Iran, Cuba among US critics in UN Human Rights Council fiasco

The United States received its first United Nations ‘Universal Periodic Review’ of human rights after President Barack Obama became the first in the Oval Office to seek and obtain a seat on the Council. When Obama did that in April, 2009, I called it his worst decision to date. My assessment is confirmed by a news release summarizing the human rights review of the U.S. by countries like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

Within the release, there’s a list of countries and organizations who spoke, taking the U.S. to task for our practices.

The UN press release said, “Speaking in the general debate on the Universal Periodic Review of the United States were Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Algeria, China, Russian Federation, Egypt, Bolivia, Morocco and Botswana. Human Rights Watch, Indian Council of South America, Word Association for the School as an Instrument of Peace, Movement Contre le Racism and Pour L’amitie entre les Peuples, of Iranian Elite Research Centre, Charitable Institute for Protection of Social Victims, Organization for Defending Victims of Violence, Sudwind, Network of Women’s Non-governmental organizations in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Action Canada for Population and Development also took the floor.”

Among particular concerns was the predictable criticism of the US housing international terrorists at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. Countries like Iran apparently view members of groups like al Qaeda through the same prism as members of a state military body although AQ members wear no uniforms, observe no international human rights standards, represent no country officially and view civilians as fair game for slaughter.

Criticism on topics like gay rights was mentioned—wouldn’t it be interesting to ask Iran about the country’s position on gay rights?

Most U.S. media did not cover Obama’s successful effort to obtain a seat on the Council, so it isn’t surprising the same media neglected to cover the Council’s proceedings. An exception is Reuters—the international news service ran a story with the header ‘U.S. attacked by opponents at U.N. Human Rights body.’

After reading the proceedings, I came to the conclusion the HRC is simply another tool in a big box providing repressive countries political ammunition to justify their own human rights infractions. Israel of course is a predictable punching bag.

The HRC release said the next meeting of the Council was scheduled for 9 a.m. on Monday, 21 March 2011. The release said, “Under its agenda item on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, the Council will first hold an interactive dialogue with the Committee of Experts. The Council will then hold an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories.”

You could write the story about the outcome of that meeting ahead of time since the subject is the “occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Securing a seat on the council was, as I initially suggested, a bad idea. That action opened the door for repressive countries to justify arbitrarily killing women and justifying the action with primitive interpretations of specific scriptures by Islamists and it opened the door for dictators (and de facto dictators) to curtail all the rights they desired and justify it by using political fact rather than reality.

In the UPR proceedings, concern was expressed about discrimination against Muslims in the U.S. yet no one mentioned the fact there were 9 times as many hate crimes against Jews reported than those against Muslims in the U.S., based on FBI hate crime data.

The UN Human Rights Commission, like the sprawling meddling global bureaucracy the commission is part of, is a fiasco. A number of the countries on the HRC are among the worst offenders in the world and permitting them to be on the commission actually undermines human rights around the world.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/March 21, 2011)

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