Untrustworthy UN Human Rights Council

Essayist Jean-Paul Marthoz criticises the tolerant attitude of the United Nations Human Rights Council toward undemocratic states, and questions the institution's significiance: "The UN Human Rights Council still has seven months to honour the year 2008 in which we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Last week the ambiguous nature of this body founded in June 2006 was highlighted when several states with dubious reputations joined. ... The Council was silent on Tibet during the session in March. It ended the mandate of its expert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as if the crisis there had been resolved. It embraced the good will of the Sudanese government regarding Darfur while the rioting there continues. ... In this mood of dissimulation and hyprocrisy, the Council's decisions are often one-sided, biased ... and bereft of true moral force."

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