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Beware of the UN Human Rights Council

[Wall Street Journal] Ronan Farrow - Last week the Obama administration announced its intention to seek membership in a body America has for years shunned: the UN Human Rights Council, in perhaps the starkest illustration yet of what officials have billed as a "new era of engagement." But joining the Human Rights Council plunges the U.S. headlong into one of the most notorious quagmires in international politics. The Council's most recent session saw the body voting to end its mandate to investigate the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even as that nation lurches into ethnic bloodshed. A Pakistani resolution against "defamation of religions" passed with ease despite being universally decried by human rights groups as a thinly veiled effort to curtail freedom of expression and suppress minority sects. The body has declined to issue a single condemnation of Sudan for its ethnic cleansing in Darfur. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 26 other countries - including China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe - have been ignored by the Council. It has instead diverted an implausible portion of its resources to the constant, fevered condemnation of Israel: 26 of its 32 condemnations. During its most recent session, the Council issued five resolutions condemning Israel - more than all its resolutions concerning other countries combined.
2009-04-10 06:00:00
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