Note
Freedom House lowers the bar in assessing the outcome of the Human Rights Council elections. This NGO uses the Community of Democracies (C of D) as its measuring stick, though the Community is a group that includes many countries which are not full democracies or which are not ranked "free" even by Freedom House standards. C of D members have shown a singular inability to cross regional group/party lines in defending the needs of democracy, the election outcomes to the Council itself being one of many such examples. To pretend that the new Council may suddenly address human rights violations in China and Zimbabwe, though both countries emerged unscathed from the Commission where African and Asian nations had fewer relative numbers than they do on the Council, is not just wishful thinking, it is seriously misleading. And how could they avoid mentioning the takeover of the African and Asian regional groups on the Council by the members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference? Does Freedom House really believe that lauding the pretense of reform is more likely to serve freedom's cause? (AB)