The UN-Human Rights Council Operating in an Alternate Islamic Universe

Atefeh Sahaaleh was a 16-year-old Iranian girl who was executed in Iran after being sentenced to death by an Iranian judge, Haji Rezai, for allegedly having committed "acts incompatible with chastity" The proof of her crime was that she claimed that she had been repeatedly raped by a 51-year-old man. Because Iranian law requires the testimony of four men to prove rape, the judge determined that the party at fault was Sahaaleh, and she was executed by hanging - with the judge even affixing the noose at her execution. Does this whole travesty sound like a human rights violation of the type the UN Human Rights Council should be investigating? Think again. Today's reformed Human Rights Council does not do Muslim - nor anything other then Israel, actually.

This today on the UN Human Rights Council from Publius Pundit:

Foreign Policy's Passport blog has a post up about how the UN Human Rights Council has become a complete joke, a shadow of its supposed ideals. It writes about latest developments this week in Geneva:

In Geneva this week, any pretense of utility or fairness that clung to the United Nations Human Rights Council finally evaporated. By a decisive margin, the Council voted to end its examination of Iran and Uzbekistan despite worsening human rights records in both countries. Japan, South Korea, and Brazil were surprising votes in favor of the free passes; they had been supported more predictably by Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Azerbaijan.

Ironic given that Iran and Uzbekistan are perhaps some of the worst human rights violators in the world. Could Amnesty International possibly have been wrong when it declared "a new beginning for human rights" back in May 2006? No, it's a new beginning alright. It's an era of greater protection for human rights violators and back-patting for the insane leftists who supported its creation! Everyone wins! (Except the victims, but who are they, really?)

In nearly a year, here is a brief list of some of the Human Rights Council's greatest accomplishemnts:

Successfully condemned one country only, Israel.

[Successfully condemned Israel eight] times.

Voted on June 30, 2006, to review Israeli human rights abuses at every council session.

While investigating the Israeli-Hezbollah war, it announced that, "the Commission is not entitled, even if it had wished, to construe [its charter] as equally authorizing the investigation of the actions by Hezbollah in Israel." No bias here.

Cuba is mounting a campaign to eliminate the council's ability to even investigate human rights

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And that's just some of them, but you can see the single-mindedness and uselessness of it all. Even the Human Rights Watch people are having to admit that their early optimism was clearly misplaced as best. Human rights isn't an issue that can be politicized and decided upon in the context of regional and despotic politics. But even when the council's democratic members don't stand up for them, all hope is lost.

I had posted earlier that the UN seems to operate in alternate Islamic universe. See here. The above would seem to underline and add exclamation marks to that premise. Read Publius' whole post here.