Patterico's Pontifications

3/1/2011

Libya Kicked Off the UN Human Rights Council

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:26 pm



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

The other day I linked to a CNS article that says that Libya was unlikely to lose its membership in the UN Human Rights Council.  Well, on this I am very pleased to be wrong.  From the UN’s News Centre:

The General Assembly today suspended Libya from the United Nations Human Rights Council for “gross and systematic” human rights violations because of President Muammar Al-Qadhafi’s violent repression of peaceful protesters demanding his ouster.

The vote by the 192-member Assembly, for which a two-thirds majority was required, followed a request last Friday from the Geneva-based Council itself that it suspend the North African country – one of the top UN right’s body’s 47 elected members – and was passed by acclamation.

In a related story, they also condemned the human rights violations in the suppression of dissent in China, Iran, Pakistan (they kill blasphemers there), Yemen, Saudi Arabia…

Ah, who are we kidding?  That would require consistency.  Still it’s something.

At the same time, James Taranto points out that they are well on their way to ratifying a report praising Libya for its human rights record, at least prior to the rebellion, highlighting

the words of praise from the council’s member nations, a rogue’s gallery of tyrannies:

Sudan noted the country’s positive experience in achieving a high school enrolment rate and improvements in the education of women. The Syrian Arab Republic praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its serious commitment to and interaction with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms. . . . North Korea praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its achievements in the protection of human rights. . . . Palestine [sic] commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for the consultations held with civil society in the preparation of the national report. . . . Saudi Arabia commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s achievements in its constitutional, legislative and institutional frameworks. . . . Venezuela acknowledged the efforts of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to promote economic, social and cultural rights, especially those of children. . . .Cuba commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for the progress made. . . .Myanmar commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its economic and social progress.

…The council is a joke, and its actions should be judged by the same standard as any other joke. It ought to approve the report because that would be funnier than rejecting it.

In other words, he hopes they fail. It is frankly much more useful to those of us who don’t like the U.N. if they do ridiculous things like this.  But even a few good acts does not suddenly make the body an appropriate sovereign for a free people.  The fact is my reasoning in the last post still rings true:

There is an old, snide comment that democracy is like two foxes and a chicken voting on what is for dinner.  That is perhaps too harsh in many contexts, but seems exactly right when the U.N. is involved….  To get a little philosophical, this is exactly why the American Constitution has what is known as the guarantee clause—a clause requiring that every state has a “republican” form of government.  Because you can’t mix republics with dictatorships in the same “representative” body.  And this is precisely why the U.N. has no legitimate say over American affairs.

So for once the U.N. was embarrassed into not doing the most ridiculous and shameful thing possible.  And maybe they will recognize that praising Libya’s human rights record is every bit as embarrassing and shameful as their continued membership on the Human Rights Council was.  But we rightfully have higher aspirations than to be ruled by an international body that avoids extreme embarrassment.  They vaulted a very, very low bar, but they are still illegitimate as proposed rulers.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

8 Responses to “Libya Kicked Off the UN Human Rights Council”

  1. The council is a joke, and its actions should be judged by the same standard as any other joke.

    The whole UN is a joke… Why would you expect anything less of a subcomponent thereof?

    Smock Puppet (c9dcd8)

  2. You’ve got to learn to think outside the box. Maybe Charlie Sheen should be named to a UN council on heterosexual marriage.
    Think of it as an unintentional “How not to…” nomination.

    Actually it is more like Dorothy clicking her heels together and wishing herself back into Kansas… or sure… Charlie and the porn stars are good for the twins, the nanny is a pure and shining light, and my ex wife is here for the children

    SteveG (cc5dc9)

  3. Oh yeah… as if the delegate from Myanmar would do anything other than praise the creative distribution of wealth to the ruling class

    SteveG (cc5dc9)

  4. Obviously people are worried that Daffy Qaddafi was the only thing keeping Libya on top of human rights abuses. The fear is that a new government will not have the experience in depriving citizens of human rights which is a qualification to sit on the HRC.

    max (2f2a28)

  5. … in the annals of “Why the UN should simply disappear.”

    Torquemada (2a42d3)

  6. Max

    i heard the UN HRC is working on a book entitled: “To Serve Man.”

    wait, holy crap its a cookbook!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIufLRpJYnI

    Btw, how dumb are those aliens, that they would write their evil cookbook in english?

    Aaron Worthing (73a7ea)

  7. Kicking Libya off the UNHRC is a good start.

    Kicking the UN off the planet would be a good finish.

    Estragon (ec6a4b)

  8. The UN has thus reminded us with strong and surprising action that the the world would spin out of control with civil wars, piracy,and governments oppressing their people lacking their insipid ,oops i mean inspired leadership.

    dunce (b89258)


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