May 22, 2002
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Using the U.N.'s Time
Anne Bayefsky discusses the politicized U.N. process for addressing human rights in the NYT today:
Each year more than 100,000 letters about human rights violations are addressed to the United Nations. Many describe sad tales of abuse at the hands of government or officially sanctioned thugs. These letters, faxes, postcards and electronic messages go into piles in the cellar of the Palais des Nations in Geneva and stacks in the high commissioner's office in Palais Wilson.In response, the annual Human Rights Commission session, which ended last month, was able to agree on resolutions concerning the conduct of just 11 of the 189 member states. This is not uncommon because in almost all cases commission members seek to avoid directly criticizing states with human rights problems, frequently by focusing on Israel, a state that, according to analysis of summary records, has for over 30 years occupied 15 percent of commission time and has been the subject of a third of country-specific resolutions.
I'd like to imagine a world where the U.N. regains moral authority, but I find it difficult when the only state they can bring themselves to criticize consistently is a functioning democracy. Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at May 22, 2002 6:22 AM | Technorati inbound links"); ?>