At the conclusion of a weeklong session which attempted to codify the procedural behavior of the Council’s activities, the UN Human Rights Council agreed to continue the work of independent experts reporting on the situation in Burma.

Outgoing President of the Council, Mexican Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, felt confident of the Council’s achievements.

“The Council has better tools to act and to really reduce the number of violations or identify a greater number of violators,” de Alba said.

However the Council session was not without controversy.

The 47 Council members had to fight to overcome a Chinese proposal to increase the vote needed to investigate a country’s behavior from a simple majority vote to two-thirds.

Additionally, the United States issued a statement critical of the Council’s position, saying it failed to adequately address the human rights situations in countries such as Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe, while giving undue attention to the question of Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories.

Neither Burma nor the United States is party to the Council, which replaced the ill-fated Human Rights Commission a year previously.

Meanwhile, the human rights situation in Burma is poised to deteriorate even further in the near future, speculated the UN Development Program coordinator for Burma, Charles Petrie.

Speaking at a press conference in New York, Petrie spoke of the vicious cycle of increased poverty and disease threatening Burma. He specifically cited the likely increase in prevalence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Petrie further commented that internal migration of people and families has served to further the economic and health crises gripping the nation.