A/HRC/37/L.44
Explanation of Vote by the United States of America
as delivered by Jason Mack
Human Rights Council, 37th Session
Geneva, March 23, 2018
Thank you, Mr. President.
The United States would like to express our appreciation to Armenia for its efforts to reach consensus on this resolution, and support the text as drafted.
We wish to explain why the 2 paragraphs – PP 22 and OP 16 – should be retained in the text before us.
We commend the sponsor for conducting a comprehensive bilateral negotiation process, including with the state that called this vote. We view these actions as hostile to the spirit of the resolution and contradictory to the important work of genocide prevention.
During the negotiation process, many countries emphasized the need to increase our capacity as a global community to prevent genocide — the reference to the joint analysis framework highlights the options available to the international community on early warning and prevention. The work of genocide prevention is too important for this reference to be politicized. We all need to be aware of the tools in our toolbox on such an important issue.
PP22 and OP16 take note of the new joint analysis framework and highlight its importance as one of the tools to assess the risk of genocide. The resolution also recommends greater collaboration among member states, regional organizations, and sub-regional organizations to increase their collaboration on prevention. The framework of analysis is a guideline, one that all states can use as appropriate; it is not imposed upon states. We should all welcome the addition of new options to increase our prevention efforts.
We stress that the motivation of this vote is simply to delete factual, correct references to a UN framework and a UN office. Such action diminishes the importance of this resolution.
Therefore, we strongly urge all members to vote in favor of retaining these 2 paragraphs and we will vote yes to retain them.
Thank you.