Hypocrisy and Human Rights

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Yesterday I spoke with the Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa who described growing up in a country led by what he describes as “a homicidal clown and his offspring – one ghastly daughter and several murderous-looking sons dressed in Italian suits or Army uniforms”.  As a teenager Khaled was forced to watch public hangings of professors, poets and human rights activists, endlessly repeated on State TV.  As recently as 1996 a massacre took place at the Abu Salem prison where 1,270 political prisoners were slaughtered, many of whom the courts has judged innocent.

In addition to an unaccounted and untold death toll, that recent mass murders of prisoners was faithfully carried out by Qaddafi’s brother in law, who along with the “ghastly daughter”, were recently feted at a private concert featuring Beyonnce as the well-compensated live entertainment.  Since the family has stolen an estimated 120 billion of the country’s oil wealth, whatever blood money she was paid is a pittance to Libya’s avaricious first family.

Yet Libya is a member of the U.N’s Human Rights Council and one might ask, what is the matter with the U.N.? True they recently passed a unanimous Security Council resolution condemning the Libyan regime for murdering their own people with heavy military weapons like tanks, AAA and fighter-bombers, unleashed on civilians on the streets.  But how did they get elected with 155 votes from other U.N. members, in a secret ballot, to the prestigious Human Rights Council?

Of course they ended up in good company with that champion of human rights Saudi Arabia sitting with them even though Saudi Arabia was one of only two countries (along with South Africa) who refused to sign the original U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.  That has something to do with language condemning slavery, which still continues today in Saudi Arabia, where not only are servants property, wives are too.

The other member of the U.N. Human Rights Council with an appalling record of jailing and executing political prisoners is Cuba.  Although the Castros are often uncritically worshiped in the West, with celebrities beating a path to hang out at a barbeque with El Jefe, there are political prisoners there on hunger strikes today, and recently just being gay would get you jail time.

As much as no-nothing right wing isolationist in our country rail against the U.N. for encroaching on our “sovereignty”, and want the U.S. out of the U.N., surely we should demand a little more value for our money, since we are the largest donors. 

But we are guilty of serial hypocrisy, having supported dictators around the world for decades.  And now we’re sheepishly standing by while our old friends like Hosni are getting hosed by their own people inspired by the very democracy that we preach but do not practice. 

Surely it’s time to stand up for our principals so that we can demand that others do.  Only then can we get around to the long-overdue house cleaning at the world body.