Thursday, in yet another hypocritical decision, the members of the United Nations General Assembly elected the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro to the U.N. Human Rights Council. With 105 to 94 votes, Maduro’s regime topped Costa Rica, an exemplar of democracy in Latin America, to become a member of a council supposed to uphold human rights. This terrible decision not only shows the uselessness of the U.N. Human Rights Council but also that the United States was justified in leaving this organization last year. The world must stop rewarding dictators on the international stage. And to this end, America should lead once again and encourage the democratic countries of the world to leave and withdraw their funding from the council as well.

The Human Rights Council is currently composed of 47 nations, of which at least 20 are dictatorships or have questionable human rights records. Countries such as Angola, a 40-year old communist dictatorship, as well as China and Cuba, accuse the U.S. and Israel of violating human rights while not saying a word about the actual human rights violations in their own nations. Not only do they protect themselves, but they also shield human rights violators around the globe, such as Venezuela, North Korea, and Iran.