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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/opinion/21tue2.html
A Discredit to the United Nations
[New York Times] Editorial - The old, unreformed UN Human Rights Commission was selective and one-sided, but occasionally managed to do some good work. That may be more than can be said for its successor body, the Human Rights Council, born earlier this year. If this is the best the UN can do at reforming itself, it isn't worth the effort. The council is new, but its deliberations have already fallen into a shameful pattern. When it comes to the world's worst and most consistent human rights violators, like China, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, and Sudan, there has been a tendency to muffle words and conclusions and shift the focus from individual and political rights to broader economic and social questions. But when it comes to criticizing Israel for violations committed in a wartime context that includes armed attacks against its citizens and soldiers, the council seems to change personality, turning harshly critical and uninterested in broader contexts.