Don't let wolves guard the henhouse
Our Opinion: Human-Rights Abusers Poorly Serve New U.N. Council 

May 15, 2006
The Miami Herald
Original Source: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14581071.htm

The election of notorious human-rights violators, including Cuba, to the new U.N. Human Rights Council last week doesn't bode well for the council's future. This was the body that was supposed to replace the United Nations' human-rights commission, which was discredited after such violators became members and sabotaged its work.
The U.N. reform was intended to ensure that the world's best defenders of freedom and human rights got to sit on the council, thereby raising the human-rights bar for everyone. Having some of the world's worst oppressors -- Cuba, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Azerbaijan -- at the same table defies the purpose. Why should these wolves guard the hen house? Governments that routinely violate fundamental freedoms in their own countries shouldn't be setting the standards for anyone else.
Tougher election rules
Other states with troubling practices also were elected: The Tunisian government, for example, censors the Internet. Malaysia practices preventive detention, jailing individuals without charges for long periods of time. In Nigeria, there is widespread torture by police.
Some human-rights advocates see the glass as half-full. Human Rights Watch credited tougher membership and election rules for discouraging some of the worst abuser countries from even running for a seat on the new council, among them Sudan, Zimbabwe and Libya. And Venezuela and Iran, with poor human-rights records, failed to win election despite their oil riches.
Advocates may be right that the new council's membership is an improvement over the old commission's. But given the depth to which the old commission had sunk, that's not saying much.
New council rules will provide opportunities to scrutinize the performance of its in-house tyrants. Under the rules, all U.N. members will be subjected to reviews of their human-rights record, with council members the first to undergo the process.
Staunch defense needed
How that review treats Cuba and fellow travelers will be telling of the council's future. The worst offenders can, and should, be kicked off the council with a two-thirds vote of the U.N. General Assembly. But that possibility appears remote given the politics that elected these members in the first place.
The best hope is that the council's staunchest defenders of human rights -- Canada and the Czech Republic, among others -- will ensure that abusers are truly held to account. The United States didn't even run for council membership, an unfortunate decision that now curtails its influence. Time will tell if the oppressors will hijack the U.N.'s human-rights agenda. But this isn't a good start.