UN Madness and the Neda Division

UN Lunacy Outdoes Itself: IRAN to Become Member of Women’s Rights Group The Undhimmi (hat tip PV)

… shortly to be joined by Saudi Barbaria. The credibility death knell surely sounds for the already ineffectual, beyond-its-sell-by-date United Nations:

(Video above: the formidable Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, ripping into the UNHRC in a speech they subsequently expunged from their records. Looks like he’s set to be even busier soon. You can support UNW by signing up for newsletters and making a donation here – they do splendid work.)

Iran, where a woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, is poised to become a board member of the new United Nations agency to promote equality for women.

The move has sparked outrage from the US and human rights groups. Some rights groups are also upset that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and are barred from many facilities used by men, is also trying to join the governing body of UN Women.

The General Assembly resolution adopted in July that merged four UN bodies dealing with women’s issues into a single agency with greater clout to represent half the world’s population calls for a 41-member executive board, with 35 members chosen by regional groups and six representing donor nations.

The Asian group has put forward an uncontested 10-nation list that includes Iran, UN diplomats said, and Saudi Arabia has been selected for one of two slots for emerging donor nations.

The 54 nations on the UN Economic and Social Council are expected to elect the UN Women’s board on November 10 and it is possible that other Asian nations or emerging donor nations could become candidates, though diplomats said that is not likely.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the US Mission, said Iran’s membership “would send the wrong signal at the start of this exciting new initiative”.

“UN Women is a vital new agency tasked with promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide,” he said. “We and many other countries are concerned by the negative implications of Iran’s potential board memberships, given its poor record on human rights and the treatment of women.

The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, has raised an international outcry, embarrassing Iran.

A resolution adopted by the General Assembly last year expressed “deep concern” at Iran’s increasing use of executions, death by stoning, torture, flogging and amputations, and its increasing discrimination against religious, ethnic and other minorities.

Philippe Bolopion, UN advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said “it’s puzzling that Iran would have the nerve to be a candidate for the board of UN Women, and even more puzzling if the Asia group lets Iran get away with it”.

He added: “Having on top of it Saudi Arabia, a country with a track record on women’s rights as horrendous as Iran’s, would add insult to injury.”

Just when you thought the United Nations could not be any more of a useless self-parody, another logic-defying episode comes along.

The UN Human Rights Council has already been taken over by the members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and members the Non-Aligned Movement – who together comprise some of the world’s worst human rights abusers – now these sorry bands of despots appear to be positioning their members for leadership of the new Women’s Rights group. Astounding.

The UN Human Rights Council has done absolutely nothing in recent years except issue condemnations of Israel and push resolutions making criticism of Islam illegal. The plight of people in Burma, Sudan, Somalia, Saudia Arabia? Nothing – except endless censure of one tiny Middle East Country that in terms of human development, equality, economic activity and – yes, human rights – puts them all to shame.

The pattern is clear. The OIC and NAM use their disproportionate voting power, the sympathetic credulity of the mainstream media and the inert selfishness of the developed nations to gain power on strategic councils and committees. They then subvert them and turn them to serve their own selfish interests and narratives.

So now what can we expect, as it does the same for women’s rights? Honour killings, FGM, forced and underage marriages, repressive dress codes, discrimination and the chattel status of women in Islam? Fuggedaboudit.

The only things you will be able to hear from the newly Islamised women’s rights group are the sounds of crickets chirping, tumbleweed tumbling; and the self-congratulatory cries of ‘Alahu Akbar’!
Atlas Shrugs

Obama Administration will Support anti-Israel Resolutio

Sources: Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week

By William Kristol

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

While UN Ambassador Susan Rice is reported to have played an important role in pushing for U.S. support of a UN investigation, the decision is, one official stressed, of course the president's. The government of Israel has been consulting with the U.S. government on its own Israeli investigative panel, to be led by a retired supreme court justice, that would include respected international participants, including one from the U.S. But the Obama administration is reportedly saying that such a “kosher panel” is not good enough to satisfy the international community, or the Obama White House.

Atlas Shrugs

Human Rights Beg for Enforcement

Human Rights Already Ratified
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is law in all UN member states. They had to ratify it before they became members.
We don't need a new standard. Read the Declaration's 30 Articles. Rigid enforcement of these principles already on the books would end many of our afflictions.
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