A Critic on UN Focus on Israel

Today, as a guest blogger on the United Nations' Association "People Speak" Weblog, I posted a critic on the new UN Human Rights Council entitled "Misguided Focus" and republished below:

Misguided focus?

A consistent criticism of the previous Human Rights Commission was its gross bias against Israel. Israel was the only country subjected to a special agenda item, was the target of half of all country-specific resolutions, and was barred from participation in any regional groups. Israel was hounded, while seriously gross abuses in other States were ignored. During a 2002 session, five out of 16 resolutions on human rights violations in specific regions targeted Israel, while no other country, including Iraq, Congo, and Sierra Leone, received more than one. A challenge put to the new Human Rights Council was to be fair and to show balance in its activity regarding alleged human rights abuses. The new Council has so far not shown any improvement over the political dynamics of the previous Human Rights Commission. While the High Commissioner for Human Rights focused on violence in Darfur, Iraq and Sri Lanka in her address to the Council, the only country-specific items on the agenda for the 2nd session relate to criticism of Israel. The other general topics include discussion of the fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and reports on enforced or involuntary disappearances. While these are important issues, and Israel is important to discuss, the Council has diverted attention from Darfur and Sri Lanka, and instead has only given one-sided criticism against Israel. Does this bias show that the Council has not improved from the previous Commission with regards to Israel? The Council is doing a disservice by ignoring problems in the rest of the world, especially in Darfur, and may be establishing a very poor precedent.