Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Venezuela was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday with 105 votes and a round of applause, despite fierce lobbying by the United States and rights groups, and the late entry of Costa Rica as competition.In a secret ballot by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, Costa Rica garnered 96 votes despite only entering the race this month, when President Carlos Alvarado declared “the Venezuelan regime is not the suitable candidate.”

The UN’s brand of multilateralism is a perversion of its original mission - to achieve solutions to global problems through cooperation among sovereign nations rather than through the imposition of global governance “rules” and “norms” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Monday that she is appalled by the conditions in which migrants and individuals seeking refugee status are being held in detention in the United States after crossing the southern border from Mexico. She stressed that children should never be held in immigration detention or separated from their families, declaring that immigration detention is never...

Thankfully, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein’s opportunity to use his platform as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to spew his anti-Semitic venom against the Jewish state of Israel is coming to an end Natan Sharansky has written about what he called the “new anti-Semitism,” which “is aimed at the Jewish state.” He described his ‘3D’ test “to help us distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism.” The 3D’s stand for “demonization,” “double standards,” and “delegitimization.”

The Trump administration may decide to follow the example of George W. Bush and wash its hands of the UN’s Human Rights Council. Reuters reports this morning that the US may announce as soon as tomorrow that it will withdraw from the panel unless the UN commits to serious reform, especially in its obsession with Israel at the expense of real human-rights abuses: The United States is expected to signal on Tuesday that it might withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council unless reforms are ushered in including the removal of what it sees as an “anti-Israel bias”,...

The Obama administration has, once again, complained to the United Nations about alleged American human rights violations–and boasted about liberal policies like Obamacare as the solution. The State Department report, released Monday as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council, reads less like an accounting of human rights issues and more like the platform of the Democratic Party–and invites the world to judge America harshly. The so-called “human rights” problems cited in the report include: •Police brutality, including the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri •Discrimination against Muslims who want to build or expand...

"Israel was using its missiles to protect its children. Hamas was using its children to protect its missiles." Rewrite history, if you will, but the moral witness of the real victims will testify to the truth Hearing the defamatory accusations with which numerous countries blasted Israel during the UN Human Rights Commission meetings last week in Geneva, it is a wonder that any nation would be given latitude to call themselves sovereign by United Nations standards. In fact, by the example set in these proceedings it’s become apparent the UN has trouble recognizing sovereignty of any nation-state that doesn’t meet...

Amid a surge of anti-gay violence and repression in several countries, the United Nations’ human rights office on Friday launched its first global outreach campaign to promote tolerance and greater equality for lesbians, gays, transgender people and bisexuals. Called Free & Equal, it’s an unprecedented effort by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to change public attitudes around the world on issues that have bitterly divided the U.N.’s own member states. The multi-pronged campaign—announced at a news conference in Cape Town, South Africa—will include videos and public-service announcements distributed through social media, a new website, a...

UN Human Rights Council “expert” Richard Falk has published a statement saying Bostonians got what they deserved in last week’s terror attack. He quotes W.H. Auden to make his point: "to whom evil is done/do evil in return.” Richard Falk is the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” He has held the post since 2008, despite exposure as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. In his latest rant, published online on April 21, 2013 by foreignpolicyjournal.com Falk repeats the libel that prior to 9/11 President George W. Bush was seeking a “pretext”...

The Unites States has declared that Israel should take part in a United Nations review of its human rights situation despite the Jewish state’s decision to cut ties with the council that carries out the process. "We have encouraged the Israelis to come to the council and to tell their story and to present their own narrative of their own human rights situation," said Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the United Nations' Human Rights Council in Geneva, AFP reported. Israel cut all ties with the biased 47-member state council last March after it announced that it would...

But look on the bright side, at least it wasn’t Sudan, Syria or Saudi Arabia. I’m coming around to the opinion that we should do everything possible to keep the UN Human Rights Council around. Not only is it the greatest source of irony since fish in a blacksmith shop, but it’s also a living reminder that the United Nations is to human rights as an exploding train is to transportation safety. The UN Human Rights Council met today in Geneva and elected Mauritania as its Vice-President and Rapporteur for the next year, the second highest position at the world’s...

The new UN Human Rights Council on Friday will hold its second emergency session this summer on Israel, urged by Islamic countries to condemn the Jewish state for "massive bombardment of Lebanese civilian populations" and other "gross and systematic human rights violations." The 57-country Organization of the Islamic Conference, which gathered enough signatures to require the meeting, have put together a harshly worded draft resolution that blames Israel without any mention of Hizbullah, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers a month ago triggered the attack on Lebanon. The council, which in a similar session July 6 voted 29-11 to deplore...

White House - AP Cabinet & State U.S. Blasts Human Rights Panel Selection Tue Feb 8,12:36 PM ET White House - AP Cabinet & State By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated press Writer WASHINGTON - The State Department denounced on Tuesday the selection of Cuba and Zimbabwe for a panel that will decide on the agenda for a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission next month. "The United States believes that countries that routinely and systematically violate the rights of their citizens should not be selected to review the human rights performance of other countries," State Department press office Tom Casey...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded Sunday the recall of the Palestinian observer to the UN Human Rights Commission for calling for the "elimination" of Israel. Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center's representative at the 59th Human Rights Commission session currently taking place in Geneva, wrote the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello calling on him to "immediately condemn the Palestinian observer and take the necessary measures for his recall, due to his violation of the UN Charter in calling for the 'elimination' of the state of Israel. In addition to calling for Israel's elimination, Samuels said, Nabil Ramlawi...