Reaffirming the General Assembly’s Futility
In a history plagued with inaction, uncertainty, and a lack of consensus on human rights issues and abuses, the United Nations again proved its ineptitude this week by awarding seats on its Human Rights Council to China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba and Algeria. If you need to read that again to make sure I am being serious, feel free. The Council’s members are elected by the UN General Assembly for a 3-year term. The 47-seat Geneva-based Council is said to be a pivotal body in monitoring and inspecting accusations of human rights abuses across the world, and in protecting the values of human security and rights on behalf of the UN General Assembly. There are no veto votes on the Council, so a majority can still lean the Council in the right direction, but one wonders exactly how and why anyone would think it to be a good idea for states of this type to be awarded anything related to human rights, other than perhaps a “worst violators club” award. It should...