US pulls out of UN human rights body

In related news. I think the US is fast becoming a repugnant country in world view.

Gotta create and kill some terrorists, and make the world a shittier place. Great plan. Kill and dominate Arabs and take their shit.

But you know Bush is a man of peace...and so are the psychopaths behind him that support it. Give murder a chance they cry.... set em up...knock em down.. bring em on.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20080609/wl_oneworld/45361608371213052239

" UNITED NATIONS, Jun 9 (OneWorld) - A prominent international rights watchdog has reacted sharply to the U.S. government's decision to further disengage itself from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

"The U.S. decision to walk away from the Council is counterproductive and short-sighted," said Juliette de Rivero, an advocacy director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), a nonprofit group that monitors and publicizes rights violations around the world.

The U.S. government declared Friday that it would now only engage the 47-member Council when it deemed necessary to discuss issues of "deep national interest."

"Our skepticism regarding the function of the Council in terms of fulfilling its mandate and its mission is well known," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "It has a rather pathetic record."

The United States is one of only four nations that voted against the UN resolution that established the Council in 2006. Despite that, until now it had continued to take part in the Council meetings as an observer.

U.S. officials apparently briefed their European counterparts about Washington's decision to end its participation in the Council as debate was progressing over the rights situation in Myanmar.

The United States has been a vocal critic of the military regime in Myanmar (formerly Burma) for its suppression of political dissent and human rights violations for years, and has repeatedly advocated the imposition of sanctions on the authoritarian regime there.

Many critics say the U.S. decision was poorly timed, as the Council is beginning to show more positive signs in terms of monitoring worldwide abuses of human rights.

In this context, they cite the recent defeat of Sri Lanka in the UN General Assembly vote for Council membership. Sri Lanka lost its bid for reelection largely because its track record includes torture and disappearances.

Many critics agree the Council has failed to perform as well as expected, but also acknowledge the progress it has made in establishing international mechanisms to monitor rights violations.

In the past two years, the Council has not only done substantial reporting on cases of torture, gender violence, and extra-judicial executions, they say, but it has put a spotlight on the ongoing rights crises in Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan.

Rights activists acknowledge, however, that in its first two years, the Council has failed to pay due attention to more than 20 different places that are in dire need of monitoring.

Still, overall, they generally rate the Council's work as relatively satisfactory, and many believe full U.S. participation could have significantly improved the Council's ability to protect abused populations worldwide.

"Whatever the Council's problems," said Human Rights Watch's de Rivero, "[the U.S.] decision is a victory for abusive states and a betrayal of those fighting for their rights worldwide." De Rivero and other rights activists say the Sri Lanka vote is an indication that the Council is willing to fight the abusers of human rights.

In his view, "Washington's hands-off approach to the Council undermined it from the start. It's ironic that the U.S. shares responsibility for the shortcomings it's now using to justify its withdrawal from the Council."

According to some observers, one reason the United States is disengaging itself from the Council is the growing opposition from a vast majority of developing countries, which see the U.S. stance on human rights as hypocritical.

In electing the first Council members two years ago, the United States chose not to contest elections because it was almost certain to have lost the vote, largely due to its unconditional support for Israel in that country's ongoing conflict with the Palestinian people.

Observers think the United States is ill-placed to confront many international situations of human rights abuse because it has lost much credibility by refusing to let international experts investigate alleged rights abuses of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Despite this, many advocacy groups and countries with relatively untarnished records on human rights think having the United States at the negotiating table is important to building a more effective world body on human rights.

"Instead of ceding the field to those who want to shield abusers from scrutiny," said de Rivero, "the U.S. should have redoubled its efforts to make the Council work as it should."

Maybe I should tell a war veteran to go fuck themselves and call them mentally ill for expressing opinions that disagree with mine, and then not edit my posts out of respect, but subsequently reaffirm my conviction afterwards to rub it in further.

Maybe I'll understand then.

Choosing the path of humanity, and basic human dignity, and respect is highly over rated these days apparently.

Who knew?

I learn something new every day

reborncareerist wrote:

All your personal attacks on me are real indicative of a respect for basic human dignity. You're deep-down such a nice guy ... right.
For the record, I did not post what I did because his opinion disagrees with mine. He basically lumped me in with all the "armchair faggots" or whatever term he used, and no, I did not appreciate that, especially when I have said nothing to deserve that kind of bashing. I no point in this thread or any other have I advocated for more war, or for needless killing. That's actually what you've been doing by excusing violence.

Actually, I am getting really tired of your fixation on me, Roland. Even AFTER I apologized to you. Basic social skills would dictate some degree of reciprocity.

I love people who manage to keep tossing the daggers even as they proclaim they are apologizing.

funny shit...