VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #2159 3192358
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 152358Z NOV 06
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0761

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 002159 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO-MLAGON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ESOC UNGA
SUBJECT: EUROPEAN COOPERATION NEEDED ON UN RESOLUTION ON 
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) Mission requests Department undertake urgent 
demarches in western capitals on the UN General Assembly 
resolution on the Rights of the Child.  Delegation has been 
participating actively in informal consultations on this 
resolution and has found co-sponsors (EU and GRULAC) willing 
to accommodate US concerns in some areas and divided among 
themselves on others.  In particular, on key US concerns 
relating to the characterizations of the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child (CROC) and references to the 
International Criminal Court (ICC), there seems to be a 
split, with GRULAC ready to accommodate US changes while 
Europeans and Canada are more resistant.  We believe that 
demarches in capitals, particularly in EU countries, Norway, 
Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Canada, urging acceptance of 
US suggestions, which are based on previously agreed 
language, would be useful. 
 
¶2. (SBU)  The draft resolution on the Rights of the Child has 
many problems, and will not be perfect this year from the US 
point of view even if demarches are successful.  We recommend 
strongly, however, that if our concerns on these key points 
are accommodated we be allowed to join consensus on the 
resolution as a whole, dealing with other problem areas with 
paragraph votes or EOPs.  This resolution is in an area where 
the US has vital interests and a good record.  Our tactic of 
non-engagement in recent years has left the US isolated and 
has contributed to a gradual worsening of the resolution as 
sponsors have no incentive to be sensitive to US views at 
all.  We believe that by re-engaging actively and negotiating 
towards consensus in good faith we will have the opportunity 
over several years to gradually eliminate language harmful to 
US interests.  Fixing the references to the CROC and ICC 
would represent a significant victory and be a very good 
start to such a multi-year campaign. 
 
¶3. (U)  Suggested talking points for demarche: 
 
-- The US has worked seriously with co-sponsors of the UN 
Third Committee resolution on the Rights of the Child over 
the past several weeks, with the aim of achieving consensus 
for the first time in several years.  The US shares with the 
European and Latin American co-sponsors a concern for the 
well-being and protection of children.  We find it 
regrettable that the UN's major document on member states' 
treatment of children has been put to a vote each year since 
¶2002. 
 
-- Two major issues stand in the way of the US being able to 
join consensus on this year's text. 
 
-- First, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC), 
to which the US is not/not a party, is characterized as THE 
only standard in the promotion and protection of the rights 
of the child, and the US is urged to become a party to the 
Convention. 
 
-- The US has proposed an alternative formulation for PP2 
that describes the CROC in terms agreed upon at the 2002 UN 
Special Session on Children, and has proposed the usual UN 
way of dealing with treaty ratifications in OP 2, namely 
urging states to CONSIDER becoming a party. 
 
-- Second, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is 
mentioned in two paragraphs -- OP 17 and OP 34(d).  The US 
has proposed an alternative formulation that refers to the 
ICC in neutral, rather than congratulatory, terms for OP 17. 
This formulation has been acceptable in several other UN 
resolutions.  We do not see a need for two references to the 
ICC in this text. 
 
-- The US hopes that key EU and other European countries will 
show flexibility on these two essential points and work 
constructively with the US to find a solution that will break 
the current impasse and lead to a consensus on this important 
human rights text. 
 
-- The text of this draft resolution (A/C.3/61/L.16) can be 
found on the UN website 
www.un.org/ga/61/third/proposalslist.shtml. 
 
End talking points. 
 
BOLTON 
 
 
 
 
 
BOLTON