U.N.: United Nutters

Tech Central Station ^ | April 28, 2005 | Roger Bate

[quidnunc]

This week it was confirmed that Zimbabwe has been one of 15 countries chosen by members of the UN's Economic and Social Council in New York to serve on the UN Commission on Human Rights. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was dismayed:  

"The Government of Zimbabwe has consistently disregarded the rights of its people, repressed political dissent and quashed any and all opposition. Far from earning a role as a protector of human rights, their membership renders the Commission illegitimate and irrelevant. A real and credible UN Human Rights Commission would be condemning the current regime and its activities. I deplore their selection as a Commission member, and hope that this outrageous appointment will help inspire UN members to enact extensive and meaningful reform of the Commission."

  Sen. Frist is correct in every way, but he probably should have added that such disgraceful UN behavior is why it's vital that John Bolton is approved to be the US ambassador to the UN as soon as possible — take note Sens. Voinovich, Chafee and Hagel.   I have written extensively on the problems and atrocities with the regime of Robert Mugabe. But in the past few weeks, several Zimbabwe watchers (one from inside the country) have gently lobbied me to accept the woeful situation in Zimbabwe as the real world and deal with it accordingly. Condemning President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party, ZANU-PF is largely pointless, they say, and it's best to work with ZANU-PF - "change the regime, rather than push for unlikely regime change." They say that the best response to the latest stolen election is to work with the less odious parts of ZANU-PF.

-snip-

[JohnLongIsland]

have ted kennedy, john kerry, and hillary clinton come out to praise the intelligent choice of the united nations or are they waiting to circumvent W's press conference tonight?

[Tamberlane]

That's disgusting. However, before a new round of over the top UN bashing starts here: the problem now is that seats on that Commission are allotted to regional groupings which put forward most of the candidates without opposition. And the largest grouping consists of African governments, which in general care jack about human rights.

Kofi Annan has proposed to abolish the entire Human Rights Commission and replacing it with a smaller Human Rights Council, members of which will be elected by a two-thirds vote in the General Assembly. This would enable sane nations to keep the nutjobs away, and is a typical example of the kind of reform the UN needs. The question will be settled when the General Assembly meets in New York in September. Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200504280504.html

[Ingtar]

Electing them by 2/3 of the General Assembly would be no different. 2/3 of the General Assembly consists of tin pot dictators and socialist/communists who have no regard for human rights.

[ravingnutter]

Hey...that's an insult! : )

[Tamberlane]

That's a considerable exaggeration.