The United Nations Human Rights Council is ostensibly the top global human rights body in the world. The U.N. charter claims to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights” and promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” But the U.N. has failed in this goal time and time again, and China’s crackdown on Hong Kong provides the latest example.
Fifty-three nations, primarily in Africa and Asia, voiced their support for China’s “security law” in Hong Kong, which has brought an end to Hong Kong’s autonomy, in violation of China’s treaty obligations. The supposed human rights panel has thus condemned over 7 million Hong Kongers to living under the boot of the Chinese Communist Party. This comes after 37 countries backed Chinese internment camps for Uighur Muslims and other minorities. The numbers of countries condemning the Hong Kong law and the internment camps were 27 and 22, respectively.
China will escape the Human Rights Council with no condemnations. The World Health Organization, another U.N. agency, spouted CCP propaganda at the outset of the coronavirus crisis, helping launch a global pandemic. At the same time, the WHO has stonewalled Taiwan’s attempts to become a member at the behest of China, and the council’s constant obsession with attacking Israel overshadows the world’s actual human rights atrocities.
This all points to one conclusion: The U.N. cannot be fixed or reformed; it’s time to abandon and replace it.
The U.N., with a handful of exceptions, presupposes that all countries should get an equal voice. This means that on the Human Rights Council, for example, Australia’s vote counts the same as Qatar’s, and Japan’s the same as Venezuela’s. In practice, this means the Human Rights Council has become a body where the world’s worst human rights abusers shield each other from criticism. For an added kick of anti-Semitism, the body makes Israel its whipping boy.
Meanwhile, the WHO has been running interference for China, lying about person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus and ignoring Taiwan’s warnings about the severity of the virus. As WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China’s handling of the virus, he told other countries not to impose travel bans because “such restrictions can have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.”
The U.S. and its allies should gather and set up a new global system that actually works, one that requires participants to meet some basic human rights standard and consent to inspections by other countries. A global organization headed by NATO and NATO-allied countries would have the leverage, economic or otherwise, to bring other countries to the table and begin improving human rights globally while freezing out bad actors such as China.
The U.N. had its advantages once upon a time, but now it’s nothing more than a viper’s nest. Relegate it to the ash heap of history, and establish a better system in its place.
