Say, what’s wrong with sitting on a council with such bastions as of human rights support as China, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and others, and is anti-semetic?
The Obama administration decided Tuesday to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the United Nations’ premier rights body to protest the influence of repressive states.
“Human rights are an essential element of American global foreign policy,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. “With others, we will engage in the work of improving the U.N. human rights system. . . . We believe every nation must live by and help shape global rules that ensure people enjoy the right to live freely and participate fully in their societies.”
Oh, good. But, then, the official position of Hillary Clinton, and, by extension, Barack Obama, is that human rights can’t interfere with other pressing issues.
The Obama administration and rights advocates concede that the Human Rights Council has failed to emerge as a powerful champion of human rights, saying it has devoted excessive attention to alleged abuses by Israel and too little to abuses in places such as Darfur, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
Last week, the rights council adopted a resolution sponsored by Pakistan and other Islamic states that condemns the “defamation of religion” as a violation of human rights, arguing that abuses against Muslims have mounted in the years following the 911 terror attacks. But European states criticized the Islamic resolution, saying it posed a threat to the right of free speech. However, the decision to seek a seat on the council is in keeping with what President Obama has called a “new era of engagement” with other nations to advance U.S. security interests and meet the global challenges of the 21st century.
To steal from Allahpundit, exit question: didn’t we hear for 8 years from the Left that America should stop being the worlds policeman and getting involved in other countries affairs? That we should just deal with the issues in our own 58 states?
Teach the USA has always not only worked with but also heavily supported “dictators” Do you think that the Kings of Morocco or Saudi Arabia were elected kings ? As for the “left” please do not forget that Obama was elected by the American people, not either fringe wing