BeIR/webis-touche2020 huggingface dataset:
The existance of the current UNHRC harms human rights

Prop failed to present any concrete actual harm they claim that the UNHRC caused. Therefore, if we can show you even a marginal benefit arising from the UNHRC’s existence, then it is enough to want to keep the UNHRC. In our points, we show you much more than marginal benefits - we show crucial and highly important achievements of the UNHRC. Therefore, the prop is actually calling for the stopping of all the important work that the UNHRC is doing to promote HR. This is obviously a real and harsh damage for the global HR situation. Moreover, the act of abolishing a UN body whose purpose is to deal with HR, sends out an extremely undesirable negative statement regarding the importance of HR. Dismantling the UNHRC is an act of reduction of the importance of HR, and the influence of the fight against HR abuse - and in our points we’ll show that it also harms the process of shifting the world’s conception of HR as a matter only for the west, which is integral for fighting HR abuse.
Opposition Summary & Conclusion

Through this debate, Opposition has defended the HRC on two fronts - we’ve shown that the political inclination of the council serve the greater good, and we’ve shown that the HRC is successfully acting against HR abuse. And so, To create a world where human dignity is a given, and to join the whole world in the fight for this cause, we urge you not to abolish the HRC. Prop claimed that the current HRC is too political, like the previous HR Commission was, and so it acts non-objectively. We’ve shown that politicization exists in every organization as well as in the UN and is essential in order to create international agreement on the efforts of the HRC[[http://tinyurl.com/3kan74q]] - and so, every call against politicization is a call against international cooperation and the UN. Also, in our 5th rebuttal we’ve shown that there is no real objective decision, and that a UN body that matches Prop’s ideal dreams is impossible. When Prop suggested the replacement of the HRC with another council, without explaining how the alternative will amend any so called “faults”, we saw that Prop’s claims about the flaws of the system did not stand up to their own concession that there is need to a council of a similar form, but have failed to show a possibility for a successful alternative. Furthermore, we’ve shown how the “politicization” promotes human rights, by balancing between exposure of many countries to the subject, promoting responsibility[[http://tinyurl.com/3t46k8n]] and preventing entrenchment and protection through the rotation system[[http://tinyurl.com/3fad8pj]]. So, politicization is not only essential for a UN council, but is also a positive factor which enables the council to act internationally and is no reason for abolition. The second focal point of this debate concerned the way that the HRC supports or harms HR. Prop claimed that the HRC made no progress to promote HR, isn’t tackling HR issues where they happen and actually harming HR - without sufficient proof of harm. We’ve shown that the HRC is acting in a unique and essential way, so if there is no alternative to it. the council is succesfully promoting HR in several distinct cases[[http://tinyurl.com/3t6ks6y]], it should be abolished. Hence, simply removing it, and by doing so stopping the current efforts of the HRC would greatly harm the global fight for HR causes. Furthermore, we explored Prop’s actual claims in the 6th rebuttal, and the HRC actual mandate, proving that the HRC does stand up to its mandate[[tinyurl.com/3sbm33n]] & that Prop’s expectations are illogical, if not impossible. Even if it is not magically solving all of the world problems, it is achieving a substantial amount of good without no concrete harm - its doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. And so, because the HRC is achieving its goals, and displays excellent achievements given the natural limitations imposed on any UN council, we see no reason to abolish it.
Too little too late

Regrettably, team proposition’s rhetoric is too far removed from the actual facts and reality: Regarding Darfur, prop point us at the UN General Assembly resolutions instead of what the UNHRC done, which would be more relevant to our debate. Also, as a matter of fact, the UNHRC did live up to its expectations and investigated the HR violations in Sudan. [[http://is.gd/TBwZE9]] Since the prop seemed to have missed one of the most crucial aspects of this debate, which is what the UNHRC is really expected to do, then our 5th positive point clarifies this in more detail. Regarding Libya, again prop pulls their unproven “cover up” stories using misleading anecdotes and a Wikipedia article flagged at its top as having unverified claims and biases.[[http://is.gd/bcVbDs]] We’ll take this opportunity to set the facts straight: Qaddafi reacted violently towards protesters in February 2011 [[http://is.gd/86p3lu]], a month AFTER the said UN report was published[[http://is.gd/ZtlXMp]], which means prop are accusing the council of covering up events that did not even happen yet... Then promptly, within less than a month, Libya was expelled from the council.[[http://is.gd/tTRNmP]] Therefore our example stands, the actions are well within the expectations from the UNHRC, and actually done right on time. Prop have made a huge logical leap asserting that because the current council was erected after the previous was abolished, then when we abolish the current one, another will be erected on different principles. On the contrary - the logical assumption would be that if we do the same thing again, we can expect similar results. Therefore, if we abolish the current council, for the same reasons we abolished the previous one, then we can expect the new council to be similar to the current one. Thus, abolishing the council will not achieve anything other than the critical damages we’ve shown, to the global keeping of Human Rights.
The Council’s unique place in the UN and global Human Rights efforts

