Theater of the absurdHistory: Libya and the Un Human Rights Council

Published 1 March 2011

In May 2010, in a secret ballot, Libya received a shocking 155 votes (out of 192 countries who are UN members) and was elected to the UN Human Rights Council; UN members were aware of Libya’s human rights practices, such as extrajudicial and summary executions, systematic use of torture, and the imposition of the death penalty for political and economic offences; UN members were also aware that Libyan agents in 1988 blew up a passenger airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, exploded a French airliner over the Sahara desert, killing 170; Gaddafi also financed and helped train dozens of terrorist organizations, supported Charles Taylor in the Liberian civil war that was responsible for more than 200,000 deaths, supported the insurgency by Fodeh Sanko in Sierra Leon — Sanko’s followers chopped off the arms and legs of more than 82,000 men, women and children in villages loyal to the government, but left them alive so the government would go bankrupt trying to take care of them — and backed Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who brought hunger and devastation to that once relatively prosperous country; but then again, this is the UN

The 47-member Human Rights Council, created in 2006, was meant as a replacement for the notorious UN Commission on Human Rights (at one point chaired by Libya), which even the UN had to conclude was too great an embarrassment. The new Human Rights Council was to be governed by stringent standards for membership in the world’s central body for the promotion and protection of human rights.

The guiding General Assembly resolution stipulated that in electing members to the council, countries were to take into account “the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights,” and that elected members on the council “shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.”

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Astonishingly, in May 2010, in a secret ballot, Libya received a shocking 155 votes (out of 192 countries who are UN members), and was elected to the UN Human Rights Council.

 

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the world was certainly aware of the vast litany of domestic and international crimes committed by the Gaddafi regime. Even in the corridors of the UN there was occasional talk and concern about Libya’s human rights practices, such as extrajudicial and summary executions, systematic use of torture, and the imposition of the death penalty for political and economic offences.

The international community was also aware that Libyan agents in 1988 blew up a passenger airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, exploded a French airliner over the Sahara desert, killing 170, and in 1986 blew up the La Belle disco in Berlin, killing two Americans and wounding dozens. Gaddafi also financed and helped train dozens of terrorist organizations, supported Charles Taylor in the Liberian civil war that was responsible for more than 200,000 deaths, and backed Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who brought hunger and devastation to that once relatively prosperous country.

None of this seemed to matter to the Human Rights Council. True, even Western democracies after 2003 (when Gaddafi thought it prudent, in the wake of the ouster of Saddam Hussein, to give up his weapons of mass destruction program) embarked on a dangerously misguided policy of “constructive engagement,” where they thought they could combine profit and peace.

It was, however, the Human Rights Council that really burnished Libya’s international image in an Orwellian theatre of the absurd. For instance, at a council meeting in November 2010 for a universal periodic review of rights protection, country after country paid tribute to the Gaddafi regime’s performance on human rights.

Qatar expressed its appreciation for Libya’s human rights performance. The Syrian representative, without irony, spoke of the unique experience of democracy in Libya and the growth and development of human rights there. Saudi Arabia strongly praised Libya’s interest in “promoting and protecting human rights.” North Korea and Cuba glowingly endorsed Libya’s efforts and “significant achievements” in human rights.

Little wonder that with such fulsome praise and endorsements from the world’s leading human rights body, the Gadhafi regime rejected even moderate “suggestions” at improving its human rights record.