Human Rights

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights is another example of Charter language contradicting its mission from actual practice. It is made up of 53 governments. Dictatorships are as free to serve as democracies because there are no minimum criteria for membership. Members have included such paragons of human rights as Algeria, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Syria, Uganda, Sudan and Vietnam. Do they join to promote human rights or to protect themselves from criticism? They absolve Algeria, Congo, Sudan and Zimbabwe of human rights abuses while condemning America and Israel and absolving Hamas-Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorism. Any wonder the U.S. was voted off the commission it founded as human rights become a major issue in the 21st century? For the commission to be chaired at the dawn of the 21st century by Libya, while Iraq chaired the Commission on Disarmament is too ludicrous to believe.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch estimate that about half its members are abusers and their political bargaining undermines the commission to the extent that it fails to protect human rights.

The Human Rights commission undermines the credibility of the entire U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan admitted when he urged governments to support his plan to reform it. The commission has a “credibility deficit” he told the commission in 2005 when he proposed that a smaller Human Rights Council to replace the 53-member commission. The proposed council would operate year round rather than the current annual six-week session. Unfortunately, but not surprising, the proposal was rejected as the stalwarts of human rights abuses continue to focus on their own self-interest and provide only lip service to human rights.