Since it is crucial for the UN to continue promoting Human Rights issues, the most suitable way is via the UNHRC. Proposition failed to present any alternative, leaving us with no suitable body to continue global HR efforts. Since this is so crucial to our debate, we will now analyze the alternatives, and show they are ill-suited as compared with the UNHRC: 1. The General Assembly - as the name implies, it is best suited for dealing with issues on a more general level. At any given moment, it has too many issues on its table to deal with, to be able to effectively deal with the finer details of specific HR violation cases in each and every corner of the world. All the while dealing with numerous other crucial areas such as health crises, disarmament, and counter-terrorism, to name a few [[http://globalsolutions.org/files/public/documents/ManagingChange-2.pdf]]. That’s why we have UN councils in the first place. Thus, the GA is best for electing the members, but not for dealing with specific violation cases or monitoring over time. 2. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - carries out the Secretary-General's "good offices" duties relating to HR[[http://www.hrea.org/index.php?doc_id=437]]. The High Commissioner doesn’t represent the UN countries, but is an external office. Effective as it may be for positive, agreed-by-all measures, it can’t have the mandate for any negative or preventive actions such as condemnations. OHCHR is backed by the UN, but not by the nations themselves, which is an important distinction. Those actions are against nations, and so we naturally need the backing of nations in order for them to have any effect. In conclusion, the council provides us with a unique institution - a council of nations backed by the General Assembly but more dynamic and not as cumbersome. The bottom line is that UNHRC can affect, change and act against other nations - and is relatively free from larger politics interfering.
Encouraging dissemination of human rights ideals

We believe that the UNHRC serves to encourage countries to face and understand the status of HR abuse in the world. Currently, the human rights campaign is viewed as a western crusade against the rest of the world - by pushing mostly western ideals and morals, and also driven by western educated people.[[http://is.gd/O1CTB4]] The Council system not only spreads the burden more equally, but also allows for a balance against the western bloc, which is over-represented in the OHCHR, ICC and relevant NGOs. The regions represent mostly uniform cultural, ideological and moral blocs, and the rotation enables each country to be represented in its region and in the Council equally. This system is unique within the HR organisations world, in that it is not centered on Western ideals, but rather a more unified global view of HR. In this way the UNHRC provides a needed balance for the human rights campaign. The regions system emphasizes that the western world is only one party in the global fight against HR abuse. Consequently, abolishing UNHRC will be seen as an act against the involvement of the rest of the world, and shifting the balance back towards western countries. This will both create hostility towards other HR bodies, and give the impression that guarding HR is only in the Western’s interests, or that it’s only the Western’s duty. Thus, the UNHRC is important as a symbol, and disbanding it will cause actual harm. It is important to involve as much of the world in the HR effort, to increase resources as well as to increase understanding of the populace, to allow for greater mobility of agents and lower mobility and acceptance of offenders, and greater cooperation between investigative and executive bodies. But the main importance lies in understanding what is HR abuse, how some actions might seem justified but cause immense harm, and the importance of global actions, both in fighting HR abuse and in helping the victims and refugees.
Disproportional and ineffective protection of human rights

Presenting a substitute for the former UN Human Rights Commission, the UN Human Rights Council was constructed to make a platform for improvement in terms of the violation of the human right, and provide a clear monitor and analysis of the problem. However, the problem of unequal protection of human rights in different regions persists. The Israeli-Palestine issue had taken over one third of the capacity of the Council to manage issues and has recently increased to 48.1% [[http://bit.ly/f1EePk]]. This questions the ability of the UN Human Rights Council to manage severe issues in certain regions and shows how neglected other regions are. We agree that the issue at hand is a serious one, but there are too much resources focused on one region making it difficult for the Council to properly respond to the issues in other regions. An appropriate example of neglect is the situation of Darfur [[http://bbc.in/ra1R58]] [[http://bit.ly/oUo01U]], where extreme violation upon ethnic groups, are escalating to the level of genocide. Due to severe HR violations international control, advisory and help in general is needed. The voting body of the Council has decided not to examine the situation or offer help despite of massive demonstrations demanding UN assistance. In this specific example, the UNHRC are going against their principles and objectives to protect any country in which violation appears [[http://bit.ly/11ELfu]]. Furthermore, the Council not only fails to acknowledge human rights violations in certain regions, but also fails at improving the situation in regions where it (the Council) is constantly present. The human rights situation in East Jerusalem is in a steep decline, Palestinian families are forcefully evicted to make place for Israeli settlements [[http://bit.ly/fvILc5]]. Whether a system of this kind is to be implemented in order to monitor and regulate any other region and advise an issue of this nature.
A serious look at Proposition’s logic

