In April the United Nations nominated Iran and China to its commission on Women’s Rights. Given that these two nations are among the worst human rights offenders on the planet, Hillel Neuer, former director of the Swiss based group U.N. Watch, stated as follows: “Electing the Islamic Republic of Iran to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief.” While the vote was conducted through a secret ballot, the results indicated that four Western Nations had approved of Iran’s election. In Feb. of this year Canada’s parliament declared China’s oppression of the Uyghurs a genocide though our “progressive” Prime Minister and most of his cabinet failed to register a vote. In March, Canada, the U.S., U.K. and European Union joined in sanctioning China for its multitude of human rights offenses. More recently, commenting on the vigils held in honor of the approximately 10,000 pro-democracy demonstrators who died at the hands of their government in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in 1989, the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the C.C.P., displayed the depths of its inhumanity when it posted: “We laugh at those posturing “commemorative” activities orchestrated by outside forces.” Ya, 10,000 deaths! What a hoot!
One can only wonder at the integrity of a commission designed to insure gender equality around the world when it includes nations with no respect whatsoever for the fundamental personal freedoms insured by a Democracy.
In late May the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, instigated by various Islamic states, voted to create a permanent [?] Commission of Inquiry to investigate possible Israeli “war crimes” in its recent conflict with Hamas. Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the 47 member council of whitewashing “a genocidal terrorist organization that deliberately targets Israeli civilians” while callously using their own citizens as “human shields.” While no Western country supported the council’s motion, it passed with ease, Israel, the only Democratic nation in the Middle East, vastly outnumbered by those given to religious fanaticism and unapologetic hatred.
Simple, indisputable fact: Israel will never be treated fairly by the U.N. There are presently almost two million Arabs living within its borders, most enjoying a level of freedom and affluence unknown in surrounding states. Arabs have the vote, can be and often are elected to the Knesset [there are apparently 16 such members today], belong to Israeli sports teams and even its military, indeed constitute a significant percentage of its most educated professions. While anti-Muslim sentiment certainly exists within its borders, Israel is Not an Apartheid State!
Deeming the U.N.’s Human Rights Council to be a joke, the U.S. under Trump refused to be a part of it. Upon his inauguration, Biden reaffirmed America’s commitment to the Geneva based institution, clearly hoping to reform it. But how does one reform a council the majority of whose members seem to have little empathy for the Principles and Values of our Western Democracies? How many of the 193 countries in the U.N. General Assembly are motivated by an enlightened, compassionate Humanism? And what ought one to expect from a Security Council 2 of whose 5 members [Russia and China] are criminal, totalitarian states?
Of course there might be hope for a more civilized future were the Nations of Western Europe and North America still firmly committed to defending the Principles and Values that made them what they are. But they are not! When China, in response to criticism of its oppression of the Uyghurs and Falun Gong, pointed to Canada’s “genocidal” Residential Schools, my liberal friends mindlessly concurred, fully convinced our Western Democracies are no less oppressive than those various regimes given to Communist or Islamic Fascism. It is an opinion rooted in ignorance.
As I have discussed elsewhere, there is a ton of evidence that the Residential School System was founded in good faith, its decidedly humanitarian goal being to rescue the Indigenous from their primitive life styles and world-views in the hope that they might share as equals in Canada’s future prosperity. That this belief is now considered inherently Imperialistic if not Genocidal is rooted in the absurd post-modern notion that all beliefs and values are equally valid, that Western Man’s faith in Reason and Science is of no more merit than the Indigenous belief that various Animal Spirits are in control of our destiny. Sir John A., 150 years ago, apparently ought to have known that 2+2=4 isn’t a Fact, but merely an expression of Western cultural arrogance.
As Inclusiveness rather than Reason or Morality is the defining value of today’s “progressives,” they see the U.N. as the vehicle to their heart’s desire, frequently, naively, putting their faith, as Obama did on various occasions, in those willing to spew the most outrageous of lies in the pursuit of their self-serving, fascistic agendas. The rationalization behind this approach to the international community, of course, is that we have no right to judge, that our Western Democracies, even when well-intentioned in their dealings with “the other,” are no less genocidal than the government of the Chinese Communists. That such a reading of History entails a gross simplification of the facts does not seem to be an issue for the contemporary Left. Indeed Critical Race Theory, so popular amongst today’s “intellectuals,” consciously removes everything but Race from the human dynamic. Truly absurd!