I was immensely disappointed, nay angered by the decision of the United Nations to yet again appoint an avowed anti semite and Islamic fundamentalist to a key UN post. Frankly, the UN is a very bad joke. Below is my post from 2009
My Original Post
Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic has an opinion piece in the New York Times in which he laments the elections for membership of the NZ Human Rights Council. The piece is entitled A Table for Tyrants.
He begins:-
IMAGINE an election where the results are largely preordained and a number of candidates are widely recognized as unqualified. Any supposedly democratic ballot conducted in this way would be considered a farce. Yet tomorrow the United Nations General Assembly will engage in just such an "election" when it votes to fill the vacancies on the 47-member Human Rights Council.
His concluding paragraphs include:-
In the Eastern Europe region — which under the United Nations' rules includes all countries behind the former Iron Curtain, including my own, the Czech Republic — the countries running for re-election are Azerbaijan and Russia, whose human rights records oscillate from questionable to despicable. Only Hungary has stepped forward to compete for the region's two seats. The reluctance of Eastern European states to reclaim leadership from human rights abusers does not inspire confidence.
Like the citizens of Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia, I know what it is like to live in a country where the state controls public discourse, suppresses opposition and severely curtails freedom of expression. It is thus doubly dismaying for me to see the willingness of democracies in Latin America and Asia to sit by and watch the council further lose its credibility and respect.
The UN HRC is within 3 years nearly as bad as its predecessor.
Mr Havel finishes with:-
States committed to human rights and the integrity of the council cannot remain indifferent. Countries must express solidarity with the victims of human rights abuses and reclaim the council by simply refusing to vote for human rights abusers in this shamefully uncontested election.
Adam suspects that Mr Havel's plea is in vain. This is of course the same body that Simon Power was off in Geneva reporting to on NZ's 'progress' on various aspects of Human Rights. Ridiculous.
From 2024
Unfortunately both Vaclav Havel and Adam, and many others still live in hope, that one day commonsense will hope. Again unfortunately, Adam suspects that will be a long wait.
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