Law Commons^™

All Politics Are Suboptimal, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Despite its intentions and founding principles, the United Nations is fundamentally a political organization and therefore subject to the machinations of states as they seek to maximize their self interest, protect their reputations, and advance their power. The UN Security Council itself is a product of World War II and reflects a settlement from the end of the war that many perceive as highly inappropriate to the balance of power and global realities of the world today.

Overcoming History And Human Rights At The Un, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Criticism is most useful when it imagines viable alternatives. This is why the most recent wave of outrage over the elections to the UN Human Rights Council seems counter-productive. Yes, egregious human rights violators have been elected to the Council. Yes, Iran was kept off the Council in exchange for a seat on the women’s rights commission . And, yes, the elections were uncontested, with regional blocs putting forth the same number of candidates as vacancies. These facts have led observers to describe the body as a farce, as all pretense, and to decry US participation in the Council.

Perpetrators In Their Midst, David Akerson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The two articles, “Another Human-Rights Irony at the U.N.” by Anne Applebaum and “UN Elects Rights Violators to Human Rights Council” by Edith Lederer, both set forth the problems encountered by the UN Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission. Namely, that member states with notorious human rights records will exploit the Council to their political advantage. As Applebaum points out in her article, “authoritarian regimes have long battled to join the council...the better to prevent any outsiders from investigating their own governments.”

Human Rights Abusers, The Human Rights Council, And The Un, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The predecessor to the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Human Rights, had several notable failings. These included double standards in the selection of which states were to be subject to scrutiny, membership of the Commission by states notable for their egregious human rights records, and the shielding of the P5 members of the Security Council and their allies from criticism. The Human Rights Council, it was hoped, would avoid these flaws and, in doing so, push human rights further up the UN agenda. For instance, the General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/251, which set up the Council, claimed that the Council’s …

July Roundtable: The Un And Human Rights Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Another human-rights irony at the U.N.” by Anne Applebaum. The Washington Post. May 4, 2010.

and

“UN elects rights violators to Human Rights Council” by Edith M. Lederer. Associated Press. May 13, 2010.

Exile: Why The Human Rights Council Will Not Work, Daniel J. Graeber

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Economist writes in an April 24th edition that the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, the predecessor to the sixty-year-old U.N. Commission on Human Rights, is a “one-sided Israeli-bashing” organization. The Economist argues that the inclusion of second- and third-tier countries from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) makes it a forum for targeting offenses committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.

The Myth Of Membership: Reforming The U.N. Human Rights Council, Sonia Cardenas

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The purportedly new-and-improved Human Rights Council is, by most accounts, failing to live up to its promise. Critics accuse the Council of following in the footsteps of its predecessor the U.N. Human Rights Commission because it permits rights abusers among its ranks and it focuses overwhelmingly on Israel. The dominant assumption, articulated by the United States, is that this is a problem of membership; more stringent criteria would result in a less biased body. This, however, is wishful thinking. Changing the rules of membership would only substitute one set of biases for another. A productive dialogue about reforming the Human …

June Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

"A Screaming Start: The UN and Human Rights." The Economist. April 24, 2008.

The Human Rights Council: A Failure In Global Governance, Eric K. Leonard

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“The UN and Human Rights: A Screaming Start,” makes several valid points of concern in regards to the recently formed Human Rights Council. As the article stipulates, in many ways the Council does not look radically different from its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, in that it fails to provide membership regulations that would keep “not free” states of the Council (with only twenty-three out of forty-seven states defined as free) and it lacks the clout in the political hierarchy to truly accomplish anything of substance. However, the article does point out that the one mechanism that could prove useful …