Today, protection and promotion of human rights rises as an important matter in guaranteeing the dignity and genuine life of humans and in achieving socio-economic development of the country.

As is stipulated in the UN Charter, realizing international cooperation has a great bearing on promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.

However, it is regrettable that acts of inciting mistrust and confrontation, not that of respect and cooperation, are being brazenly committed in the international human rights arena.

This can be clearly seen through confrontation and friction between groups appeared at the recent session of the Third Committee of the 77 th session of the UNGA.

At the debate on the agenda item related to promotion and protection of human rights, the U.S. and Western countries had the insolence to groundlessly take issue with the human rights situation in some countries and brand them as “human rights violators” and “anti-humanity criminal states”.

They especially designated those countries that took strong independent stand and made a big fuss about their dire human rights situation and wide-ranging violations of human rights, demanding thorough investigation by the international community to find the ones responsible for them.

Also, during debates on other agenda items including the issue of women, children, persons with disabilities, religion and ethnic minorities, they recklessly slandered selective countries disobedient to them. Not content with this, at the end of the session, they didn’t hesitate to railroad “human rights resolutions” which had seriously distorted and fabricated the human rights situations in individual countries.

This invited great uproar and due negative responses from most of the countries attending the session.

Many countries including China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and Syria resolutely denounced and rejected the groundless criticism of the U.S. and Western countries as political provocation and berated the U.S. and Western countries as the world’s biggest abusers of human rights flagrantly violating the UN Charter and international law on human rights.

Meanwhile, the NAM and the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations issued joint statements calling for adherence to the principles of respect for sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of states and for the encouragement of dialogue and cooperation in the field of protecting and promoting human rights. They also raised their voices for putting an end to the ongoing practices of selectively dealing with the human rights situation in specific countries.

The UN arena, which should serve as a platform for seeking practical solutions for protection and promotion of human rights through dialogue and cooperation, has turned into a venue of political confrontation and a three-ring circus. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. and Western countries.

They are the main culprits who exploit the human rights issue under the pretext of “protecting human rights” and “defending democracy” in pursuit of their political aim to interfere in internal affairs and topple the system of anti-imperialist independent countries whom they regard as a thorn in the flesh.

This is vividly proven by the fact that countries which suffer from mistrust and confrontation, conflicts, discord, and instability are inevitably places haunted by the dark shadows of the U.S. and Western countries holding the signboard of “human rights protection”.

All countries aspiring for independence and justice should unite in putting a stop to the U.S. and Western countries who are setting up deliberate roadblocks in the way of resolving the issue of human rights and rise in the struggle to realize justice in the international human rights arena.

Jang Chol Ho

Researcher of Korean Association for Human Rights Studies