If anyone still doubted the worthlessness and corruption of the United Nations, Venezuela may soon join Cuba and other human rights violators on the UN Human Rights Council.
Andres Oppenheimer in The Miami Herald:
Unbelievable! Venezuela’s dictatorship is about to win a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council
This is no joke: Venezuela — the most repressive regime in the Americas since the days of Argentina and Chile’s military dictatorships in the 1970s — is expected to win a seat at the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.
I almost choked on my coffee when I first heard about this in a recent interview with Ernesto Araujo, Brazil’s foreign minister. But when I contacted several human-rights groups to see if such a travesty were possible, they all confirmed that it’s likely to happen.
Never mind that, according to the United Nations’ own High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s death squads are responsible for more than 6,800 extrajudicial killings just between January 2018 and May 2019.
In addition, the U.N. report cites widespread use of torture against political prisoners, including electric shocks, suffocation with plastic bags and sexual violence. There were at least 2,000 political arrests in the first five months of this year. There were 720 political prisoners in May, Bachelet’s report said.
And yet, according to YourHRC, UNWatch and other human-rights groups, Venezuela — alongside Brazil — is almost sure to win one of Latin America’s two vacant seats at the Human Right Council at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session.
The General Assembly elected the 47 members of the Human Rights Council. Candidates need two-thirds of the General Assembly’s votes, or 126 votes, to be elected.
“Right now, Venezuela’s election is almost certain to happen because there are only two seats available for Latin America at the Council — and only two countries are running,” UNWatch director Hillel Neuer told me.
Since the Council election is scheduled to take place October, it may be too late for another Latin American country to run successfully against Venezuela. Normally, countries running for a Council seat announce their candidacy more than a year in advance to have time to lobby for it, Neuer added.
Many of the world’s worst dictatorships spend considerable time and money to get a Council seat at the Council, to protect themselves from human rights accusations. Among the current members of the Council are Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba, which is leading the lobbying effort for Venezuela’s election to the Council.
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