A sick farce

The Herald reports:

China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday won three-year seats on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the United Nations’ top rights body, despite concerns about abuses and restrictions on freedoms in all four nations.

Some aspects of the UN are very worthwhile, but the Human Rights Council is not one of them.

According to U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based advocacy group that monitors the United Nations, only four of the 16 candidates for the 14 open seats were qualified to be members of the council on the basis of their human rights records. They were Britain, France, Macedonia and Mexico.

I have always liked the idea of a new UN – one open to democratic and non-repressive countries only.

Iran and Syria had been planning to run for the Human Rights Council but pulled out amid criticism of their rights records.

A small mercy.