UN Assmonkery

Anne Applebaum, one of my favorite columnists, has a nice little piece (link via Jim Miller) on UN Human Rights Commission assmonkery. The commission, most recently remembered for kicking the United States out of its ranks last year, is now gathering for its annual “we hate the evil Zionists and Americans” festival in Geneva. Moammar Qaddafi’s Libya currently heads the organization. Much of the diplomatic pretensions of dictatorships are discussed, as is the west’s (including the US) use of Human Rights rhetoric to further petty geo-political goals.

Applebaum’s summary judgement:

It is not just the politics of the world's dictatorships that distort the U.N. human rights debate, in other words, but the politics of the world's great democracies as well. And does it matter? "No" is the easy, short answer: The U.N. Human Rights Commission long ago equivocated itself into moral obscurity and, as a result, lost whatever credibility Eleanor Roosevelt bestowed on it 50 years ago. But the longer, more complicated answer is, unfortunately, "yes": These sundry resolutions, declarations and rapporteurs matter because they matter to the people involved. It may all be a political game to us -- or to the French -- but to the Russian or Sudanese governments, any U.N. statement that absolves them of blame for civilian casualties in their respective wars will help legitimize those wars in the eyes of their own people as well as foreigners', and allow them to continue.

As many people noted during last years UNHRC fiasco (I’m too lazy to look for links right now), the lunatics are running the asylum in this and many other areas of the UN. This is not diplomacy, or international dialog, or any other kind of quasi useful behavior. This is a Python-esque farce. It’s time for the US to stop participating in diplo-masturbation like this, to stop strengthening the diplomatic and political position of regimes that have no actual regard for human rights. Boycott the UNHRC, denounce it publicly, and keep shouting out all of its interesting “foibles”.

 

Posted by Captain Mojo at April 18, 2003 01:09 PM | TrackBack