Israel Matzav

Another day at Turtle Bay: Genocidal Sudan elected to UN's Economic and Social Council

Genocidal Sudan has been elected a member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group, urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon, rights commissioner Navi Pillay, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and the EU’s Catherine Ashton to condemn today’s U.N. election of “genocidal, misogynistic and tyrannical” Sudan to its 54-member Economic and Social Council, a top U.N. body that regulates human rights groups, oversees U.N. committees on women's rights, and crafts resolutions from Internet freedom to female genital mutilation.

The United States doesn't  seem to be overly concerned.

Although the U.S. took important action in September to pressure Sudan into withdrawing from this Monday's elections to the 47-nation Human Rights Council -- boosted by a massive campaign led my film star Mia Farrow and UN Watch -- the Obama Administration has been surprsingly silent on today's vote.

By contrast, in 2004, the U.S. ambassador famously walked out of ECOSOC after Sudan was elected.

According to insiders, Washington's silence on Sudan may stem from fear of upsetting African and Arab states in advance of America's own fragile bid for a UNHRC seat in the Nov. 12 vote.

Priorities man, priorities. But wouldn't it be great if Obama loses that 'human rights council' seat?

Al Bashir's regime will now help select the members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive board of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.

Under the U.N. Charter, ECOSOC is the principal organ legislating on matters related to “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”

Importantly, ECOSOC is also the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the U.N., deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.

The dominant influence of tyrannies in ECOSOC's notorious 19-member "Committee on NGOs" has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive U.N. member states, or which speak for minority ethnic groups or for gay rights.

But don't you just feel what a great effect Obama has had on the UN? What could go wrong?

Labels: genocide, human rights abuses, Sudan, United Nations

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:31 PM