U.N. Human Rights Council Election Results.

Well, it looks like the Bush Administration just can’t be pleased. Here's the story.

After a reform of the U.N. Commission of Human Rights into the new U.N. Human Rights Council, there were elections to see what 47 countries would be on that council. The results are:

E. Europe: Russia, Azerbaijan, Czech republic, Poland, Romania, Ukraine.

Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia.

Asia: Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.

S. America: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

Western Europe & other: Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.

(The United States didn’t have itself nominated – perhaps it thought that in the current international diplomacy climate, many western countries that would vote for it’s members on the council would rather be dipped in excrement than vote for Bush’s United States.)

Anyway, it’s upset that Russia, Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia made it onto the Council. These countries don’t measure up to the Bush Administration’s standards for human rights... one might question what those standards are when it concerns the Neo-Con record on human rights.

The Bush Administration had a fit over the composition of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, when the United States got booted off in 2001... Gee, I wonder why. Might it have something to do with the fact that the Bushies don’t like to play with others. For the CNN story from their archive, see here.

It’s true that many countries sought membership on the Commission to vote to protect their ability to abuse human rights. However, should these countries not be represented? – far from it. It’s easy for countries like Switzerland and Canada to talk about human rights – they don’t really have anything internal they would have to reform in order to make human rights work in their countries. Human rights are not an easy thing to achieve, especially when your the maintenance of your regime depends on the systematic violation of human rights. However, these countries are still sovereign entities, and just having Switzerland and Canada dictate terms will not work. There has to be a balance. Having Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Cuba on the council is not such a bad deal, despite their appalling practices.

The Bushies need to get with the program. Disengagement from the United Nations, other than when you want to invade someone is not the way to promote constructive engagement. However, Republicans are too proud and self-righteous to bend and bear with their foreign policies. It's their way or the highway.... Well, they've put us on the highway to isolation. We've been there for quite some time already. It's going to take a Democratic President (elected in 2008, in office January 2009) years to gain back the diplomatic clout we had in the 90s, if it can ever be done.