By Hillel Neuer In 1946, in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt founded the UN Commission on Human Rights, to reaffirm the principles of human dignity. That her dream has turned into a recurring nightmare was confirmed on Thursday when some of the world’s worst regimes were once again elected to the 47-nation UN body, renamed in 2006 under a failed bid at reform, as the Human Rights Council. Who are the UN’s new world judges on human rights? Absurdly, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is one. Though the council’s rules stipulate that members must “uphold the highest standards” of human rights, the UN General Assembly chose the narco-criminal regime from Caracas. Despite promises of a socialist paradise, President Maduro has devastated his country, starved his own people and crushed pro-democracy dissidents. The government’s repression includes targeting opposition leaders like Leopoldo López, who was thrown into prison for three years and is still under house arrest. According to the NGO Foro Penal, as of April 2019 there were more than 900 political prisoners across Venezuela. Maduro’s failed policies have produced political instability, hunger, poverty and soaring crime rates. Millions are ill and dying for lack of food, medicine and basic necessities. Four million have fled. Electing Maduro to the council was obscene. Second, the world body elected Libya, another failed state, where armed groups execute and torture civilians with almost complete impunity. Captured African migrants are bought and sold on open slave markets. Third, although anti-racism is supposedly the defining credo of the UN, the General Assembly elected the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where an estimated 500,000 people live in slavery. Under an age-old caste system, darker-skinned Mauritanians are beholden to their lighter-skinned “masters.” Anti-slavery activists like Biram Dah Abeid are jailed and tortured. This week’s fourth notable addition to the Human Rights Council — which already includes the likes of China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — is Sudan, which has one of the world’s highest rates of female genital mutilation. For the past 30 years, Sudan was ruled by Omar al-Bashir, whose interpretation of Sharia law permitted flogging, amputation and stoning. Bashir also stands accused of committing genocide against an estimated 300,000 people in Darfur. In April, Bashir was ousted. A joint civilian-military council now rules the country. Though some of the new leaders appear committed to reform, it is too early to know if Sudan will succeed in breaking from its brutal past. In total, as of Jan. 1 more than half of council members will be non-democracies. Does it matter that the world’s highest human-rights body is being subverted? It does. The council’s pronouncements and reports are translated into multiple languages and influence the hearts and minds of millions worldwide. Dictators on the council will continue to ensure that most of the world’s worst abusers enjoy impunity. Violators like China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia have never been the object of a single resolution, urgent session or commission of inquiry. Instead, Israel is repeatedly singled out for condemnation, the only country targeted under a special agenda item at every meeting. Hamas terrorism is ignored. Dictators will also make sure to appoint more anti-Western figures like Jean Ziegler, the longest-serving council official, who openly defends the Maduro regime. In 1989, he announced the creation of the Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, which over the years was awarded to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and, in 2002, to Ziegler himself. After Qaddafi’s Libya was elected to the council in 2010, Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey defended the choice, saying it was “important to keep a dialogue” in order to “improve the human-rights situation across the world.” Yet after regimes like Russia, China and Cuba served on the council for a decade, their repression only got worse. Sadly, for the foreseeable future at the United Nations, the inmates will be running the asylum. Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a nongovernmental human-rights organization in Geneva, Switzerland. |
