RCA Blasts Hypocrisy of UN Human Rights Council

Calls for Council to be Reoganized or Supplanted to Protect World’s Oppressed

May 1, 2007 — Whereas our Torah teaches us that all humans were created in the image of God, and thus have a divine right to live free of abuse and oppression; and,

Whereas our tradition teaches us that we must strive to imitate God by being merciful and, generally, performing acts of kindness and righteousness; and,

Whereas hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from such human rights abuses as repression in Burma and North Korea, denial of political rights in China, restrictions on women’s rights and religious discrimination in Saudi Arabia, violence against opposition leaders in Zimbabwe, and a myriad of abusive actions by the Iranian government against its own citizens; and,

Whereas the UN Human Rights Council (the “Council”) recently concluded its fourth session without addressing the vast majority of human rights abuses occurring around the world; and,

Whereas in its nine months of existence, the Council, ostensibly acting as the defender of hundreds of millions of abused and oppressed people around the world, has condemned only one country in the entire world for human rights violations, namely Israel; and,

Whereas at its most recent session in March, 2007, the Council passed yet another resolution – its ninth – against the Jewish state; and,

Whereas Israel, surrounded by enemies intent on destroying her, remains a vibrant democracy, where, ironically, its Arab citizens enjoy more rights than in any Arab country; and,

Whereas when a representative of UN Watch highlighted the sheer hypocrisy and Orwellian methods of this discredited body, he was rebuked by the Council President and told that such speech was “inadmissible”, an action not previously taken, even in the face of Council statements defending Holocaust denial, glorifying terrorism and downplaying clear evidence of violence against women, among others

Now, therefore it is

Resolved that we call upon all democracies around the world to either take all possible action to reconstitute the Council in order that it reflects its actual mission, or, in the alternative, to create a new body that will protect the weak and oppressed around the world, and ostracize governments that perpetrate such abuse against their citizens.