The United Nations Honors Yet Another Dictator

By Anne Yasmine Rassam
September 27, 2006
Townhall.com
Original Source: http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/AnneYasmineRassam/2006/09/27/the_united_nations_honors_yet_another_dictator
Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s ruthless dictator, has been awarded a medal by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for “strengthening friendship and cooperation between nations, development of cultural and religious dialogue, and supporting cultural diversity.” This award went to the same man that brutally slaughtered several hundred unarmed Uzbeks in Andijon last year. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan has been ranked in 2006 by Freedom House as one of the most repressive countries in the world with one of the world’s worst human rights records. 
Founded after the Second World War, UNESCO directive is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world.
One can only wonder what UNESCO, with such a mandate, was thinking when it awarded the prestigious gold Borobudur medal to Karimov for his contribution to preserving World Heritage sites. Perhaps they should have taken into consideration that his preservation of these sites comes at the expense of maintaining a totalitarian government through massive human rights violations and the use of slave labor, including children as young as six or seven, on state-owned cotton farms. 
Could it be that UNESCO found that Karimov “developed cultural and religious dialogue” by arbitrarily jailing, controlling and interfering with the media, opposition parties and the work of Uzbek NGOs? Or perhaps, what UNESCO meant by “strengthening friendship and cooperation between nations” was the fallout between the United States and Uzbekistan when Uzbekistan ordered the U.S. to close all its military operations inside Uzbekistan within 180 days on July 30, 2005—only to subsequently accuse and kick out all U.S. related NGOs, including IREX, Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, on the basis that they were fueling political opposition? Or maybe by “cooperation by nations,” they meant the landmark decision in October 2005 by the European Union to partially suspend its Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Uzbekistan—the first time it has ever done so with any country.
The litany of human rights abuses in Uzbekistan goes on and on, especially on issues such as religious freedom and torture. Certainly UNESCO must have been aware of undeniable totalitarian nature of Karimov’s regime best known for torture and suppression of any political or civil dissent. But perhaps, given the recipients of prizes in the past, UNESCO simply doesn’t care.
On February 3, 2006, UNESCO awarded its 2005 José Martí International Prize to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Cuban president Fidel Castro personally handed the Martí prize which is intended to recognize those who have contributed to the “struggle for liberty” in Latin America to Hugo Chávez, another repressive leader who has a winning track record of electoral fraud, human rights violations, property theft and political repression.
Just as the United Nations newly “reformed” Human Rights Council still allows egregious human rights violators to sit in judgment of other nations, UNESCO is following other United Nations’ branches that are failing to live up to the ideals and mission upon which it is founded. All branches of the United Nations must reform and stand for the very principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights––the founding document of the United Nations. Otherwise, the United Nations’ moral authority regarding human rights is completely undermined by its deference to dictators and egregious violators of human rights.
In addition to allowing dictators the run of the UN, the UN is also infected by corrosive and destroying corruption. One of the worst examples of this corruption once could be found at UNESCO. Recognizing that UNESCO was bursting with corruption, as well as mismanagement and politicization, the United States withdrew from it in 1984. In 2003, after UNESCO instituted a number of reforms, including eliminating half of its top staff members, the United States rejoined the body.
Perhaps, it is time that the United States reconsiders withdrawing from UNESCO yet again.


Anne Yasmine Rassam is vice president of foreign policy and international women's issues for the Independent Women’s Forum.