What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Finally, the UN gets one right:

The U.N. joined several rights groups in slamming Afghanistan for adopting a new law which curtails women’s rights, describing it as a “huge step in the wrong direction.”

Several organisations saw in it an attempt by President Hamid Karzai to win votes in the upcoming elections.

Not yet published, the law, which was passed by the two houses of Afghanistan’s Parliament before being reportedly signed by Mr. Karzai earlier this month, regulates the personal status of the country’s minority Shia community members, including relations between men and women, divorce and property rights.

Asking for its repeal, U.N. High Commissioner for Human rights Navi Pillay sharply criticised the government for taking another step making human rights situation in the county worse.

“Respect for women’s rights and human rights in general is of paramount importance to Afghanistan’s future security and development,” she said.

Of course, the UN is nowhere to be found in defending the rights of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or the women of Darfur, or the victims of genital mutilation in Somalia, or women killed for “honor” in Syria, or schoolgirls purposely burned to death in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else women are oppressed by the kind of brutal dictators the UN approves of. But the UN sure is brave when it comes to taking on shaky, democratically-elected governments who happen to be friendly to the United States.