SA votes against UN human rights declaration

SA has voted against the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, notes a TimesLIVE report. SA joined 13 other countries – including North Korea, Sudan, Syria, China, Russia and Zimbabwe – to reject a declaration recognising, in international law, the importance and legitimacy of human rights activity, and those who carry it out. There were 117 votes in favour of the resolution, 14 against and 40 abstentions. This is the latest action that has brought SA's reputation as a defender of human rights into question, notes the report. Besides protecting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accused of masterminding genocide, from arrest in June in defiance of a court order, in recent years SA has voted in the UN against condemning human rights abuses in countries like Zimbabwe and abstained from voting for resolutions to condemn countries such as Syria and North Korea for human rights violations. Muluka-Anne Miti-Drummond, of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, said this week's decision had tainted the image of SA. ‘There is nothing in the resolution that SA is not already obliged to do so it doesn't make sense not to sign this,’ she said. Spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, Clayson Monyela, said the UN resolution was overly prescriptive on the sovereignty of national parliaments. It sought to impose conditions that would effectively place rights defenders above the law.