UN still oblivious to reality.
Via CNS News
The U.N. Human Rights Council this week will appoint an official whose job is to examine Western sanctions, viewed as constituting human rights violations against the targeted countries.
The newly-created post, established by a resolution introduced by Iran, will go to a veteran Algerian diplomat who in his application expressed concern about U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
The move comes three weeks after Secretary of State John Kerry in an address to the Geneva-based HRC praised it for the “historic progress” it has made since the Obama administration joined in 2009.
An HRC committee recommended that Idriss Jazairy of Algeria get the post over 16 other candidates, and in a letter to council members on Friday HRC president Joachim Ruecker confirmed he support it.[…]
The new mandate was created in an HRC resolution last fall that was introduced by Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, and passed by a vote that reflected the deep divisions among the HRC’s 47 members.
The 31 votes in favor came from African, Asian and Latin American members including Cuba, China, Pakistan Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Vietnam. The 14 opposing votes came from the U.S., European democracies, South Korea and Japan.
“Unilateral coercive measures” -– UCMs in the U.N.’s jargon –- are sanctions or similar actions imposed by one country on another aimed at putting pressure on regimes to change direction or institute reforms, without U.N. Security Council authorization.
The U.S. imposes such measures against a number of countries, including Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and North Korea, in response to issues ranging from human rights and violations to proliferation and support for terrorism. European Union targets include Iran and Zimbabwe.[…]
Jazairy, 78, served as Algeria’s ambassador to the HRC until 2012, representing a government that is designated “not free” by the democracy watchdog, Freedom House.
Soon after the council was created in 2006 – to replace the 60-year-old U.N. Commission on Human Rights which had become increasingly discredited – he led African opposition to taking a tough stance towards Sudan over the deadly humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Speaking on behalf of the Africa group late that year, Jazairy said the new U.N. rights body should avoid “a wrong-footed or heavy-handed response” towards the Islamist regime in Khartoum.
Two years later, Jazairy raised eyebrows when during preparations for a controversial anti-racism conference he played down concerns that it may be used as a platform for anti-semitism by saying, “Anti-semitism targets Arabs who are also Semites – and by extension, the whole Muslim community.”