The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded its March 26 meeting
by adopting 28 resolutions. Convening in Geneva, the Council is the
U.N.'s foremost human rights authority. It was created after the U.N.'s
53-member Human Rights Commission did such an abysmal job that in
December of 2004 then Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the
creation of a new human rights body. The Council currently has 47
members elected on the basis of "geographical distribution" by simple
majority vote of the U.N.'s general assembly. Members have to commit to
"uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human
rights." Annan hailed the new body as a step forward: "I don't think
anyone can claim this is old wine in a new bottle," he said after its
creation.
The Council's recent work product speaks volumes. Eight of the 28
resolutions passed were criticisms directed at specific governments --
one for North Korea, one for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one
for Burma, one for Guinea, and four for Israel. Human rights violations
committed by Israel and North Korea were deemed especially "grave".
The Council views the Israeli government's actions as its most urgent
human rights concern -- more dire than, for example, the assassination
of human rights defenders in Russia; the continuing genocide in Sudan;
the 8 million forced-laborers in China's Laogai prisons; the 200
political prisoners in Cuba; the assault on independent media in
Venezuela; the persecution of gays in Uganda. Missing from the Council's
resolutions are the cruel dictatorships in Vietnam, Belarus, Zimbabwe,
and Eritrea, and the brutality of Iran's government against its own people.
Undoubtedly there are human rights violations by Israel -- wherever
youths are given weapons and a long conflict ensues there will be abuses
of power and this needs close scrutiny. But the obsession of the U.N.
body with Israel shows a complete double standard. Israel has a robust
working democracy, a system of government that features an independent
judiciary which tries its own war criminals, and a free press which
documents its own government's abuses. The countries mentioned above do
not have any of these.
Why did the U.N. not find it important to speak out on behalf of the
Tibetans, Uyghurs, Chechens, Cubans, Darfuris, Dalits, or dozens of
other oppressed groups? Because the U.N. Human Rights Council includes a
dozen dictatorships, counting China, Cuba, Egypt, Russia and Saudi
Arabia as well as a catalog of governments with dreadful human rights
records such as Angola, Bahrain, Bolivia, Cameroon, Djibouti, Nicaragua,
and Pakistan.
The world's current roundtable for human rights is a tool to whitewash,
cover up, and direct attention away from the behavior of its worst
member governments. The only working governmental alternative is a body
-- in the U.N. or outside it -- composed solely of democratic, open
societies applying consistent standards and willing to work
transparently to expose and condemn governments that abuse rights. That
is why we are convening the 2010 Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. It's time
Human Rights became an issue we all take seriously, and put on the
forefront of the global political agenda.
Thor Halvorssen is the founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum, a global human
rights conference. Alexander Gladstein is its Chief Operating Officer.
The Oslo Freedom Forum will convene April 26th - 29th in Norway.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thor-halvorssen/tyrants-shouldnt-dictate_b_532340.html
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