The United Nations is an organisation which views politicization as a core principle - its main idea is that world change can only be achieved by the cooperation of all nations worldwide, through careful consideration of extreme diversity of cultures, values and interests. Therefore, any kind of body that seeks to provide representation for the member states of the UN, will inherit this “politicization” phenomenon. It is a by product of the “Human Element” of the UN, which the prop absurdly trying to fight against. Every decision making body in the UN is a political council of nations - GA, ECOSOC or the Security Council.[[http://is.gd/6DXFlw]] [[http://is.gd/Vty6Ag]] By Prop’s own logic, if we should abolish the HRC, we should abolish most of the current UN structure. Politicization in itself naturally has its pros and cons, but it is the choice of the UN to be a political body and not an “objective” one, because there’s no objective truth agreed upon by all nations. The only way to achieve the UN’s goals is through agreement - i.e., politics. That is the reason why UN’s “objective” professional bodies, like the OHCHR aren’t independent, need their relevant superior council’s agreement on actions, and can’t initiate significant actions - that is the prerogative of the political bodies. We should remember that the same is true of national governments, and even in the subject of HR politics come first[[http://www.sudanvisiondaily.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=41795]], because otherwise there’d be no agreement of nations to participate, and we’d return to the world before the UN. Therefore, politicized and nonobjective decision making can be found within any UN body, if that body seeks to have significant influence. This is what the HRC is all about, that is what the UN is all about, and attacking one for it is equivalent to attacking the other.
The existance of the current UNHRC harms human rights

With the previous arguments, the proposition managed to prove that the UNHRC is working ineffectively, through the politicized decision making process, the disproportional prioritizing of problems and the fact that the problems from the UNCHR are still existent. Most people would at first presume that this body makes no change regarding the respect of rights (positive or negative), but in fact it leads to constant increase of HR violations. The citizens of the countries rely on the UN declaration of human rights, and the UN has an obligation to make great efforts in order to foster and promote these rights. Therefore we believe that every day that passes, in which the HR violations throughout all the countries are not given the appropriate attention is a day that more and more people will suffer from violators that could have been stopped with the deterrence measures developed from a stable UN human rights body. Should this body continue to exist, it will continuously harm the people around the world. Hyperlinks from Argument 3: [[http://bit.ly/qn0aPh]] [[http://bit.ly/oQYtoL]] [[http://nyti.ms/pQkDOP]] [[http://on.cfr.org/olBwo8]] [[http://nyti.ms/rblfU6]] [[http://bit.ly/orgjax]] [[http://bit.ly/nsNAGt]]
Too little too late

The cases of Darfur and Libya are clear examples of the UNHRC turning a blind eye to serious HR violations, reacting only when extreme violations force its hand. Concerning Darfur, there have been hundreds of thousands murdered and millions displaced during the ongoing genocide in Darfur and yet there has been no General Assembly resolution condemning Sudan for human rights violations in the past five years.[[http://bit.ly/qKQFmH]] Despite the obvious HR violations that were known to the world for almost a decade, the UNHRC reviewed the case in 2011 with no apparent result. Furthermore, the UPR mechanism “provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations” [[http://bit.ly/fHO9Kh]]. It is far from a proper investigation and depends on the good will of the members. Concerning Libya, we believe that expulsion from the council is too little and too late. Despite immense HR violations [[http://bit.ly/nGkn9Q]], two months prior the expulsion UNHRC produced a draft report on the country that “reads like an international roll call of fulsome praise”[[http://nyti.ms/eYt8bQ]], . Waiting for the situation to escalate before the expulsion is proof of UNHRC’s inability to cover up the abuse any longer, not an example of a body dedicated to the fight against HR violation. UNHRC clearly failed in the above cases. Examples of the U.S. state department praising its own success in the council on its own web site presented by the Opp fail to persuade us when compared to the above-mentioned cases. Finally, Opp claimed: “the mere fact that a similar body was erected right when the committee was abolished, inherently testifies to how essential such a body is” . That fact actually shows that the problem with HR violations is a serious one and a body regulating it will be created when it is abolished. It does in no way prove that the body should work on the same principles as the commission and the coun
Essential contribution to the global protection of human rights

