One Step Forward (Obama Skipping Durban II)
Obama’s State Department also slipped into the same press release the information that the U.S. now plans to start engaging for the first time with the UN agency that is basically Durban II writ even larger: the UN’s recently “reformed” Human Rights Council. This Council was created in 2006 from the ashes of the utterly discredited former UN Human Rights Commission. And the new “Council,” despite the sugar coating lavished on it at its inception by then-UN-Secretary-General Kofi Annan, looked so bad from the get-go that the U.S. refused to join.
How bad has the UN’s “reformed” Human Rights Council turned out to be? Bayefsky neatly sums it up:
”The Council — controlled by the Organization of the Islamic Conference — has adopted more condemnations of Israel than all the other 191 U.N. states combined, while terminating human rights investigations on the likes of Iran, Cuba and Belarus.”
Durban II is a reflection of this warped Council (which is, in turn, a reflection of the UN’s despot-dominated General Assembly, which authorized Durban II). The Durban II preparations bear the fingerprints of a 20-member preparatory committee chaired by Libya, and including Iran, Russia, Cameroon and Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference), with Cuba serving as both a member and as rapporteur.
But here’s where it gets worse — though this is less often noted. This same Durban II preparatory committee includes a roster of democratic states, such as Belgium, Greece, Norway, Turkey, Estonia, South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil and Chile (you can see the full list here). The participation of such democracies is seen by the UN’s mislabeled ”High Commissioner for Human Rights,” Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, as evidence that Durban II is shaping up as just dandy.
In a press release last December, a spokesman for Pillay argued that if the Durban II proceedings “were in any way distorted,” then these democratic participants “could — and would — intervene.” The spokesman specified that there was no danger of conference plans going too far astray, because the text of the pre-packaged outcome document (which the Obama State Department has now declared “not salvageable”) “will be something agreeable to all states taking part.” (The same press release denigrated as a “clear example of distortion” one of my articles warning of — yep — the unsalvageable nature of Durban II).
But have such Durban II planners as Norway, Belgium, Turkey and India actually intervened to thwart the bigoted and anti-democratic designs of Libya, Iran, Pakistan and Cuba? Clearly not. In this UN process of negotiating an outcome “agreeable to all states taking part,” the morally supine eminences of Oslo and Brussels, Ankara and New Delhi, are still on board with the rotten agenda of Durban II.
Canada alone has had the backbone to declare an outright boycott of this conference, which it did last year – showing more integrity in the process than the U.S. under either President Bush or President Obama. So, praise to Obama, for waving off Durban II. But to follow that up by dignifying the UN’s twisted Human Rights Council with U.S. involvement is a big move the wrong way. Having put Durban II on permanent hold, the next step forward for the U.S. would be to declare a straightforward boycott, and call on other democratically inclined nations — maybe even Norway and Belgium? – to do the same.
Barack Hussein Obama is not anti-semetic.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
Well, bully for Obama.
I guess he realized that he wouldn’t get much camera-time for his speechifyin’ there.
But what’s the point of this gesture when the US is still committing 900 million dollars in aid to Gaza?
They don’t get to call us racists to our face, but they still get to cash the check written on our childrens’ account.
BFD!
I’d deep-six the aid money and go to Durban, (which is a pretty nice town), just to soak up some sun and undiplomatically laugh in their faces when they ranted at us.
I’m glad to see that Obama made the right decision and pulled the US from this conference. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, and it mimics a decision that was made by the decidedly moderate Colin Powell. I find it interesting that Canada took the lead on withdrawing from this conference. Stephen Harper seems to “get it” on a lot of important issues: free trade, Afghanistan, and the UN among others. After reading The Wall Street Journal’s interview with him last Saturday, I realized that I find myself in the bizarre position of approving of the Canadian Prime Minister and not approving of the American president. I can honestly say I never thought that would happen. I know Obama promised change, but wasn’t it also supposed to be change that I could believe?
3. Bilgeman:
“BFD!”
~
My sentiments exactly.
Sorry, but I have zero faith in this adminstration to do anything right for doing what’s right’s sake. If a move looks right there’s something uglier looming to rape its place. Give overtly with the right hand while stealing covertly with the left hand. -Watch for it.
Obama withdrew after much pressure and many complaints.Italy, the UK, and one, or two, other European countries were about to pull out, then, the US announced it was going.Obama’s people, probably, and I don’t know this for a fact, figured it had Freeman in the dock, Hillary’s ME trip, and the Gaza funds.This was a pretty easy call in comparison.What it demonstrates is the Rice/Clinton/Power team is incredibly ignorant and arrogant to even think of going to Durban as though they were so powerful they could change anything.This is an abominable team, and they have to be watched
every minute.They are ruthless in getting what they want, but they are also dumb and naive, apparently.One cannot help but to wonder where S.Power’s husband is? After all ,Cass Sunstein should understand the situation.
5. Delia
“Sorry, but I have zero faith in this adminstration to do anything right for doing what’s right’s sake. If a move looks right there’s something uglier looming to rape its place. Give overtly with the right hand while stealing covertly with the left hand. -Watch for it.”
ditto
It’s the old sleight-of-hand game being played by Obama and his teammates.
A few points.
It may be technically correct to call South Africa a democracy, but to do so gives democracy a bad name. It’s effectively a one-party state. The government is composed of terrorists and crooks who are elected by an electorate that doesn’t care that they are crooks, simply because the vast majority of South Africans are fundamentally immoral. In other words, just another African hell-hole.
Durban II is not being held in Durban, but in Geneva, according to the article.
Durban used to be a nice town. Admittedly, I haven’t been there since the fall of civilization, but the reports (and images) are not pretty.
“It’s effectively a one-party state. The government is composed of terrorists and crooks who are elected by an electorate that doesn’t care that they are crooks”
Union of South Africa? Or the United States of America?
Getting harder to tell the difference nowadays, isn’t it?
WHAT? Did the Ohole finally decide to read an economics texr?
So, the Obamanator is going to publically eschew a blatantly anti-west conference organized by our enemies but instead give them $900 million to buy more weapons? I wonder what would have happened to FDR if he’d decided to stop talking to the Japanese about spheres of influence in 1939 but then give them 13 billion, five hundred million (in 1939 dollars)?
Let’s see, a chief executive sends a delegation to a group known for their disgusting opinions and then, once discovered and criticized, decides to back out. Now he deserves to be praised rather than criticized for sending them there in the first place?
Doesn’t the fact he sent them in the first place reveal his true feelings? It is as though he is testing the waters for further anti-Israel behavior in the future.
That is worth repeating, this is probably a trial for further anti-Israel behavior. We will doubtlessly be treated to the main course later.
There’s a rumor that telepromptors were not allowed.