EDITOR'S NOTE: “Window on The Week”

April 7, 2006
Source: National Review
Original Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/week/editors200604071145.asp

…
The U.S. has announced that it won't seek a seat on the new U.N. Human Rights Council. In the spirit of He who lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas, one might think this a good thing. After all, the whole point of reforming the old U.N. Human Rights Commission was to keep states like Libya, Cuba, and Sudan from gaining seats on it, but the new body is, if anything, more likely to be dominated by human-rights abusers. Yet the U.S. announcement hardly looked like a statement of principle. The administration also said that it might seek a seat next year and that, in the meantime, it would support the council diplomatically and financially. That gave those who like to bash Bush's diplomacy an opening to charge that the U.S. isn't running for a seat because it knows it can't win one. Regardless of whether that's true, the administraton would have been better off walking away decisively and completely — and founding a new body devoted to protecting human rights outside the U.N. structure — than taking this half step.
…