The UN Human Rights Council was formed from the wreckage of the UN Human Rights Commission, which used the commission to bash Israel year after year, has turned into, well, a clone of its predecessor. It ends the year with: A permanent Israel-bashing resolution, and a free pass for Cuba, Darfur, and other human rights violators like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, etc., etc., etc.
Members of the UN’s new human rights watchdog on Tuesday formally agreed to continue their scrutiny of Israel while halting investigations into Cuba and Belarus – a move that immediately drew fire from Canada and the United States.
The decision was part of a package of reforms adopted by the members of the Human Rights Council to change how it conducts its future work, including how and when to launch investigations into some of the world’s worst rights offenders.
The council, which was formed last year to replace the discredited UN Human Rights Commission, passed the compromise package despite objections from Canada over plans to continue singling out Israel for scrutiny by the global body.
The European Union, which played a key role in the negotiations, said ahead of the meeting that it remained to be seen how the council can perform on the basis of the agreement.
”The package is certainly not ideal, but we have a basis we can work with,” said Ambassador Michael Steiner of Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency. ”The package must prove its value in practice.”
The basis that they can work with? It’s this:
The new agreement contains an agenda for future council meetings that provides for regular discussions of ”human rights violations and implications of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
The council is a sham, and was exposed as such from the beginning. When even the WaPo notices something smells on the council, you know there’s something wrong.
Your tax dollars at work, people.