Human-Rights Charade

Toon Credit: Glenn McCoy

"We want a butterfly, we're not going to put lipstick on a caterpillar and declare it a success."--John Bolton talking about trying to reform the UN

I'm not that familiar with the columnist Kevin Ferris but he hits the ball out of the ball park with his latest column entitled, "Human-Rights Charade Continues at the UN". Here are some excerpts:

"Amid much fanfare about reform at the United Nations, the council replaced the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was widely regarded as a den of dictators, terrorism sponsors and rights abusers interested in hiding their own crimes and singling out Israel for condemnation.

After a year, what’s changed? Only the name.

The dictators, terrorism sponsors and rights abusers remain. Israel is still the only country singled out for condemnation.

“No one anticipated that within one year it would be possible to gut the intended agenda of the council and make a mockery of its stated purpose on the scale that the Human Rights Council has managed to do,” says U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.

Coleman is sponsoring a bill to ensure that the council gets no part of any U.S. funds sent to the United Nations, at least for the next two years. His criticisms are echoed in reports by human-rights organizations such as U.N. Watch and Freedom House:

•Of the 12 country-specific resolutions the council passed in the last year, nine condemned Israel. The council pretends this is out of concern for the rights of Palestinians, yet it is silent when Hamas slaughters innocents in Gaza.

• Three of the year’s resolutions raised concerns about Sudan, but there was no condemnation of the genocide there.

If the council doesn’t improve, Abrams says, “At some point, we at Freedom House will walk away and encourage the U.S. to do the same.”

When they go, they can say: “We represent the conscience of humanity."

I just read a recent article that says the situation in Darfur is continuing to get worse, yet the UN does nothing. This should be the ideal situation for the UN to deal with, otherwise, why do they even exist?

Norm Coleman may be a moderate Republican who doesn't often impress me but when it comes to dealing with the UN, he gets it right. I'm with him 100% that the UN Human Rights council shouldn't receive a dime of U.S. money until they start ACTUALLY caring and doing something about human rights. The council is a mockery at this stage and until it changes we should not be supporting it in any way.

President Bush Fed Up With UN's Lack of Action on Darfur

"I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world."--President George W. Bush

The genocide in Darfur is one of those issues that I care deeply about. I did a comprehensive post on it a year ago where I highlight what was going on and what could be done to stop it. As I pointed out a year ago, I was skeptical that the UN would make any real steps to actually solve the problem. They have done nothing but pass resolutions which isn't effective in curbing the violence and President Bush has had enough.

Steve Paterno, a Sudanese man living in the US, points out how Bush has cared about this issue and has done much more than past administrations to change things in the Sudan and of course, has gotten little credit for it. Here is some of what he had to say:

"When it comes to Sudan, President Bush knows it too well that he dedicated most of his efforts and time to issues affecting Sudan. There are even rumors that he has been nicknamed within the White House circles as "Sudan Desk Officer." It has been alleged that President Bush does not only passionately taken into heart the problems affecting Sudan but also developed some level of expertise on Sudan in the course of his tenure as president of the U.S."

"It was in 2002, that the U.S. under the leadership of President George W. Bush took serious initiatives to broker a peaceful settlement between the North and South Sudan. If history will record Iraq, Iran, North Korea as President Bush’s international diplomatic blunders, and then the same history will favorably record the peaceful settlement between the North and South Sudan as President Bush’s successful diplomatic legacy. President Bush enthusiastically involved in the North-South peace agreement."

Now Bush is taking things a step further and issuing tough economic sanctions. He spoke on this last Tuesday. Here is some of what he had to say:

"For too long, the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians. My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it.

Last month I announced that the United States was prepared to take new steps if the government of Sudan did not allow the full deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force; if the government did not begin living up to its many commitments, that the United States would act. I made clear that the time for promises was over, and that President Bashir had to do something to end the suffering.

I held off implementing these steps because the United Nations believed that President Bashir could meet his obligations to stop the killing, and would meet his obligations to stop the killing. Unfortunately, he hasn't met those obligations. President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction.

One day after I spoke, the military bombed a meeting of rebel commanders designed to discuss a possible peace deal with the government. In following weeks, he used his army and government-sponsored militias to attack rebels and civilians in South Darfur. He's taken no steps to disarm these militias in the year since the Darfur peace agreement was signed. Senior officials continue to oppose the deployment of the U.N. peacekeeping force.

The result is that the dire security situation on the ground in Darfur has not changed. And so today, at my instruction, the United States has taken the steps I announced in April. First, the Department of Treasury is tightening U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan. With this new effort, the United States will more aggressively enforce existing sanctions against Sudan's government."

Once again I am extremely proud of my President for standing up to evil and doing something about it. A liberal whined last week that I hadn't done any I love Bush posts lately, well consider this the latest edition ;-)!!

Others blogging:
Gateway Pundit
Politik Ditto (He named Bush his person of the week for his action on Darfur!)