The United Nations on Friday appointed a former chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda to lead a high-level mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Israel refused to say if it would cooperate.
Richard Goldstone was named to head the investigation ordered by the Human Rights Council in January.
Of course, the investigation will be unbiased (as if):
According to the mandate, the investigation will focus only on Palestinian victims of the three-week war between Israel and Hamas earlier this year.
Current paragons of Human Rights sitting on the Council include: Cuba, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and a veritable rogues gallery of other outlaw nations.
In other words, a kangaroo council is setting up a biased investigation with the result a foregone conclusion.
Yet another reason the US should forgo trying to join the UN Human Rights Council and giving it any legitimacy by its presence, which Obama wants to do.
As part of President Obama's "new era of engagement," the U.S. State Department has just announced plans to seek one of the 47 seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council. This overturns the Bush policy since 2006 of shunning the Council, on grounds that, like its predecessor the U.N. Human Rights Commission, it is irredeemably tipped toward serving the interests of human rights violators.Change, and not for the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment