UN Undermines Real Human Rights Efforts

Gay McDougall is the United Nations' Independent Expert on minority issues; a job she has held for 4 years. You might imagine that Ms. McDougall has been a busy lady visiting some of the world's human rights hell-holes such as: China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, just to name a few of Freedom Houses list of the worst of the worst.

But actually no! According to this very disturbing editorial in today's National Post:  The wrong target. Ms. McDougall has no plans to visit any of those countries or any of the other human rights hell-holes:

But what is truly missing from Ms. McDougall's travel schedule is a trip to any of the world's vilest regimes such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, China, North Korea, Burma or Chad.

Together, millions of people have been murdered by the 21 governments that Freedom House judges are the most repressive in the world, many simply for their minority status alone.

Millions more have been imprisoned and tortured. Yet not one of these countries has been the subject of one of her inspections, nor are any scheduled to be.

Just in case you missed that last line:

Yet not one of these countries has been the subject of one of her inspections, nor are any scheduled to be.

 So the UN's Independent Expert on minority issues focuses all her time on countries such as Canada, France and EU countries. As Steven Edwards,wrote in the National Post last Friday (Oct 16): Rights watchdog gives 'worst of the worst' a pass

Her previous "targets" were three European Union members: France, Greece and Hungary; as well as the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.

And this from Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, the host city of the UN's main human rights branches:

"The reality is that every would-be immigrant in the world knows that Canada ranks at the top in its treatment of minorities, thanks to its constitutional guarantees, independent judiciary, elected parliament, vigorous civil society and free press - that all can speak for affected minorities and provide remedies where needed,"

"But there is not a single domestic institution that will speak for the two million black African migrants persecuted in Libya, the ethnic minorities oppressed in Tibet, or the women subjugated in Saudi Arabia."

"That is precisely where an international voice would be vital."

So cruel regimes get a free pass on their human rights abuse while the UN investigates the best of the best. The UN by abrogating their responsibility and putting zero spotlight on the repressive regimes, is a party to massive injustice.

The real abusers get off without even a wrist-slap, while the best nations on human rights records get scrutinised.

Freedom House evaluates how free countries are and assigns a score from 1.0 to 7.0; a score of 1.0  is considered FREE.

At left is shown some of the FREE countries, with a top score of 1.0, - these are the ones Ms. McDougall focuses on.

A score of 5.5 is judged NOT FREE

3.0 or higher  is considered PARTIALLY FREE

The image at the right shows some of the NOT FREE countries, such as: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Cambodia, Congo (Brazzaville), Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates.

But it gets worse....

6.0 -NOT FREE: Cameroon, Congo (Kinshasa), Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Swaziland, Tunisia, Vietnam

and worse...,,,

6.5 -NOT FREE: Belarus,Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria,Zimbabwe

And the worst of the worst: 

7.0 -NOT FREE: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,

The full table can be seen here: Combined Average Ratings: Independent Countries 2009

The UN has weight amongst the regimes of the world, that is why Arab and Muslim nations have hijacked the UN Human Rights proceedings to use it to attack Israel (here & here)

So by focusing on the best of the best and ignoring the worst culprits, the UN Undermines any Real Human Rights Efforts and denies those subjugated countries the vital international voice that should be performed by the UN.


Gurth Whitaker
Calgary Alberta