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« More Design | Main | Even More Economic Illiteracy »

WaPo: US Opposes UN HRC Just Because

The Washington Post reports that the US is opposing the UN's feeble trotting-out of Commission in Council's clothing, but doesn't bother to explain why the proposal is worse that useless. ALmost 2/3 of the article is devoted to quoting the Council's supporters and describing the supposed "improvements," without any discussion of why these changes make things worse.

The Post:

[Annan and other supporters] noted that provisions to subject all council members to scrutiny of their human rights record would discourage countries with poor records from joining. They also said that council members suspected of abusive behavior can be suspended by a vote of two-thirds of the U.N. membership present.

The problem:

There is a provision for suspending a Council member that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights. But the step can only be taken with the agreement of two thirds of the members of the General Assembly. Fifty percent of the General Assembly could not even agree that Sudan was guilty of human-rights violations in November of 2005.

The Post:

The new council would consist of 47 members selected by secret ballot on the basis of "geographical distribution" and committed to "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights."

The problem:

Instead of a much smaller body designed to attract the best states from each regional group, the proposal merely reduces the number of members from 53 to 47.

and

The proposal significantly shifts the balance of power away from the Western regional group, including the United States. The African and Asian regional groups will hold 55 percent of the votes. The proportional representation of the Asian group will represent the greatest increase and the representation of the Western group the greatest decline.

The Post:

Members would be elected for as many as two three-year terms at a time and would meet for at least 10 weeks throughout the year.

The problems:

States which are elected must rotate off every two terms. The United States has been a member of the Commission every year since 1947, with one exception, and has played a leadership role in efforts to promote human rights throughout the Commission’s history, not to mention paying for 22 percent of its costs.

...

Special sessions of the commission can be called by just one third of the council's membership. Although this feature has been hailed as an improved capacity to deal with urgent human rights situations, the membership of the new council will make it more likely that special sessions will be about the United States and Israel rather than China or Sudan.

The Post reduces the US response is reduced to mere distrust and discontent, and allows Annan to take the high ground of opposing obstruction. While it's not the Post's job to act as a mouthpiece for the administration, it's hard to see how this article even approaches a fair airing of the facts.

Comments

Obviously, you failed to note the WaPo editorial the same day:

"The Bush administration's diplomacy toward the United Nations has often been abrasive and shortsighted. But yesterday's tough line on the U.N. Human Rights Council may turn out to be an exception. The administration refused to accept a proposed structure for this new body, reasonably fearing that it would protect human rights abusers rather than put pressure on them. The challenge now is to secure an agreement on a more robust structure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701319.html

Doesn't matter. Editorializing on one side doesn't forgive editorials masquerading as news reports.

That's a little flip.

The WaPo backs Bolton's Council approach, but then cynically undermines it the same day?

I fail to discern a rationale.

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  booklist

Power, Faith, and Fantasy


Six Days of War


An Army of Davids


Learning to Read Midrash


Size Matters


Deals From Hell


A War Like No Other


Winning


A Civil War


Supreme Command


The (Mis)Behavior of Markets


The Wisdom of Crowds


Inventing Money


When Genius Failed


Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking


Back in Action : An American Soldier's Story of Courage, Faith and Fortitude


How Would You Move Mt. Fuji?


Good to Great


Built to Last


Financial Fine Print


The Day the Universe Changed


Blog


The Multiple Identities of the Middle-East


The Case for Democracy


A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam


The Italians


Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory


Beyond the Verse: Talmudic Readings and Lectures


Reading Levinas/Reading Talmud