Wow: The Memo Still Has Not Reached The UN
On my tour through the blogs, I noticed that the United Nations still has no concept of "human rights." Yesterday, Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were elected to the UN's Human Rights Council:
Britain won a seat on the newly created Human Rights Council of the UN yesterday, but five countries identified as being among the world's worst abusers also achieved membership.
There were 63 countries vying for 47 seats on the new council yesterday. The results of the first round of secret balloting among the UN membership in New York last night revealed that the hopes of human rights organisations, and many Western governments including Britain, that recent reforms would assure a more effective watchdog for abuse had only been partly realised.
Among other countries chosen to take their places on the new panel were Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, all nations labelled by the New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership because of their own records of abuse and repression.
Other countries with similar reputations for violations, which had similarly been striving for membership, were discarded in the vote, notably Iran and Azerbaijan. Venezuela, which has come under criticism for deteriorating human rights conditions since the coming to power of Hugo Chavez, also failed to win enough votes. Iraq also fell short.
The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, who was at the UN headquarters yesterday for meetings on Iran and the crisis in Darfur, voiced optimism that the panel, voted into existence in March to replace the widely discredited and slightly larger UN Human Rights Commission, would operate effectively. "The council provides a real opportunity to better promote and protect human rights for all everywhere," she said. "We now have to make sure that the council works. Its members will carry an important responsibility to ensure that the council meets its full potential. The UK will strive to meet these high expectations."
Not among the candidates yesterday was the United States, which had declined to support the new panel's creation, arguing that it would be insufficiently different from its predecessor. Washington was among the most vociferous critics of the old Human Rights Commission, on the ground that too many rogue states were elected to serve on it.
The UN seems to be the collector of the worst human rights abusers in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Rogue regimes, terrorist states, and totalitarian governments have been given a pass by the same organization assembled to ensure these groups die. It is now more glaringly obvious than ever that it is time to leave this organization behind.
The idea of "peacekeeping" and "humanitarian relief" is a foreign concept to the United Nations. As a matter of fact, their human rights record in recent years is abysmal:
Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of the security council members, the US, the British and the French governments in particular, to approve any necessary military action [16].
Failure by MONUC (UNSC Resolution 1291) to effectively intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 1998-2002 (with fighting reportedly continuing), and in carrying out and distributing humanitarian aid.
Failure to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 Dutch peacekeepers to protect it.
Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in Somalia; the food was instead usually seized by local warlords. A the U.S./UN attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Numerous peacekeepers from several nations have been repatriated from UN peacekeeping operations for sexually abusing and exploiting girls as young as 12 in a number of different peacekeeping missions. This abuse has become widespread and ongoing despite many revelations and probes by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. [17][18] A 2005 internal UN investigation found that sexual exploitation and abuse has been reported in at least five countries where UN peacekeepers have been deployed, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, and Liberia; UN peacekeepers were at that time deployed in 16 countries.
And the same organization that allowed these failures to occur is the same one who just recognized five of the worst human rights abusers to serve on a council dealing with human rights. The laughter that emanated from me when I saw this story was not one of hilarity; it came more out of pity.
I pity those in charge of this organization. Each day they make illogical decisions like this only lends to their demise. Soon, (hopefully soon, and no, I am not holding my breath) the world will realize that the United Nations is nothing more than legitimacy for dictators and tyrants. These people--like General Secretary "Kooky" Kofi Annan--know precisely what these monsters do to their people. They would rather not intervene. So dead-set on "peace" (even if it is a false peace) are they that they are unaware of what is truly happening in the world. Or, they are, and like most fixated on power, they ignore it. I am guessing the latter applies.
And because of that, we opted to stay off of the council. I do not blame the president or John Bolton of staying off of the Human Rights Council. We have plenty of problems with the UN Security Council, and based on the membership on the Human Rights council, our problems would only multiply. A headache is still a headache no matter how one looks at it, and this council is sure to be one. With the "Gang of Five" on the thing, it is likely to be worse than any American bureaucracy created to date.
