UN condemns Iraq on human rights By Emma Jane Kirby BBC Correspondent in Geneva http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1940050.stm Iraq has been condemned by the United Nations' top human rights body for conducting a campaign of "all pervasive repression and widespread terror". A resolution sponsored by the European Union was adopted by the Commission for Human Rights. Iraq said the resolution ignored the effects of sanctions Noting "with dismay" that there had been no improvement in the human rights situation in Iraq, the 53-member commission passed the EU proposal to condemn Iraq's human rights record. Twenty-eight members voted in favour of the resolution, four voted against and 21 states abstained. The proposal accuses President Saddam Hussein's government of "systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law". It demands that Iraq should immediately put an end to its "summary and arbitrary executions... the use of rape as a political tool and all enforced and involuntary disappearances". 'Aggressive siege' The head of Iraq's delegation addressed the commission shortly before the vote, asking members to reject the proposal. He said it turned a blind eye to the "aggressive...economic siege" Iraq had been suffering since the UN imposed sanctions on the country after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Friday's vote also secures for a further year the mandate of an independent investigator for human rights in Iraq.
