United Nations Confirms Joke Status

National Post – “Iran wins a seat on UN Commission on the Status of Women.”

But this is no laughing matter. The country that sees women as second-class citizens and stones adulteresses to death has won a place by default on the world body’s commission charged with improving the lot of women around the world.

Human Rights Chick: Hey, Where’s All The Free Money?

Globe and Mail – What issues are you going to be raising?

We’re thrilled the Canadian government has decided to focus on maternal and child health for the G8. But the fact is that they’ve been backsliding. This is a government that hasn’t taken gender equality and women’s rights issues very seriously in terms of our foreign aid. The Canadian government used to give a lot of funding directly to women’s organizations, but we’ve been shrinking that funding over the years.

Video: What They’re Studying At Harvard These Days

There’s no way you’ll watch the whole thing, but the first screen will do: “The Human Rights And Social Movements Program at the Carr Center for Human Rghts [sic] Policy.” Basically four well-to-do chicks bitching about life for 100 minutes.

Noted Humanitarian State Elected To UN Commission For Women

Fox – Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

Radio Host Getting The Picture On “Human Rights”

Rob Breakenridge, AM 770 - I suppose it’s possible that this is simply a late April Fool’s Day joke that I’ll soon be embarrassed to have fallen for.

Otherwise, I’m not really sure what to make of this. If vacationing is a “human right”, then really, what isn’t a human right?

Julius: The “Human Rights” Religion

Guardian, Anthony Julius – As for the appropriations of, and accommodations with, liberal positions, the general abandonment of Marxist positions in favour of liberal or post-liberal ones is evident wherever one looks, but particularly evident, perhaps, among France’s political theorists. The “class struggle” between 1848 and 1936 encouraged people on the left to regard rights as mere abstractions, aspects of bourgeois ideology that concealed and legitimised the subordination of one class to another. But this supersession of rights by communism did not take place: on the contrary, it was by exposing the absence of “rights” in the Soviet Union and its satellites that communism was discredited.

A human rights discourse now dominates politics; there is a powerful human rights “movement”. It is the new secular religion of our time.

Video: Human Rights For Dummies

Nonsense story. Good graphics, though.

Turns Out, Disabled People Are Human Beings After All

Chronicle Herald – Peter MacKay, the defence minister and a supporter of the UN effort, said the March 11 ratification signals Canada’s commitment to be governed by the agreement.

“The convention is important internationally because it is the first international human rights treaty that explicitly reaffirms existing human rights guarantees for people with disabilities and promotes respect for their inherent dignity,” said MacKay in a news release.

Denise Peterson-Rafuse, the provincial minister responsible for the disabled persons commission act, said she was proud Nova Scotia was one of the first provinces to signal support for ratification of the treaty.

An “Interview.” Creepy.

Examiner – Threat by US Marshals Service – Attempt to Muzzle US Human Rights Report to the UN

Dr Joseph Zernik, founder of Human Rights Alert, a Los Angeles–based NGO, who has been actively producing a Human Rights report for the 2010 review of the United States by the United Nations, [1] was requested to appear for an “interview” by the US Marshal Service at the “earliest convenience” (attached below).

If These Clowns Just Called It “Abortion,” We’d Show Them Some Respect

Bold ours.

Toronto Star – “We now know that doubling current spending on women’s health—on family planning and pregnancy related care together—from the current $12-billion to $24 billion annually would reduce maternal deaths by 70 per cent, cut newborn deaths by nearly half and increase productivity and economic growth,” Obaid said.

UN Human Rights Council To Everybody: Don’t Be Islamophobic Or Else We’ll Keep Telling You Not To Be Islamophobic

AFP – The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution condemning Islamophobic behaviour, including Switzerland’s minaret building ban, despite some states’ major reservations.

The resolution, which was criticised by the United States as “an instrument of division”, “strongly condemns… the ban on the construction of minarets of mosques and other recent discriminatory measures.”

Assholes Have Human Right To Drive Slow In The Fast Lane

Toronto Star – You cannot say 2010 has been without milestones on the human rights front for people with disabilities.

After years of hard work by advocates, last week Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That means all communities should be open to everyone no matter how they move, communicate or process information.

UN Chief: Cleaning Up Slums Good For People And Keeps World From Ending

Sify – ‘Conditions in slums are a violation of human rights,’ the secretary-general said in a message to the fifth session of the World Urban Forum, which begun in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro Monday.

Helping the urban poor reclaim their rights strengthened societies and stemmed environmental degradation, Ban said.

Canadian Cities Finally Agree To Stop Treating Disabled People Like Dirt

Toronto Star – You cannot say 2010 has been without milestones on the human rights front for people with disabilities.

After years of hard work by advocates, last week Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That means all communities should be open to everyone no matter how they move, communicate or process information.

No World Series Game 7, But Still A Tough Ticket

Chronicle-Herald – It takes a long time to clear security at UN headquarters these days. But after waiting nearly eight years for the moment, I was in no rush. Last Thursday, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as witness, the government of Canada took the final step towards ratifying the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); and I had a ringside seat!

What It’s Always Been About: Other People’s Cash

Vancouver Sun – People have a “right” to a full range of government-delivered social services, the United Nations will signal today as it launches a campaign to add city-dweller “rights” to a growing panoply of UN-endorsed economic rights.

