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U.N. Reform Tops U.S. Ambassador`s Agenda

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, has said he will start 2006 by reinvigorating stalled efforts to restructure management of the world body, beginning with a controversial push to seek assurances that the Security Council`s five major powers will be guaranteed posts on a new Human Rights Council. The new council would replace the existing 53-member Human Rights Commission, which now routinely grants membership to governments with abysmal human rights records, including Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

The proposal is part of a broader drive by Bolton to place the five permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - at the center of U.N. decision making. The Bush administration favors a requirement that most members of the new council be selected by a two-thirds vote from the 191-member U.N. General Assembly, diminishing the prospects for rights violators.

Bolton`s initiative was criticized by some U.N. diplomats, human rights advocates and others who said it would reward China and Russia, which are often criticized for rights abuses. Candidates for the Human Rights Commission are now selected by a system of regional rotation that makes no distinction between rights advocates and abusers.