U.S. Criticizes U.N. Rights Council

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Criticizes U.N. Rights Council

Saturday November 11, 2006 1:01 AM


By JUSTIN BERGMAN

Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States sharply criticized the new U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, calling it a ``disappointment'' and saying it has failed to address serious violations in its first few months of operation - particularly in Sudan's Darfur region.

Sudan responded with a harsh condemnation of the U.S. human rights record and said Washington had no right to judge the effectiveness of the U.N. agency.

The barbs came during the Human Rights Council's first annual report to the General Assembly. The U.S. is not a member of the council, which was created earlier this year to replace the highly politicized and much-maligned U.N. Human Rights Commission.
(snip)

``Everybody knows the magnitude of the gross violations of human rights in the United States,'' said Saeed, the second secretary of the Sudanese mission. He cited as examples the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center and detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

``We call upon the United States to address the human rights situation at home first and not to use and abuse the forums of human rights to settle political scores and achieve its objectives,'' he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6206888,00.html

[enuffs_enuffs]

1. Oh, the IRONY!!! n/t

[mike_c]

2. U.S. human rights record is being condemned by Sudan....

This is what the neocons have done to America in just six years. How many decades will it take to restore our national honor?

[Igel]

3. You obviously missed the '80s. And the '70s. And '60s.

And '50s.

Invective that could peel paint off the wall was frequently hurled at the US. Maybe it's more frequent now; then again, international hurling of vitriole is more frequent now, although the US has engaged in far less of it in recent years.

[mike_c]

4. no, I didn't miss them, I'm sad to say....

I was just unloading on the current batch of international criminals in charge.

[0rganism]

5. the pot and the kettle battlling it out in a credibility gap

I don't know what's more pathetic, really. The US is being criticized for human rights hypocrisy by Sudan, or that the criticism is, in itself, fairly accurate.