Good Luck

Troy Media – In other words, the UN was born to be the savior of a species hell-bent on destroying itself. It has been a miserable failure in its overall mission, and worse, a destructive force in almost every one of its individual endeavors. It’s time to say, “Enough!”

UN: Airport Scanners Violate Rights

Montreal Gazette – A UN expert yesterday said the growing use of full body scanners in airport security was a breach of individual rights.

Martin Scheinin, the UN special rapporteur on the protection of human rights, said while countering extremism scanners were both an ineffective means of prevention and an excessive intrusion into individual privacy…

Scheinin, who was appointed to monitor the impact of anti-terror measures on individual freedoms five years ago, told the UN Human Rights Council better detection technology could be better for human rights.

UN: Beautiful Game Ain’t So Pretty

LA Times – A United Nations human rights investigator criticized FIFA on Monday, saying soccer’s international governing body hasn’t done enough to protect people from being forced out of their homes in cities hosting the World Cup.

U.N. investigator Raquel Rolnik cited reports saying more than 20,000 people are expected to be removed from a makeshift settlement near Cape Town before the June 11 start of the World Cup in South Africa. She says FIFA, or the International Federation of Association Football, hasn’t made the protection of housing rights a priority in its World Cup host selection process.

UN To Fat Cat Canada: Be Nicer to Women, Bigots

Tri-City News – For the government of Canada, this year’s theme will have an unpleasant sting. Our federal government has received a humiliating reprimand by several UN human rights bodies for its handling of the issues of women’s poverty and endemic violence against Aboriginal women and girls. In his official 2006 report, National Council of Welfare chairperson John Murphy called Canada’s welfare rates for women “shameful and morally unsustainable in a rich country.”

Stephanie Dion: In The “Post-Apology Era,” Time To Do The UN’s Bidding

We love you, Stephanie

[Liberal Party Website] RICHMOND, British Columbia — On the first anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said a new Liberal government would reverse the Conservative government’s position and endorse the Declaration.

“Last year’s appalling decision to vote against the Declaration was an insult to First Nations, Métis and Inuit who were expecting the government to stand up for their rights, and an international embarrassment that must be corrected,” said Mr. Dion. 

“In the post-apology era there is no excuse for not ratifying the Declaration. A new Liberal government will ratify the Declaration and show the world that we can be a leader on aboriginal issues,” he said.

High gas prices? Lousy real estate market? Extreme taxation? Never mind that. Stephanie’s right. Canadians want a government that will show the world we’re in line with UN mandates. Very important agenda.

New Website To Teach Canadians How To Make Human Rights A Reality…Inside Canada

Who knew? The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is Canada’s approach to meeting standards set by the UN. Someday, maybe we’ll get there.

DWE’s suggestion for a great website ad campaign:

Who Needs A Charter When You’ve Got A Declaration?

[Miramichi Leader] A new, interactive website has been established to encourage young Canadians to learn more about human rights. The website was developed in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Targeted to Canadians aged 18 to 35, the website was developed by the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies (CASHRA), in collaboration with TakingITGlobal and the John Peters Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. CASHRA is the national association of Canada’s government agencies charged with administering federal, provincial and territorial human rights legislation.

From the website:

The Declaration has become the heart of international law and has led to the development of a rich body of human rights instruments and treaties around the world, both internationally and domestically. There are more than 80 international treaties that build upon the basic principles set out in the Universal Declaration. In Canada, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms represents our country’s approach to implementing the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration.

Israel, Come Forth And Be Judged

Your taxes pay their salaries, restaurant tabs, and airline tickets. They poke and prod your country. They cluck their tongues in disappointment. They judge your culture and find it lacking. They tell your leaders how to run your lives. And how many of them are elected to office? Zero. Worse yet, having a beer with any of them would be akin to eating a dirt sandwich.

[Jerusalem Post] A three-country panel was chosen Monday to examine Israel’s human rights record as part of a Universal Periodic Review this year of 64 countries by the United Nations Human Rights council in Geneva.

All 192 UN states are subject to review.

According to Israel’s ambassador to Geneva Roni Leshno Yaar, the review will be conducted by Nigeria, South Korean and Azerbaijan at the council’s December session.

New UN Human Rights Chief: Please Come To The Conference

Maybe some countries aren’t going because they know you merely want their news cameras and publicity. Just a guess.

[Reuters] The new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanetham Pillay, called on Monday for an open debate about racism and religious intolerance, taking aim at countries threatening to boycott a summit on those issues.

In her first speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the former International Criminal Court judge said next April’s already-contentious U.N. conference on racism and xenophobia would be impoverished if the United States and others sat it out.

“Let’s not forget that diversity of opinions is often an inherent and welcome characteristic of relationships among peers,” she said.

…

The United States and Israel walked out of the last big U.N. summit on anti-racism, held in Durban in 2001, saying it had become a forum for anti-Semitism.

Canada has said it will not take part in the follow-up meeting planned for Geneva, and the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and France have said they may stay away if Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians again stands to eclipse all else.

UN To World: Hold The Beef

[Guardian] People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world’s leading authority on global warming has told The Observer

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.