US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE2156

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 002156 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2014 
TAGS: PHUM, AORC, PREL, NL, UN 
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS - STATUS OF WEOG CHR ELECTION ROTATION 
 
REF: A. THE HAGUE 1793 
 
     B. SECSTATE 172297 
     C. TRAUB/MEHRA E-MAIL OF 8/25 
     D. RUBIN/SCHOFER E-MAIL OF 8/25 
 
Classified By: Andrew Schofer, PolCouns, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C)  Since ref A discussions in mid-July, the Dutch have 
failed to make much progress on their offer to restart 
negotiations on a WEOG election rotation scheme for the UN 
Commission on Human Rights, according to Karel van Kesteren, 
MFA Human Rights Director with whom Poloff spoke on August 
23.  We provided him a copy of the Secretary's letter (ref b) 
on August 27 (received via e-mail, ref c).  Van Kesteren said 
that immediately after the meetings here with IO DAS Lagon 
and DRL AA/S Kozak in July, he had e-mailed Canadian MFA 
official Marie Gervais-Vidricaire to tell her the USG had 
offered one more year to the package (meaning we would sit 
out 19 of 21 years).  According to van Kesteren, she replied 
that if the USG were indeed ready to be more flexible then it 
might be possible to try again to reach a compromise.  He 
took the opportunity to remind us that his solution requires 
that the US relinquish three out of 21 years, not just two. 
 
2.  (C)  Post understands (ref d) that there have been 
discussions with Canadian counterpart Gervais-Vidricaire, who 
proposes starting discussions with WEOG in New York before 
moving on to capitals. Van Kesteren (protect) volunteered 
earlier that negotiations would work better if they are not 
based in New York at all. "Microstates" (his word) and 
smaller states (Luxembourg, and particularly Austria, for 
example) make working in the open New York forum impossible, 
he said, noting that such states joined hands in the last 
round and blocked consensus in an effort to squeeze more 
votes for themselves. 
 
3.  (C)  Comment:  We had left it in July with Van Kesteren 
to move this initiative ahead, after he seemed enthusiastic 
to keep control of a project in which he has already invested 
much effort. The lack of progress since July is not 
surprising given other pressing UN business and the summer 
break, now ending.  The Dutch would still prefer to minimize 
WEOG meetings in New York, leaving the real brokering to the 
Dutch and the Canadians in capitals.  Consensus will likely 
require getting one WEOG member at a time to sign on, thereby 
building momentum. 
RUSSEL