southchild

Of John Bolton, that is, to the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Yesterday was apparently Human Rights Day (it was Pearl Harbor Day on my calendar), and of course, no human rights day would be complete without a UN official criticizing the human rights record of the United States.

Yesterday, the task fell to a Canadian (no comment — it’s too easy) named Louise Arbour, who is the High Commissioner for Human Rights (as an aside, any organization that has titles such as “high commissioner” is pretty much guaranteed to be completely worthless). In comments commemorating Pearl Harbor — uh, Human Rights — Day, Her Highness Arbour thought it appropriate to take a cheap shot at the US:

Arbour’s statement said that the “absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice, is under attack. The principle once believed to be unassailable — the inherent right to physical integrity and dignity of person — is becoming a casualty of the so-called ‘war on terrorism.’ “

I particularly like the “so-called” qualification by Her Highness when referring to the GWOT. No sign of bias there.

Fortunately, Ambassador Bolton called her to task for her completely ridiculous and inappropriate remarks:

John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticized Arbour, calling it “inappropriate” for her to choose a Human Rights Day celebration to criticize the United States instead of such rights abusers as Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe. He also warned that it would undercut his efforts to negotiate formation of a new human rights council that would exclude countries with bad rights records.

“Today is Human Rights Day. It would be appropriate, I think, for the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights to talk about the serious human rights problems that exist in the world today,” Bolton told reporters. “It is disappointing that she has chosen to talk about press commentary about alleged American conduct. I think the secretary of state has fully and completely addressed the substance of the allegations, so I won’t go back into that again other than to reaffirm that the United States does not engage in torture.”

He added: “I think it is inappropriate and illegitimate for an international civil servant to second-guess the conduct that we’re engaged in in the war on terror, with nothing more as evidence than what she reads in the newspapers.”

Ambassador Bolton correctly mentions Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe; of course, he could have also mentioned the continuing genocide in Sudan, slavery in Brazil, or the rampant sexual abuse by none other than the United Nations itself.

But, not surprisingly, I’m sure it’s just more fun for Her Highness to bash the US. All in a day’s work at the UN.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2005 at 11:33 am and is filed under General, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.