VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBR #1772 2351114
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 231114Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6447
INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0165
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1498

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 001772 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/22/2016 
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNHRC BR
SUBJECT: (C) BRAZIL DEFENDS UNHRC VOTES ON LEBANON AND GAZA 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 136467 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 1680 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Dennis W. Hearne, for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary.  Brazil defended its votes in favor of UN 
Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions on Lebanon and Gaza 
when presented with demarche (reftel A).  Marcia Adorno, the 
Foreign Ministry's chief of the Human Rights Division, told 
poloff on August 22 that Brazil opposes unbalanced 
resolutions, considered the August 11 resolution unbalanced, 
but she defended Brazil's vote in favor of it and said Brazil 
believes the Human Rights Council cannot be blind to the 
situation in Lebanon.  She said Brazil wants to depoliticize 
the Council and has proposed a Global Human Rights Report to 
help achieve that goal.  In the meantime, she said, Brazil 
wants the HRC to adopt the Universal Periodic Review.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2.  (C)  Marcia Adorno, chief of the Human Rights Division at 
the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, told poloff on August 22 that 
the HRC "cannot pretend it is not seeing" the situation in 
Lebanon, and defended Brazil's vote as a choice between 
inaction and support for an imperfect and unbalanced 
resolution that had merit because it created a fact finding 
mission. She insisted that, for Brazil, the resolution does 
not single out Israel, and said Brazil does not support 
resolutions on countries, but rather on situations.  For this 
reason, she continued, Brazil has not supported resolutions 
identifying Cuba as a human rights violator, although it had 
supported resolutions on African countries.  She admitted 
that it depends on the "political moment" and said that 
decisions of this type are made above her level.  She said 
Brazil wants a balanced evaluation of any situation such as 
Lebanon and favors balanced resolutions. 
 
¶3.  (C) Adorno added that the (now defunct) Human Rights 
Commission had become a forum for attacks, while in Brazil's 
view the new HRC should be a forum to protect human rights. 
With that in mind, and to depoliticize the Council and 
promote human rights through technical cooperation, Brazil 
has proposed that the HRC prepare a Global Human Rights 
Report, but in its absence the next best thing would be the 
Universal Periodic Review, now under study in a working group. 
 
¶4.  (C) Comment: Adorno's admission of past inconsistencies 
in Brazil's HR voting record revealed a less than total 
conviction in her position.  She was unconvincing in her 
position that she did not believe these votes erode the HRC, 
even as she admitted they were unbalanced.    End comment. 
Sobel