Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 28-11-2018
As South Africa prepares to take its seat on the UN Security Council for the third time in January 2019 the Institute for Security Studies says a decision by the country to vote in favour of resolution condemning human rights abuses must be approached with caution.
On 12 January 2007, a few days after taking its seat for the first time on the UN Security Council, South Africa voted against a resolution calling on Myanmar’s government to cease military attacks and atrocities against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
The decision shocked many South Africans and foreign observers who felt it had betrayed the human rights-first foreign policy legacy of Nelson Mandela.
But this week International relations minister Lindiwe Sisulu hinted that South Africa would reverse its controversial vote on Myanmar in the Third Committee.
ISS’s Peter Fabricus says the full details of the new policy remain to be seen.
“We are going to have to see how this pans out. There have been indications that the Ramaphosa, Sisulu administration was going to be more assertive about human rights then the Zuma administration and perhaps the Mbeki administration, because it was under the Mbeki administration that we had that controversial vote against the Myanmar resolution back in 2007.
0 Comments