The U.N.’s Human Rights Charade

Joseph Loconte

The Geneva-based U.N. Watch has just released its critique of the tenure of former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. Entitled, “The Right to Name and Shame,” the report offers a clear-eyed look at the record of the U.N.’s most prestigious human-rights official. Sadly—but predictably—Ms. Arbour’s performance, painstakingly examined, receives mixed reviews:

“On the one hand, the data disproves the claims of certain critics that Arbour devoted more time to condemning democracies instead of tyrants. In the period examined, Arbour criticized 39 different countries, many of them ruled by regimes with poor records on human rights and democracy, including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sudan and Zimbabwe . . . The record shows that she was a determined advocate for the adoption of international human rights standards and that she spoke out for many victims around the world.

 At the same time, the evidence does not support the inflated claims made by many of her defenders. For example, claims that Arbour ‘routinely singled out’ China and Russia for ‘fierce criticism’ have no empirical basis. On the contrary, a review of all her UN statements issued during 2007 and 2008 shows that Arbour held back from criticizing many countries that wield power and influence at the UN. She was silent, or spoke out no more than once, on systematic human rights abuses committed by China and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council, and on those committed by Egypt, a country that exercises great influence at the Human Rights Council through its leading position in various UN country groupings.”

Other countries that avoided criticism include North Korea, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Syria—in other words, some of the worst human-rights offenders on the planet. The latest report from U.N. Watch suggests that a debased understanding of natural rights persists at the United Nations, despite its mantra about reform. Until the institution somehow recovers a religious grounding for human dignity—with a concrete sense of “inalienable rights”—we can expect its human rights charade to continue unabated.

Fodder, Global Culture, Good and Evil, Joseph Loconte, Wed 13 Aug 2008