There are few points that were obviously neglected by the Opp. In the next few examples, we provide on the ground results, in the countries where they claim to be improvement: a.Guinea: the 2010 Human rights report[1], explicitly describes numbers on violations, detected by the investigators. Among them we mention the beatings and torture, violence and discrimination against women and forced labor. Therefore, any of the actions proposed by the opp never worked, nor resulted with improvement. Not very surprising, when we analyze the source, US State department. We perceive no "concrete results", only good old government barging. b.LGBT is a resolution that was barely passed with 19 countries voting against it [2]. Among them, are mostly the notorious HR violators. We believe this resolution will do very little in member countries like Saudi Arabia where the penalty for homosexuality is death. Morover, it is highly optimistic to expect change in countries where citizens are starved for basic rights. c.Sadly, we see no real results, on how the protection of HR was increased in Israel. Considering the 2011 Report by Falk, and the reported situation, Israel is facing numerous problems where Palestinians are evicted form their homes[3], and cases when the government oppresses the UNHRC presence. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the council was committed to a “preconceived outcome,” in theGoldstein Report [4] proving obsession with Israel more than anything else The protection of the HR is defined as aiming to preserve more of the HR in most regions. Given the fact how 70% of all UNHRC country-specific criticisms have been on Israel and how the UNHRC never adopted a single resolution critical of states like China, Syria, Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe we can see how it's protection is not fairly distributed around the globe, nor where it is needed. [1] http://1.usa.gov/qL47Mr [2] http://huff.to/l4QyRn [3] http://nyti.ms/CUrzE [4]http://bit.ly/cKtJmr
Politicized decision-making process thwarts acknowledgement of human rights

There are several aspects related to what prop presents as “politicized decision-making”, we will briefly analyze each: 1. As long as the UNHRC does make efforts to advance HR issues, and succeeds as we prove in our points, then politicization in itself is not an issue that requires to abolish it. 2. Being a political council actually provides the UNHRC an advantage whereby it is being backed up politically by member states. All other HR bodies are either non-political, which means they do not enjoy the same level of backing the UNHRC enjoys, or even more political and cumbersome. 3. Prop claims a bloc backed by China, Cuba and Russia, but neglect the fact that all three will actually be rotated out of the UNHRC soon, in 2012. Therefore, any claimed bloc would only be a temporary matter, because there is a regular rotation of council member states. Thus, there is little sense in the prop’s suggestion to use an irreversible act (abolish) to an issue which is reversible and temporary. Prop itself hints at an alternative way around bloc voting, stating that there's "absence of an objectively determined criteria when defining HR violation", but this is certainly no reason to put an end to this important council. Rather, a criteria can be set by the same body that erected the UNHRC and elects its members - the General Assembly. Quoting Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s criticism was somewhat out of context, since one of the main goals of his speech was to urge the US to join the UNHRC, which it finally did. Indeed US involvement in recent years has boosted the council’s performance[[http://is.gd/CCfpYW]]. Mr. Ki-moon then went on to make another important statement: “Ban stressed that the 47-state Council can play a tremendous role in improving human rights around the world.”[[http://is.gd/mppvfE]] We at team opposition will prove in our points that UNHRC does play this tremendous role in looking after global HR issues.
The political system of the UNHRC promotes Human Rights

Team Opp agrees that there is a problem with the decision making system, but instead of abolishing a body founded on a broken principle, they try to patch it up claiming the problem is temporary due to the 3 year rotation. In those 3 years countless violations were covered up, as many resolutions blocked and unbridled genocides took place . That aside, the status quo clearly shows that the rotation is unable to filter the HR violators, especially when it is additionally limited by the regional system (prioritizing location over HR protection). This is very obvious when we take a look at the HR situation of the current members that came to be through that system: Saudi Arabia One of very few governments never to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Right –the basic charter of fundamental freedoms on which the council itself is based–the Kingdom does not allow women to drive; punishes homosexuality and other nonviolent “crimes” by flogging, forced amputation or death [[http://bit.ly/rqwb8G]] Cuba Authorities have jailed scores of dissidents, protesters and others, often through the use of a "dangerousness" provision that allows the detention of Cubans on suspicion that they might break the law in the future. [[http://lat.ms/bF9Edg]] Reported HR violations: beatings and abuse of prisoners and detainees, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care; harassment, beatings [[http://1.usa.gov/b2SToz]], The situation is as bad, if not worse in China and Russia, due to spacial limitations we will only point to evidence #1 for more info. On the point of Belarus, the reason for not getting reelected was the loss of political backing rather than the HR violations, since an abundance of HR violators were elected at the same time so it is an exception, not the rule. The rotation system has proven unsuccessful, and even if it was perfect, it is not a reason to keep the decision process if the DMP has no benefit on its own.