UN - the only hope for our future safety

The United Nations, the international body that everyone agrees is the only hope for peace in this dangerous world has done it again. Apparently the UN Human Rights Council is likely to adopt a reform package that will see Cuba and Belarus dropped from a blacklist, while Israel is placed under permanent indictment. The world must be a wonderful safe and secure place if the only country that is violating human rights is Israel. So the reports of slavery in China, the persecution of Buddhist monks in Tibet by the China, the genocide in Sudan (4000,000 killed, 2.5 million displaced) - sorry that is apparently due to global warming . Feel free to add your own entries in the comments section and I will update this list...

I further read that "Libya is the sole candidate for the post of Chair of a United Nations anti-racism conference to be held in Geneva later this month, upsetting human rights groups who recalled the fatal consequences to the Commission on Human Rights when it chose Libya in 2003. According to diplomats, a meeting yesterday by the Human Rights Council’s five regional groups also named Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia as among the 15 bureau members who will oversee preparatory deliberations for a 2009 gathering to follow up on the controversial Durban conference of 2001." The UN is dangerously close to going beyond parody here. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia overseeing preparations for a conference on anti-racism. That will be Iran where racism is rife - read this or this, Saudi Arabia where the maltreatment of foreign labour is often reported, where racism toward non Saudi Arabs is rife (a good resource for this information is here and of course where non-Moslem's can be arrested for being in a city forbidden to them, see here, or here, or here. Israel is often described as an apartheid state, in fact it has a large Arab minority population (currently around 20%) with 10 Arab members of the 120 seat Knesset Israeli parliament, Saudi Arabia however imposes an official religion on all citizens, Islam, and makes the wearing of non-Muslim religious symbols all but illegal as well as the possession, importing, or distribution of any non-Muslim religious material such as the Bible. As for Russia, take a look at this BBC report from last year.

All countries will have their human rights record reviewed every four years with no review possible in the interim years, so if a Tiananmen Square massacre occurs, the victims will need to wait up to four years for redress. Even then, the duration of the review, for China as for every other country (except Israel), is limited to a mere 3 hours. If all of that were not enough, the process is a "cooperative mechanism," with the very country reviewed "fully involved in the outcome."

The moral of this story is, if you want to violate human rights and not be censured by the United Nations then just be sure you are not Israeli.

Do you think it is likely that the BBC will cover this story?