EVEN THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMUNITY is angry at the United Nations Human Rights Commision for being a joke:
Human rights organisations are protesting at the inclusion of countries with some of the worst records of abuses on a list of candidates for election to the main United Nations watchdog.
North Korea, Iran and Nigeria are likely to win membership of the UN Commission on Human Rights in an election either at the end of this month or early next. Egypt is another candidate and, even though its abuses are not on the same scale as the others, it has been conducting a vigorous campaign against homosexuals.The chair of the commission, which is holding its annual meeting in Geneva, is held at present by Libya, another member with a list of deplorable violations.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are among the organisations which are complaining that the inclusion of these countries makes a mockery of the organisation, and are urging reform of the process.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch described the list of candidate countries as “a Who’s Who of the worst human rights abusers.”
Seeking re-election are other countries with poor records: Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I disagree, however, that including these countries makes a mockery of the organization. Rather, I think it makes its true nature plain.