VZCZCXYZ0014
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #2227 3312222
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 272215Z NOV 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0000
INFO RUEATRS/TREASURY DEPT WASHINGTON DC 0000

UNCLAS STATE 122227 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PTER UNSC
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE FOR USUN FOR 30 NOVEMBER ARRIA-STYLE 
MEETING ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND COUNTERTERRORISM 
 
REF: USUN 000480 
 
¶1. This is an action request.  Please see paragraph 3. 
 
¶2. On November 30, the Mexican Permanent Representative to 
the United Nations will host an Arria-style meeting (in which 
members of the Security Council gather informally to be 
briefed by independent experts about matters of international 
peace and security), during which Mary Robinson -- a member 
of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), President 
of Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, 
former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former 
President of Ireland -- will present an overview of a report 
that the ICJ completed last spring that deals with human 
rights and counterterrorism.  The report is critical of U.S. 
action with respect to safeguarding human rights in pursuit 
of counterterrorism goals. 
 
¶3. USUN may wish to draw from the following points in 
response to the November 30 Arria-style meeting on human 
rights and counterterrorism: 
 
BEGIN POINTS: 
 
-- The United States thanks Mexico for its leadership in 
organizing this important meeting.  The United States looks 
forward to working with partners both in and outside the 
United Nations Security Council to ensure that United Nations 
is playing its part in ensuring that national 
counterterrorism measures are grounded in respect for human 
rights and the promotion of rule of law. 
 
-- We must continue to ensure UN provisions embody the 
fundamental principle of protecting human rights while 
countering terrorism and reaffirm our commitment to implement 
efforts in this regard as one of the four pillars of the UN 
Global Counterterrorism Strategy. 
 
-- We would also like to thank Mary Robinson and the 
International Commission of Jurists for their contributions 
to this important dialogue.  The United States thanks Mary 
Robinson for her extraordinary service to the cause of human 
rights, which President Obama recognized by awarding her the 
Medal of Freedom at the White House in July of this year. 
 
-- The relationship between human rights and counterterrorism 
is a critical one in the security environment we face today. 
 
-- We know that radicalism often appears and flourishes where 
fundamental human rights are denied. 
 
-- We know that robust counterterrorism efforts can only 
succeed when they make central respect for humans and rule of 
law.  Only then do these efforts enjoy legitimacy in the 
affected countries and in the global community. 
 
-- And, importantly as well, we know that without adequate 
counterterrorism policies, elements within many societies 
will clamor for the abrogation of basic human rights and rule 
of law.  Such developments often herald the initiation of 
vicious circles in which repression and radicalism feed on 
one another. 
 
-- Let me state categorically that respect for human rights 
is essential for our success against contemporary terrorism. 
 
-- As President Obama said in his inaugural address, there 
must be no tradeoff between our security and our ideals. The 
Obama administration has taken action to ensure that U.S. 
counterterrorism practices reflect this fundamental 
principle, for example, by banning the use of so-called 
enhanced interrogation techniques.  The United States also 
remains committed to closing the detention facility at 
Guantanamo Bay as promptly as possible.  In candor, this task 
has proven difficult, though the administration is committed 
to the closure and has made significant progress in 
resettling detainees -- whom we have approved for transfer 
but whom we cannot return to their countries of origin due to 
post-transfer treatment concerns -- and recently, in 
designating five detainees for prosecution in a U.S. federal 
court.  We appreciate the help of those governments which 
have supported the closure by receiving detainees for 
resettlement, but we will need the continued assistance of 
our friends and partners in the international community to 
meet President Obama,s objective. 
 
-- The Obama administration is committed to strengthening the 
role of the United Nations and the many other relevant 
international organizations in the legitimate fight against 
terror.  In order to make best use of this forum, we hope 
that attention can focus on practical steps that could be 
taken by the Council and its relevant committees and expert 
groups to enhance integration of human rights into their 
respective counterterrorism activities. 
 
-- Cooperation between the Security Council's subsidiary 
bodies, the Counterterrorism Implementation Task Force 
(CTITF), and the UN human rights mechanisms, is essential. 
 
-- The main question for discussion at this meeting is how 
the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies can consider 
human rights and the rule of law in monitoring and advising 
on the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1267, 
1373, and 1540. 
 
-- With respect to Resolution 1267, the international 
community's full implementation of 1267 measures remains a 
critical tool in countering the threat posed by al-Qaeda and 
the Taleban.  The United States believes that the Council 
should continue its efforts to ensure that the sanctions 
imposed are applied in a fair and transparent manner. 
Resolution 1822 and its predecessors introduced significant 
enhancements to ensure fairness.  The Council will negotiate, 
in the coming weeks, a new resolution to renew the mandate of 
the 1267 Monitoring Team and has the opportunity to enhance 
the regime and improve our ability to counter the al-Qaeda 
and Taleban threat.  The United States believes that this 
resolution should take additional steps to ensure that the 
process for listing and delisting individuals and entities is 
as fair and transparent as possible.  We believe that there 
is room to improve the way in which the 1267 Committee 
decides to list individuals and entities and how it considers 
requests for those seeking to be removed from the list. 
 
-- Before addressing ways in which to sharpen the human 
rights focus of the Counterterrorism Committee (CTC) and its 
Counterterrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) established 
under Resolution 1373, it is important to first recognize the 
progress that has been made in recent years.  As the UN Human 
Rights Commissioner herself said in her address to the CTC 
last month, "the CTED, prompted by the CTC, has made a 
vigorous commitment to take relevant human rights 
considerations into account when assessing States' compliance 
with Security Council counterterrorism resolution 1373. 
Moreover, CTED has increasingly shown a willingness to 
address specific human rights issues in its dialogue with 
States. 
 
-- It is now widely recognized that some human rights issues, 
including procedural ones highlighted by CTED in its 13 
November presentation to the CTC on the human rights aspects 
of judicial cooperation, are directly relevant to bringing 
terrorists to justice -- and an important requirement of 
UNSCR 1373. 
 
-- These practical human rights issues, which concern, inter 
alia, the principle of legality, the treatment of terrorist 
suspects and the gathering of evidence, were highlighted 
during a workshop CTED organized for police and prosecutors 
in South Asia earlier this month. 
 
-- CTED also is an active contributor to the CTITF working 
group on human rights and counterterrorism, and we 
enthusiastically support CTED's continued involvement in this 
work. 
 
-- We believe there are additional practical steps that could 
be taken, such as: 1) More regularly involving the senior 
human rights adviser or another appropriate human rights 
expert, either from the Office of the High Commissioner on 
Human Rights (OHCHR), or a regional human rights 
organization, on CTED country visits; and 2) Ensuring that 
human rights elements are fully integrated into all future 
training workshops organized by CTED, following the 
successful model of the recent one in Dhaka. 
 
-- Finally, with respect to Resolution 1540, the focus of the 
1540 Committee is and should remain the prevention of 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  That being 
said, we welcome suggestions as to how the human rights 
considerations can practically and usefully be integrated 
into the work of the 1540 Committee. 
 
END POINTS 
CLINTON