The Bunny ;)
On my tour through the blogs, I noticed that the United Nations still has no concept of "human rights." Yesterday, Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were elected to the UN's Human Rights Council:
Britain won a seat on the newly created Human Rights Council of the UN yesterday, but five countries identified as being among the world's worst abusers also achieved membership.
There were 63 countries vying for 47 seats on the new council yesterday. The results of the first round of secret balloting among the UN membership in New York last night revealed that the hopes of human rights organisations, and many Western governments including Britain, that recent reforms would assure a more effective watchdog for abuse had only been partly realised.
Among other countries chosen to take their places on the new panel were Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, all nations labelled by the New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership because of their own records of abuse and repression.
Other countries with similar reputations for violations, which had similarly been striving for membership, were discarded in the vote, notably Iran and Azerbaijan. Venezuela, which has come under criticism for deteriorating human rights conditions since the coming to power of Hugo Chavez, also failed to win enough votes. Iraq also fell short.
The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, who was at the UN headquarters yesterday for meetings on Iran and the crisis in Darfur, voiced optimism that the panel, voted into existence in March to replace the widely discredited and slightly larger UN Human Rights Commission, would operate effectively. "The council provides a real opportunity to better promote and protect human rights for all everywhere," she said. "We now have to make sure that the council works. Its members will carry an important responsibility to ensure that the council meets its full potential. The UK will strive to meet these high expectations."
Not among the candidates yesterday was the United States, which had declined to support the new panel's creation, arguing that it would be insufficiently different from its predecessor. Washington was among the most vociferous critics of the old Human Rights Commission, on the ground that too many rogue states were elected to serve on it.
The UN seems to be the collector of the worst human rights abusers in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Rogue regimes, terrorist states, and totalitarian governments have been given a pass by the same organization assembled to ensure these groups die. It is now more glaringly obvious than ever that it is time to leave this organization behind.
The idea of "peacekeeping" and "humanitarian relief" is a foreign concept to the United Nations. As a matter of fact, their human rights record in recent years is abysmal:
Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of the security council members, the US, the British and the French governments in particular, to approve any necessary military action [16].
Failure by MONUC (UNSC Resolution 1291) to effectively intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 1998-2002 (with fighting reportedly continuing), and in carrying out and distributing humanitarian aid.
Failure to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a "safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 Dutch peacekeepers to protect it.
Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in Somalia; the food was instead usually seized by local warlords. A the U.S./UN attempt to apprehend the warlords seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.
Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. Numerous peacekeepers from several nations have been repatriated from UN peacekeeping operations for sexually abusing and exploiting girls as young as 12 in a number of different peacekeeping missions. This abuse has become widespread and ongoing despite many revelations and probes by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. [17][18] A 2005 internal UN investigation found that sexual exploitation and abuse has been reported in at least five countries where UN peacekeepers have been deployed, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, and Liberia; UN peacekeepers were at that time deployed in 16 countries.
And the same organization that allowed these failures to occur is the same one who just recognized five of the worst human rights abusers to serve on a council dealing with human rights. The laughter that emanated from me when I saw this story was not one of hilarity; it came more out of pity.
I pity those in charge of this organization. Each day they make illogical decisions like this only lends to their demise. Soon, (hopefully soon, and no, I am not holding my breath) the world will realize that the United Nations is nothing more than legitimacy for dictators and tyrants. These people--like General Secretary "Kooky" Kofi Annan--know precisely what these monsters do to their people. They would rather not intervene. So dead-set on "peace" (even if it is a false peace) are they that they are unaware of what is truly happening in the world. Or, they are, and like most fixated on power, they ignore it. I am guessing the latter applies.
And because of that, we opted to stay off of the council. I do not blame the president or John Bolton of staying off of the Human Rights Council. We have plenty of problems with the UN Security Council, and based on the membership on the Human Rights council, our problems would only multiply. A headache is still a headache no matter how one looks at it, and this council is sure to be one. With the "Gang of Five" on the thing, it is likely to be worse than any American bureaucracy created to date.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 9:29 PM
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