Last week, the United Nations Elections to decide seats on the esteemed United Nations Human Rights Council. Member States of this Council are supposed to represent those countries that support and promote the highest standards of human rights.
But instead of electing the best human rights defenders to its council, Turtle Bay chose to elect some of the world's most repressive regimes, including Qatar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia.
Indeed, today almost two-thirds of the Human Rights Council's member states are non-democracies, such as China, Cuba, and Sudan. They are using their seats on the council as a cover for their widespread human rights violations.
Moreover, these human rights violators cite election to the world's highest human rights institution as a false badge of international legitimacy and false evidence of a commitment to human rights.
For example, last Wednesday, shortly after being elected for a second consecutive term, Qatar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations praised his country's achievementssaid this reflected “international recognition of Qatar's firm commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights at the domestic and international levels.”
In fact, the opposite is true. Qatar tragically exploits migrant workers, Oppressing women through the guardianship system This denies their fundamental rights and is a serious problem. Hamas terrorist supporter.
On this basis, it should quickly become clear that the Council is failing in its mission to promote human rights, and is instead making a mockery of its core principles.
So how did this happen? How did the highest institution that protects human rights become a platform for dictatorial regimes to trample on human rights on the world stage? It all stems from a broken electoral system.
It is immediately clear that the electoral system itself is rigged through a closed system in which the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacancies. This makes it easier for human rights abusers to win city council seats through backroom deals that ensure they can run unopposed.
This year, Six candidates contested five seats in the Asia group.. As a result, Saudi Arabia unsurprisingly lost the election. However, Qatar remains singled out in this group, demonstrating the need for reform.
Moreover, once elected, these offenders have the opportunity to appoint their authoritarian friends to leadership positions. In November of last year, Chaired by the Islamic Republic of Iran The Council's Cuban-created Social Forum is ostensibly an annual conference dedicated to human rights.
As a result, the Islamic regime has been given the opportunity to stand out on the international stage as a respected and influential actor. At the same time, killing protesters in the country, It imprisons human rights defenders and supports Hamas' atrocities.
Unsurprisingly, letting the most egregious human rights violators run the Council has dire consequences, as powerful human rights violators avoid scrutiny of their human rights records by the Council. That is why China, Cuba, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have never been the subject of a resolution of condemnation in the history of the Security Council.
at the same time,36 percentMost of the council's country-specific condemnations are directed at Israel, the only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.
Furthermore, the system also gives human rights violators the opportunity to elevate fake human rights “experts” known as special procedures, which follow the orders of the repressive regimes that support them.
For example, one of the most notorious so-called experts is Alena Doohan, the Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, a euphemism for Western sanctions against human rights violators such as Russia and Syria. The obligation was created by the Non-Aligned Movement, an influential anti-Western group of 120 countries whose members include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
In May, Doohan became the first UN expert allowed to visit Xinjiang on a publicity visit to areas of China where well-documented ethnic cleansing of the Uyghur people has taken place.
At the same time, in her office$200,000From China. Therefore, her subsequent reports and videosdrawnShe said oppressed Uyghur Muslims were happy and refused to hold the Chinese government accountable for its crimes.
Meaningful reforms are needed to restore the UN Human Rights Council to its role as a true defender of human rights, free from the influence of human rights abusers.
First, democracies should stop voting to elect human rights violators to councils. They should also speak out against so-called human rights experts who use their mandate to violate fundamental rights.
Rather than prop up this flawed system that makes a mockery of human rights, human rights-minded democracies should lead the call for change.
Dina Rovner is a legal advisor at UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
