
between OHCHR and the USG.  DRL/MLA Director Noyes said the 
USG agreed this would be useful, and coincidentally had just 
requested all its missions overseas where there is an OHCHR 
presence to report on coordination with the USG in the field. 
 Arbour welcomed this news and said she would be very 
 
GENEVA 00001174  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
interested to learn the results of this survey.  DAS Lagon 
suggested that the first round of formal consultations could 
occur in July, when he and other USG officials would return 
to Geneva to present another Treaty report to the UN. 
 
Treaty Body Reform 
------------------ 
 
¶6.  (U)  Arbour raised her ambitious plan for treaty body 
reform.  She admitted that numerous legal complexities, 
practical questions and turf battles will have to be resolved 
before the plan for a single treaty body to replace the seven 
existing bodies is a reality.  Adviser Bellinger noted that 
the United States has serious concerns with the proposal, 
including the U.S. view that each human rights instrument 
would need to be amended and re-ratified to eliminate the 
treaty body it established. 
 
Protecting Human Rights in Conflict Against Terrorism 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Arbour then turned the discussion to U.S. handling 
of  detainees in Guantanamo, secret prisons, secret flights, 
and renditions.  Arbour said she understood the need for 
states to protect their citizens from terrorism -- a 
fundamental human right. Arbour asked whether so much secrecy 
regarding information on terrorism suspects and detainees was 
necessary to U.S. national security.  She speculated that the 
debate on U.S. terrorism policy and practices would be 
circumscribed if the USG released more general information. 
L/A Bellinger reminded Arbour that the U.S. provides the ICRC 
access to the vast majority of detainees even though not 
required to do so and that even the Geneva Conventions 
recognizes that certain categories of detainees who pose a 
threat to the security of the detaining state are deemed to 
have forfeited their right to outside communication.  The 
United States was trying to balance transparency with the 
need to safeguard intelligence and protect the American 
people, noting intelligence cooperation plays an important 
role in international efforts to bring criminals to justice. 
Although U.S. efforts to be transparent have been met with 
ever more ridiculous allegations, the USG has decided that 
rebutting each false allegation would serve little purpose 
and could compromise intelligence.  While the United States 
could not reveal information regarding intelligence 
arrangements with foreign governments, cooperation occurred 
with the consent of both governments across a range of 
activities.  L/A Bellinger said the United States had asked 
European governments to try to calm speculation in their 
countries. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The High Commissioner asked about the U.S. 
practice of seeking diplomatic assurances that detainees 
returned to their country of origin would not be tortured. 
She said seeking such assurances undermined the ultimate goal 
of her office and others to minimize the incidence of 
torture.  L/A Bellinger explained that the U.S. commitment 
against torture remained firm, and that the U.S. would not 
return someone to a place where torture was more likely than 
not.  The U.S., he said, was trying to manage a difficult 
situation.  Critics call for the release of detainees, but 
oppose their return to their home countries because of 
torture concerns.  Obtaining assurances was a practical way 
to address these concerns.  Those who criticize U.S. 
arrangements to fight Al-Qaeda need to provide pragmatic 
solutions.  Neither the United States nor any country should 
be expected to accept persons considered dangerous to its 
citizens.  He emphasized the huge effort made by the United 
States to look for countries to accept released terrorism 
suspects, e.g., the Uighurs transferred to Albania May 4. 
 
¶9. (SBU)  Arbour called for more judicial oversight of 
Guantanamo and detainees.  L/A Bellinger noted that U.S. 
courts are heavily engaged in the process.  He stressed that 
many of the complaints against the United States were based 
on information and practices from 3-4 years ago, and did not 
take into account significant improvement in the last few 
years.  He specifically asked the High Commissioner to ensure 
that UN human rights staff give objective and balanced 
treatment to the United States.  The five Special 
Rapporteurs, who reported on Guantanamo, had failed to do 
this.  They did not meet with USG officials, turned down the 
invitation to visit Guantanamo, and ignored the substantial 
information provided in writing by the United States.  Arbour 
defended the Rapporteurs' decision ("on principle") not to 
visit Guantanamo because they would not have had access to 
the detainees, but said the Rapporteurs could have handled 
the process better. 
 
Request for Meeting with the Secretary 
 
GENEVA 00001174  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  In closing, High Commissioner Arbour reiterated 
her request to meet with the Secretary.  She said that she 
understood that the Secretary's travel and meeting schedule 
was extremely heavy.  Arbour noted, however, that she was 
approaching the half-way point in her term without having had 
the opportunity to meet the Secretary.  L/A Bellinger assured 
Arbour that, although scheduling a meeting has been 
impossible to date, no slight was intended.  He said that the 
Secretary's travel schedule has been heavy but he committed 
 
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to explore the possibility of a meeting. 
ROBINSON