A few years ago, the U.N. altered the name of its “human rights” body. It would no longer be the U.N. Human Rights Commission — a group that had failed to uphold human rights around the world and, in fact, protected the world’s most vicious abusers. A number of brutal regimes even enjoyed membership on the commission, the better to hide their misdeeds.
The revised name was the U.N. Human Rights Council, and no more (supposedly) would the agency tolerate the injustices approved or covered up by the old commission.
It didn’t work out that way, though. The “council” has done the same things the old “commission” had done, such as mostly ignoring the murderous acts of nations including Sudan and Communist North Korea, while denouncing Israel for defending itself against terrorists. The promises of reform have proved phony.
The latest evidence of that phoniness is the fact that Iran is now up for a seat on the Human Rights Council. It is one of five candidates for four seats.
That is a supreme irony. Iran is in the midst of a cruel crackdown on Iranians who have demonstrated against the radical Muslim regime. Many have been killed or beaten severely in the streets. Some have been executed. Iran also supports terrorism in various other parts of the world. Most alarmingly, it is working nonstop to develop nuclear weapons with which to threaten its neighbors — particularly Israel, which it says should be annihilated.
If the U.N. functioned sensibly and were dedicated to human rights, it would be impossible for Iran or other terrorist states even to be nominated for the Human Rights Council.
Our point is not really to urge that Iran be denied a seat on the council, which is likely to continue its anti-human-rights behavior with or without Iran. Rather, we urge U.S. leaders to recognize the brokenness of the U.N. and not to legitimize it.