Human Rights and Wrongs

...General Assembly— awash in both high-mindedness and hypocrisy...

...You don't advance human rights by preaching only to the converted," argues Shashi Tha-roor, U.N...

...Its language affirming the "equal and inalienable rights" of all people influenced scores of postwar and postcolo-nial constitutions and treaties...

...They've turned the Commission into a rogues' gallery and effectively killed any substantive debate about Joseph Loconte is the William E. Simon fellow in religion and a free society at the Heritage Foundation and editor of the forthcoming The End of Illusions: America's Churches and Hitler's Gathering Storm, 1938-41...

...This despite Beijing's record of arbitrary arrests, prison camps, and "egregious violations" against religious communities, according to Human Rights Watch and other groups...

...officials deny the suggestion that the human rights commission has betrayed its founding vision, or that higher standards for participation are needed...

...Its social and economic guaran-tees—which include even a "right to rest and leisure"—are regularly invoked to deflect attention from violations of more fundamental rights...

...The Declaration's 30 articles enumerate political and social rights, including the right to life and liberty, equality under the law, and freedom of speech and assembly...

...Moreover, the resolution does not define sexual orientation or limit sexual "rights" by age, which could make it more difficult to prevent the abuse and trafficking of children...

...As David Aikman, author of Jesus in Beijing, told Congress last year, "China's political leadership appears to have decided that any religion in China, if not strictly supervised, could turn into the regime's Achilles' heel...

...That may be changing...

...If you don't want to be criticized by the Commission, the best thing to do is to get a seat on the Commission...

...The provision, drafted by Lebanese ambassador Charles Malik, includes the right to change one's religion...

...Nigeria, another member, is widely reported to support torture, extrajudicial killings, and radical Islam...

...But unless man's proper nature, unless his mind and spirit are brought out, set apart, protected, and promoted, the struggle for human rights is a sham and a mockery...

...The problem is not only rogue governments, but regional coalitions that help elect states to terms on the Commission and then work to thwart resolutions against them...

...Habib Malik, son of Charles Malik and a professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, explains that those suffering under repressive regimes won't be rescued by the anemic values of multi-culturalism...

...What you'll see is how effective and skilled the dictatorships are in the diplomatic game," says Michael Goldfarb, press officer for Freedom House, the oldest human rights organization in the world...

...The Commission has no agreed definition of terrorism...

...As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish," Bush said last fall, "it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export...

...Others disagree...

...Richard Williamson, chairman of the U.S...

...In a policy speech earlier this month, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would "always keep in the forefront of our efforts the necessity to deal with human rights in every country that we have relations with...

...israel, as usual, will face numerous resolutions condemning its treatment of Palestinians, though none is likely to criticize Yasser Arafat...

...The United States can expect bitter denunciations for its war on terrorism, while state sponsors of islamic jihadists may escape blame...

...The U.N...

...Burma may finally come in for a scolding, after years of military atrocities...

...There are also prohibitions against slavery, torture, and arbitrary arrest...

...That's a far cry from the ideals laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the seminal document of the original Commission on Human Rights created after World War II...

...It is as though the real will to achieve and ensure human rights were lacking...

...I have observed a certain degree of inordinate caution, nay perhaps even of cynicism, with regard to carrying out the mandate," Malik said...

...It may be that the Universal Declaration has been more useful to that end than the Commission—just as Charles Malik seems to have anticipated...

...Drew University's Johannes Morsink calls it the "secular bible" for literally hundreds of advocacy groups and thousands of foot soldiers in the field...

...The administration also will have to play defense...

...The Bush administration regards the promotion of democratic freedoms as essential to the war on terrorism...

...Libya held the chair last year, elected by a vote of 33 to 3. The upshot is that the Commission is almost unable to "name and shame" even the most despotic governments...

...All those who stress the elemental economic rights and needs of man are for the most part impressed by his sheer animal existence...

...human rights...

...The argument that 'in-clusiveness' is the only way these states may start to change—I think it's baloney," he says...

...In a 2001 vote that stunned the Bush administration, the Commission expelled the United States, a first in the body's history...

...Inevitably, though, the Declaration is widely referenced but little understood...

...officials reject that view, but recent history tends to support it...

...The crown jewel is Article 18: the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion...

...A Brazilian resolution defeated last year is expected to be recycled, calling for a ban on all forms of discrimination by sexual orientation...

...Conservative groups see this as a ploy to marginalize religious organizations that uphold traditional mar-riage—an effort already gaining ground in Europe...

...The Human Rights Commission has taken many years to get to the sad place that it is today," says Lorne Kraner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor...

...Members must actually adhere to the principles of the U.N...

...General Assembly adopted the Declaration in 1948 without a single dissenting vote (though with a number of states abstaining...

...This is materialism, whatever else it may be called," Malik argued...

...State Department officials point to at least 18 repressive regimes now on the Commission, whose members serve three-year terms...

...Meanwhile, foreign ministers from 10 democracies— including Chile, Poland, South Korea, and the United States—are promoting a Community of Democracies to function as a caucus within the United Nations...

...The Bush administration will be working, meanwhile, to advance a new coalition of democracies intended to outmaneuver the dictatorships...

...When first proposed, it enraged the Communist and Muslim delegates (six of the original European members belonged to the Soviet bloc, while nine members claimed Islam as their dominant religion...

...undersecretary-general for communications and public information...

...Even as the Commission was working to win approval of the Universal Declaration (no small feat at the onset of the Cold War), he wondered whether democratic nations would have the resolve to implement its principles...

...For the next six weeks the 53 member states will generate, if nothing else, a cacophony of moral indignation...

...Commission watchers say that until its membership improves, its work will be seriously compromised...

...Mark Lagon, deputy assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, suggests that nations under U.N...

...Nevertheless, Malik—an Arab Christian and a powerful intellectual force on the Commission—stood his ground...

...delegation, wants a resolution against China, but acknowledges it will be difficult to pass...

...The ship of universal human rights cannot set sail by leaving human beings from some countries on the shore...

...Take North Korea...

...The passage of time has borne out his lament...

...During the session in Geneva, they plan to build support for a resolution promoting democratic institutions...

...Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

...Sudan is guilty of genocide and considered a state sponsor of terrorism...

...China exerts strong influence, despite the Communist government's unrelenting crackdowns on political and religious groups...

...Last year Sweden criminalized speech that might be "offensive or threatening" to homosexuals, and charges already have been brought against a Pentecostal pastor...

...Evidence had mounted for years of its brutalities—state-backed torture, starvation, death camps—yet no resolution condemning it was passed until last year...

...The United States, back on the Commission, is ^is expected to push for statements or resolutions on Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, and Zimbabwe...

...sanctions not be allowed on the Commission...

...With the atrocities of the Holocaust still fresh, the authors warned that "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind...

...What might this mean in Geneva...

...it even endorsed suicide bombings against israel as a legitimate form of armed conflict...

...Even the democracies in Africa, for example, tend to overlook brutalities committed by their neighbors...

...Delegates will hear about the use of torture in iran, violence against women in saudi Arabia, and the abduction of children by militias across Africa...

...The Commission's byzantine deliberations, then, will resemble those of the U.N...

...You have to emphasize the practical and empirical power of a set of moral directives . . . to uphold individual rights...