UN Human Rights Commission Farce Continues

The vote on the human-rights committee to condemn Castro’s Cuba was 21 to 17, with 15 abstaining. That is, 21 countries voted for the resolution of condemnation, 17 voted against, and 15 abstained. Let’s have a look at the roll call, shall we? It makes for interesting reading. I’ll go alphabetically.

Argentina abstained — bastards. Brazil abstained — ditto. (Lula really protecting his left flank, huh? His core supporters must love torture, murder, and total repression. At least Lula didn’t vote no.) Canada voted yes — sort of shocking. What is Canada’s beef with Cuba? They have warm trade relations, warm tourism relations, warm everything relations. Hell, Castro was a pallbearer at Pierre Trudeau’s funeral. (So was Jimmy Carter.) I find it amazing that Canada voted yes.

China voted no, of course — the Communist brutes sticking together. Congo voted no — beautiful. Cuba — guess what?! — Cuba voted no! (You knew that Castro sits on the human-rights committee, right?) Egypt voted no. Yep, good boy, Hosni: You need to stick with the likes of Fidel. France voted yes — a little surprised. I’m pretty sure that the entire French establishment thinks better of Castro than of, say, President Bush. And Germany voted yes.

India voted no. India! Why? This great democracy, this glorious chunk of the Anglosphere, this recipient of the liberal democratic tradition. What are they doing, going and voting for Castro’s gulag, and against its innocent inmates?

Indonesia voted no, which is perfect — confirming my view of that government. Nigeria voted no — and President Obasanjo seems like such a nice man, when he visits Davos, in his flowing robes.

Russia voted no — does Putin realize that Castro is no longer a client? Saudi Arabia voted yes! Very interesting, that. Must be a matter of U.S.-Saudi relations. Sudan voted no — thank heavens. Ukraine voted yes — Yushchenko and that government have no truck with Castro at all. Yushchenko is a democrat.

Finally — down to the Z’s — Zimbabwe voted no: Again, like sticks with like. Bob M. and Fidel: a beautiful couple.

Interesting to see how those countries that voted lined up. Also interesting would be to see how those countries economic relations affected their votes. Did economics trump human rights. I have a feeling that they did, but do not have the hard facts to prove it at this time.

However, the key fact is that there were 17 countries who voted not to condemn Cuba on its human rights record, and another 15 abstained from making that choice. Many of those countries own human rights records would make a Cuban blush, including Russia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, China, and Egypt.

This is why the human rights commission is ineffectual. When nations whose own human rights records are atrocious get to vote on other nations' affronts to human rights, you get no action or, as this case shows, action that is marred by a lack of clear consensus and unanamity.

UPDATE 4/21/2005 1:51PM EDT:
The UN Human Rights Commission fails to condemn Sudanese government for Dafur violence. Let's get this straight. Sudan is a country wracked by violence, some of it at the hands of Sudanese government militias and some caused by groups condoned by the Sudanese government. Yet, the human rights commission can't find a way to condemn the govnerment? Instead, it offers up a resolution condemning the violence in the most general of terms and calls on all sides to stop the violence.

Thank you for the mildly worded recrimination against the violence UN. That will do a lot of good.