The Oppressors’ Club
The Human Rights Council is just one (entirely representative) part of the U.N.
By Anne Bayefsky
National Review Online
May 18, 2007
On Thursday, the United Nations elected new members to its lead human-rights protection body, the Human Rights Council. The so-called “reformed” agency (which replaced the thoroughly discredited “Commission on Human Rights”) will now include three new states with a special penchant for abusing human rights: Angola, Egypt, and Qatar. They join the likes of current members Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia.
In order to be elected to this U.N. club, these states had the onerous task of pledging to take human rights seriously. Angola pledged “to continue...mainstreaming human rights throughout the society [and]...promoting the rule of law, access to justice and reconciliation...” What Angola neglected to mention were some features of current conditions in the country, as recited in the recent State Department Human Rights report: “…the abridgement of citizens’ right to elect officials at all levels; unlawful killings by police, military, and private security forces; torture, beatings…corruption and impunity…” etc.
Egypt pledged to “preserve the freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary [and]…fulfil…political, social and economic reform, anchored in the promotion and protection of human rights...” Mysteriously omitted from the Egyptian promise were, in the words of the State Department report: “…limitations on the right of citizens to change their government; a state of emergency, in place almost continuously since 1967; torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees;…arbitrary arrest and detention…restrictions on civil liberties—freedoms of speech and press…female genital mutilation,” etc, etc.
Click here for the full story.
Senator Tom Coburn
Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
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