II 

Calendar No. 287 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1698 

[Report No. 110–137] 

To provide that no funds appropriated or otherwise made available by any 

Act for contributions for international organizations may be made available to support the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 26, 2007 

Mr. COLEMAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

JULY 25, 2007 

Reported by Mr. BIDEN, with an amendment 

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic] 

A BILL 

To provide that no funds appropriated or otherwise made 

available by any Act for contributions for international 

organizations may be made available to support the 

United Nations Human Rights Council. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘The Human Rights 

3 Council Funding Reform Act of 2007’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 The Senate makes the following findings: 

6 (1) The severe loss of credibility of the United 

7 Nations Human Rights Commission, whose members 

8 have included Libya, Sudan, and Cuba, led United 

9 Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to remark in 

10 2005 that the Human Rights Commission was 

11 ‘‘casting a shadow on the reputation of the United 

12 Nations system as a whole’’ and to call for the cre13 ation of a new United Nations human rights institu14 tion. 

15 (2) Calls for the reform of United Nations 

16 human rights institutions led to a proposal for a new 

17 Human Rights Council to replace the Human Rights 

18 Commission, which was adopted by the United Na19 tions General Assembly on March 15, 2006, in Gen20 eral Assembly Resolution 60/251 (2006). 

21 (3) The United States voted against General 

22 Assembly Resolution 60/251 (2006) because the pro23 posed structure of the Human Rights Council did 

24 not contain provisions designed to address the fun25 damental flaws of its predecessor body, such as a reVerDate Aug 31 2005 03:27 Jul 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1698.RS S1698

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1 quirement that members of the Council be democ2 racies that respect human rights. 

3 (4) The United States chose not to run in the 

4 elections for membership in the Human Rights 

5 Council in 2006 and 2007 for fear that the Council 

6 would reflect the same patterns as the Human 

7 Rights Commission. 

8 (5) The stated purpose of the Human Rights 

9 Council is to objectively and non-selectively promote 

10 and protect human rights in the entire world, and 

11 therefore in all 192 Member States of the United 

12 Nations. 

13 (6) The Human Rights Council is composed of 

14 47 members, 24 of which are considered ‘‘free de15 mocracies’’ by Freedom House in its 2007 ‘‘Free16 dom in the World’’ report. 

17 (7) The current members of the Human Rights 

18 Council include countries such as Cuba, Angola, 

19 Azerbaijan, and Saudi Arabia. 

20 (8) During the first year of operation of the 

21 Human Rights Council, which included 5 regular 

22 sessions and 4 special sessions, the only country in 

23 the world that was directly condemned as a violator 

24 of human rights was Israel. 


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1 (9) In its first year of operation, the Human 

2 Rights Council passed only 12 state-specific resolu3 tions: 9 resolutions that condemned the Government 

4 of Israel, and 3 resolutions on Sudan that did not 

5 condemn the Government of Sudan. 

6 (10) Freedom House lists 19 countries in its 

7 2007 ‘‘Freedom in the World’’ report as the ‘‘Worst 

8 of the Worst’’ regimes that violate human rights, yet 

9 none of these countries has been the subject of a 

10 resolution by the Human Rights Council except for 

11 Sudan. 

12 (11) During its first year, the Human Rights 

13 Council held 4 special sessions to address the most 

14 egregious and urgent human rights issues, with 3 

15 sessions dedicated to Israel and 1 session dedicated 

16 to Sudan. 

17 (12) The Human Rights Council special session 

18 on Sudan held in December 2006 resulted in the ap19 pointment of an assessment mission to Darfur led by 

20 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, and this 

21 assessment mission submitted a report (referred to 

22 in this resolution as the ‘‘Williams Report’’) to the 

23 Human Rights Council in March 2007 that con24 cluded that the Government of Sudan was responVerDate Aug 31 2005 03:27 Jul 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1698.RS S1698

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1 sible for ‘‘large-scale international crimes in 

2 Darfur’’. 

3 (13) The Human Rights Council has not con4 demned the Government of Sudan in spite of the 

5 Williams Report and the numerous reports docu6 menting the human rights violations of the Govern7 ment of Sudan compiled by the United Nations High 

8 Commissioner for Human Rights. 

9 (14) On June 19, 2007, the Human Rights 

10 Council adopted governing rules that further dis11 credit the Council’s operations, including— 

12 (A) the establishment of only 1 country13 specific permanent agenda item for the ‘‘Pro14 gram of Work’’ on ‘‘human rights violations 

15 and implications of the Israeli occupation of 

16 Palestine and other occupied Arab territories’’; 

17 (B) the elimination of the mandates of the 

18 special investigators for human rights for Cuba 

19 and Belarus, despite extensive reporting by 

20 these investigators indicating that there are 

21 widespread, systematic violations of human 

22 rights taking place in both countries; and 

23 (C) the adoption of measures that limit the 

24 independence of operations of the Office of the 

25 United Nations High Commissioner for Human 


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1 Rights and hinder the ability of independent 

2 human rights investigators to report findings on 

3 human rights abuses. 

4 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR THE UNITED NA5 TIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL. 

6 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds 

7 appropriated or otherwise made available by any Act for 

8 contributions for international organizations may be made 

9 available to support the United Nations Human Rights 

10 Council. 

11 SEC. 3. TEMPORARY PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR THE 

12 UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—No funds appropriated or otherwise 

14 made available by any Act for fiscal years 2008 or 2009 

15 for contributions to international organizations may be 

16 made available to support the United Nations Human 

17 Rights Council. 

18 (b) EXCEPTIONS.—The prohibition under subsection 

19 (a) shall not apply for a fiscal year if, during that fiscal 

20 year— 

21 (1) the President determines and certifies to the 

22 Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the 

23 Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep24 resentatives that the provision of funds to support the 


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1 United Nations Human Rights Council is in the na2 tional interest of the United States; or 

3 (2) the United States is a member of the Human 

4 Rights Council. 


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Calendar No. 287 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1698 

[Report No. 110

–137] 

A BILL 

To provide that no funds appropriated or otherwise 

Rights Council. able to support the United Nations Human international organizations may be made availmade available by any Act for contributions for 

JULY 25, 2007 

Reported with an amendment 


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