Crooks calling the shots in UN court
Brian Monteith
June 30, 2006
The Scotsman
Original Source: http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=956072006

WHAT is the United Nations for? Now before your eyes glaze over and you skip to Grant's column, let me emphasise the next 500 words will not be about happy-clappy sandal-wearing do-goodness. 
That's not to say I believe trying to establish peace on this earth is pointless, or that seeing the good side in nations, or more often than not, the good side in tyrants, is a complete waste of time. It's not. But, really, what is the UN for? 
I ask this because yet another UN organisation has just been founded, this time to protect our human rights. It sounds good, does it not? A Human Rights Council. Even better still, a United Nations Human Rights Council. What could be better than that? 
Well, actually, if it's anything like its forerunner, the late and unlamented UN Human Rights Commission, then there's more benefit to be had from growing mange tout in Edinburgh allotments than delegates burning aviation fuel as they make their way to Geneva for a swanky conference. (Funny how it's always Switzerland, but never, for example, Barrow in Furness or Grimsby). 
The previous commission had to be wound up because it included such beacons of truth and justice as Saddam Hussein's blood curdling representatives and was therefore taken seriously by no-one. 
So, in Geneva did the UN delegates meet, where they elected a 47-strong council with, wait for it, such paragons of international virtue as Cuba, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. I'm sure you get the picture. Nothing has changed. 
Lock up journalists, trade unionists, professors and anyone else that happens to suggest the people's democracy is not quite what it should be - and you get elected to the UN Human Rights Council. (That's Cuba). 
Imprison political opponents on trumped-up charges and remove democratic rights only recently won and you get elected. (That's Russia.) 
Persecute Christians, Buddhists and others that might stray from the shining path and you get elected. (Yes, step forward China.) 
And, well, cut off people's hands for shoplifting and chop off their heads for adultery and you get elected. (Saudi Arabia take a bow.) 
If this lot have anything to say on Human Rights then you can bet it's not going to be worth hearing. Already it's targeting Israel and the US, countries that, for all their faults are democracies with freedom of speech, an independent judiciary and a critical media. The best way to avoid inspection by this Human Rights Commission is to be part of it, so don't expect any bad reports on Castro or the sheikhs. 
Yes, this is the other side of the United Nations. We can all support and indeed donate to the World Health Organisation in the hope that it will do some good, but let the UN go anywhere near politics or principles and you will be left with a bad taste in the mouth. 
This is also the United Nations that deliberates and occasionally votes over all sorts of sovereignty disputes and tells us if a war is justified and when self-defence is allowed. Thatcher was right to let the United Nations try to find a way of getting the Argentinians out of the Falklands (25th anniversary next year) and Bush was right to try and get global support to clean up Iraq. But both were also right to ignore the UN when action was needed. It has no moral authority. 
As long as the countries of the United Nations believe that governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia are the moral equivalent of those in Denmark, Canada, Israel, Taiwan and Australia, then Britain and any other democratic nations should put their interests first and not feel obliged to have the backing of such a collection of thieves and murderers.