...doesn't think we are and makes no bones about telling us we are not!
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Published on Friday, May 4, 2007 by Inter Press Service Rights: US ‘Moral Authority’ Rests on Big Stick
by Thalif DeenUNITED NATIONS - When the 192-member U.N. General Assembly meets in mid-May to elect 14 new members to the 47-nation Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC), the United States will be conspicuous by its absence and missing from the ballot.
Justifying its decision, Washington says it will skip the elections because the HRC has lost its “credibility” for focusing primarily on one country — Israel — and ignoring “human rights abusers” such as Myanmar (Burma), Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
But U.N. diplomats, human rights activists and legal experts point out that the administration of President George W. Bush has no legitimate right to sit in judgment over the transgressions of others while its own “abusive behaviour” is not under scrutiny by any international body.
“The United States does not have a shred of moral authority left; its only authority is the big stick,” Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, told IPS.
He argued that the U.S. claim it is staying away from the elections because the Council has lost its credibility is “bogus”.
“It is the United States that has lost its credibility, and that is why it would never be elected. Ask almost anyone in the world whether the U.S. engages in torture — sadly the answer will be affirmative,” he added.
When the United States ran for a seat back in May 2001, it was ousted from the former 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since its creation in 1947.
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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/04/955/