Article from Montreal Gazette: A kangaroo commission

April 24, 2002

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, meeting in Geneva, is supposed to be a forum for "naming and shaming" countries that commit human-rights abuses. Recently, it has mostly succeeded in shaming itself.

The UN body's deliberations have more to do with the political machinations, prejudices and self-interests of its 53 member nations than with the records of the states it is pronouncing upon - or failing to pronounce upon. Having a respectable human-rights record would, in an ideal world, be a prerequisite for membership in this group. But members include China, Cuba, Kenya, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Vietnam, to name only some of those whose conduct leaves them with little credibility on rights. This week's decision not to renew the mandate of a special investigator on the situation in Iran provides a sad case in point. Does that decision reflect an improved human-rights situation in Iran? Hardly. If anything, things seem to be getting worse there as old-guard theocrats move to quash liberalizing efforts by supporters of the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami (who despite his title is not the country's key ruler).

Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe just won an election tainted by serious human-rights and civil-rights abuses, should also have drawn the commission's critical attention but did not.

The commission did at least manage to criticize Iraq. But it did not censure China, which even as it expands economic freedoms has continued to keep a lid on anything its Communist rulers fear might challenge their hold on power. In recent years, Beijing has clamped down abusively on the Falun Gong movement. And it continues to systematically torture prisoners, restrict religious freedom and crack down in Tibet. Yet somehow, China has for years managed to avoid being criticized in Geneva. This year, it even was spared having to rally its forces: no country chose to submit a resolution assailing China's record.

This represents a failure for Canada, and other countries where "human rights" is a phrase with real meaning. The only justifiable reason to remain part of such a kangaroo court is to oppose its excesses and spotlight its failures. Canada's representative did so last week when faced with a manifestly unfair resolution about Israel, which Canada and four other countries voted against. On China, we didn't even take steps toward raising the issue.

The unprecedented absence this year of the United States - which failed to be re-elected to the commission last year - makes it even more important for Canada to take the lead in opposing action or inaction that would warp the commission's role. But even the most energetic Canadian efforts can only achieve so much in a system that allows justice to be trumped by politics.