{"id":3724,"date":"2020-10-31T13:41:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T13:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2020-10-31T13:41:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T13:41:42","slug":"russia-and-china-will-join-the-un-human-rights-council-the-us-should-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3724","title":{"rendered":"Russia and China will join the UN Human Rights Council. The US should too."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The United Nations\u2019s premier body for protecting human rights has elected serial human rights abusers, including Russia and China<\/a>, to the panel, once again calling into question whether it\u2019s actually an important platform to address the plight of millions \u2014 or an anachronism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Geneva-based, 47-member UN Human Rights Council<\/a> (UNHRC) does two main things: It passes nonbinding resolutions on human rights issues around the world, and it oversees the work of experts who investigate violations in specific countries. Its supporters<\/a>, those of whom in the US typically lean left, say it\u2019s a place where nations can address issues that don\u2019t usually garner the world\u2019s attention. Its critics<\/a>, who mostly lean right, argue it\u2019s a toothless organization that kowtows to authoritarians and harbors a deep anti-Israel bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detractors gained an upper hand in the debate this week when China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan<\/a> each won enough votes to sit on the UNHRC for a three-year term (though China received fewer votes than it had in previous years). Other despotic regimes angling for a spot, like Saudi Arabia<\/a>, didn\u2019t get the nod, however.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“it\u2019s fair to look at the council and think it\u2019s a problematic forum the US should stay out of. But experts say there are a few problems with that view, namely that the US loses any influence in that forum to push back against the Russias and Chinas of the world \u2014 and Israel is left without a strong backer on the council.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/21515856\/china-russia-un-human-rights-council-usa-trump<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The United Nations\u2019s premier body for protecting human rights has elected serial human rights abusers, including Russia and China, to the panel, once again calling into question whether it\u2019s actually an important platform to address the plight of millions \u2014 or an anachronism.<\/p>\n

The Geneva-based, 47-member UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) does two main things: It passes nonbinding resolutions on human rights issues around the world, and it oversees the work of experts who investigate violations in specific countries. Its supporters, those of whom in the US typically lean left, say it\u2019s a place where nations can address issues that don\u2019t usually garner the world\u2019s attention. Its critics, who mostly lean right, argue it\u2019s a toothless organization that kowtows to authoritarians and harbors a deep anti-Israel bias.<\/p>\n

Detractors gained an upper hand in the debate this week when China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan each won enough votes to sit on the UNHRC for a three-year term (though China received fewer votes than it had in previous years). Other despotic regimes angling for a spot, like Saudi Arabia, didn\u2019t get the nod, however.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“it\u2019s fair to look at the council and think it\u2019s a problematic forum the US should stay out of. But experts say there are a few problems with that view, namely that the US loses any influence in that forum to push back against the Russias and Chinas of the world \u2014 and Israel is left without a strong backer on the council.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[89,1042,315,1040,1041],"class_list":["post-3724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-china","tag-human-rights","tag-russia","tag-un","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3725,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions\/3725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}