Original Source: http://foreignaffairs.republicans.house.gov/list/press/foreignaffairs_rep/052208UN.shtml
Date: May 22, 2008

House Foreign Affairs Committee 
U.S. House of Representatives 
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican
 			
For Immediate Release 
May 22, 2008	Contact:  Sam Stratman, (202) 226-7875
Alex Cruz, (202) 225-8200	
 			
Ros-Lehtinen Statement on Results of UN Human Rights Council Election
Results reinforce view that Council is beyond repair”	
 


(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said today that the election results of the UN Human Rights Council only reinforces concerns that the world’s most prestigious human rights body is “beyond repair.” The UN General Assembly today elected Pakistan and Bahrain to serve on the Council. Freedom House and UN Watch, two independent NGOs, have deemed both countries unfit to judge on matters of human rights. Statement of Ros-Lehtinen: 


The election of Pakistan and Bahrain to the UN Human Rights Council again demonstrates that abiding by conventional standards of human rights is by no means a prerequisite for holding a seat on the Council. 

The results of today’s election further means that the Organization of the Islamic Conference has tightened its grip on the Council, and will continue to push through anti-Israel resolutions, sanction the oppression of free speech through the guise of anti-defamation resolutions, and give freedom to brutal regimes in Uzbekistan, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

As the newly elected members join repressive regimes such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and China on the Council, it becomes ever clearer that the UN’s human rights infrastructure is beyond repair. The United States is correct in distancing itself from this absurd organization by refusing membership and withholding funds for its support.