This is about as absurd as it gets. At a session of the United Nations 'Human Rights Council' that begins next week, the United States' human rights record will be reviewed by a group of nations that includes Libya, among other paragons of human rights.
Several dozen non governmental organisation are expected to lobby the debate on the US human rights record, while Washington will also defend its record.
Some 300 US civil liberties and community groups in the US Human Rights Network on Monday called on the Obama administration to bring "substandard human rights practices" in the United States into line with international standards.
The United States only agreed to join the Council in May 2009, after the Bush administration had shunned the body which replaced its similar though discredited predecessor, the UN human rights commission, in 2006.
The Network produced a 400-page report criticising "glaring inadequacies in the United States? human rights record," including the "discriminatory impact" of foreclosures, "widespread" racial profiling and "draconian" immigration policies.
"Advocates across America have not only documented substandard human rights practices which have persisted in the US for years, but also those that reflect the precipitous erosion of human rights protections in the US since 9/11," said Sarah Paoletti of the Network.
The United States has also faced widespread criticism by UN rights monitors in recent years over its handling of terror suspects and suspected torture, while concern over the conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been revived in recent months with "Wikileak" reports on leaked confidential documents.
What are the odds that the 'Human Rights Council' condemns the United States' human rights record? I'd bet on some condemnation for 'Islamophobia' (among other 'sins'), although the few Western countries on the Council may try to temper any criticism.
If the US is condemned, when will it leave the Council? On January 21, 2013.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
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