[Globe and Mail-Canada] Irwin Cotler - The UN Human Rights Council concluded its year-long session last week by singling out one member state - Israel - for permanent indictment on the council agenda. This discriminatory treatment is not only prejudicial to Israel; it is a breach of the UN charter's foundational principle of the equality "of nations, large and small." Council sessions of the past year reflected the systematic singling-out of a UN member state for selective and discriminatory treatment, while granting the major violators exculpatory immunity. There have been nine resolutions condemning one member state only (Israel), but no condemnation of the genocide in Darfur, or of the public and direct incitement to genocide and massive human-rights violations in Ahmadinejad's Iran. The council's discourse is an endless drumbeat of indictment and incitement against Israel, contrary to the council's founding principles and procedures. The tragedy in all of this is not only that it fuels the ongoing delegitimization, if not the demonization, of a member state of the UN, casting Israel as the collective, targeted Jew among the nations. Rather, the tragedy is that all of this takes place under the protective cover of the UN, with the presumed imprimatur of international law, and the halo banner of human rights.
2007-06-22 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive