The United Nations has been the target of harsh criticism for electing corrupt governments to its human rights council. One such member government is Turkey, which currently censors the Internet, mistreats protestors, and refuses to investigate its political killings of the indigenous Kurdish population, not to mention its failure even to acknowledge the well-documented genocide against Christian Armenians in the 20th century. Another serious offender is Qatar, which currently enslaves its migrant workers, tortures political dissidents, imprisons homosexuals, and funds terror regimes such as Hamas and ISIS.
Operating via back room deals and vote trading, the UN recently elected the governments of Russia, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Vietnam to the UNHRC. Not a single one of these countries respects any aspect of human rights – imprisonment, torture, and execution of those with different political, religious, or sexual preferences is the common thread among these countries. In fact, these governments (some of which are not even democracies) systematically violate virtually every article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Without a doubt, these regimes are terrible voices for the protection of human rights. Yet, the worst violators of human rights continue to be elected to the UNHRC.
While none of the UN’s 193 member states has a perfect record, it is clear that abuse of human rights is an ongoing modus operandi for the current members of the UNHRC. The mismanagement of every humanitarian crisis has been the direct result of the UN’s corrupt policy of empowering criminal regimes to its human rights council. The UNHRC has sat idle during the ongoing massacre of 190,000+ men, women, and children in Syria. It has sat idle during massacres in Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, and Rwanda.
If the objective of the UNHRC is to ensure that the fox is guarding the henhouse, and thus, no hen is safe, then this objective has surely been accomplished. On the other hand, if the objective is to advance and protect human rights, then the requirements for membership must be changed to ensure that the UNHRC comprises governments that truly respect human rights. Until then, the UNHRC is nothing but an illegitimate political body falsely claiming to defend human rights.
