The United Nations Human Rights Council once again proved that President Trump was right in pulling the United States out of that dysfunctional organization. It has turned into a forum for some of the world’s worst human rights abusing governments to praise each other’s human rights record as well as their own, while bashing Israel at every opportunity.
The Universal Periodic Review is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member states. Under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, each member state reports at 5-year intervals what actions it has supposedly taken to improve the human rights situation in its country and to fulfill its human rights obligations. The review process has turned into a travesty in which dictatorial regimes use their national reports for self-congratulation, which is amplified by undeserved plaudits they receive from other dictatorial regimes.
Qatar, for example, which is currently a member of the Human Rights Council, issued its national report earlier this year, which was considered this past week by the Council. Qatar commended itself for its “policy to support and empower women” and legislation aimed at “the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers.” Qatar’s national report also stated that it “works to promote and guarantee freedom of expression.”
According to a count by UN Watch, 91 out of 104 countries that took the floor at the Human Rights Council this past week praised Qatar for its human rights record. China, a member of the Council, said that it “[W]elcomes Qatar’s efforts and achievements.”
Venezuela was among the dictatorships not currently members of the Human Rights Council that heaped praise on Qatar’s human rights record, declaring “We welcome the extraordinary progress made.” North Korea, another non-member, said, “We commend Qatar commitments and strenuous efforts for the promotion and protection of human rights.”
The reality of the dire state of human rights in Qatar is in sharp contrast with all the glowing praise that Qatar and its friends have lavished on the regime. There is virtually no freedom of expression. Non-Muslims are not permitted to worship in public. “Up to 90 percent of Qatar’s population is composed of noncitizens, including expatriates and migrant workers, who have no political rights or electoral opportunities,” according to Freedom House, which rates Qatar as “not free.” Non-citizens are still discriminated against, as are women and members of the LGBT community.
Nicaragua, a non-member of the Human Rights Council, also went through its mandatory 5-year Universal Periodic Review this year. In its national report, the Nicaraguan regime claimed that its “institutions have been working and will continue to work to protect the human rights of the Nicaraguan people.” It added that the “full exercise of the right to freedom of expression is guaranteed as there is no prior censorship or applicable restriction of any kind. The right of peaceful assembly is fully guaranteed. Its exercise does not require prior authorization. The right of Nicaraguans to express their opinion freely in public or in private, individually or collectively, in written form, orally or by any other means is also fully guaranteed.”
Nicaragua too received praise for its government's track record on human rights from dictatorial regimes.
Qatar, not surprisingly, praised its fellow human rights abusing regime. "We appreciate what Nicaragua has done," Qatar said. Cuba, another current member of the Human Rights Council, congratulated “the government for human rights efforts and progress achieved.” Egypt, also a current member, welcomed “efforts to bring about national reconciliation and dialogue to ensure that the rule of law is upheld in the country."
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Non-member Venezuela proclaimed, "We commend the government for its extraordinary successes.” Iran praised what it described as Nicaragua’s “important achievements secured by government reconciliation and national unity.”
Freedom House sees things quite differently. “Nicaragua’s status declined from Partly Free to Not Free,” Freedom House noted in its 2019 report, “due to authorities’ brutal repression of an antigovernment protest movement, which has included the arrest and imprisonment of opposition figures, intimidation and attacks against religious leaders, and violence by state forces and armed allied groups that resulted in hundreds of deaths.” This repression occurred in response to protests that started in April of 2018.
Nicaragua blamed certain protesters whom it accused of undertaking “an unlawful and violent attempted coup d’état against the Government of President Daniel Ortega.” The government said in its human rights national report to the UN Human Rights Council that it “wishes to make clear that, as is evident from the turn of events, the violent activities of pro-coup groups involved armed individuals who intentionally used violence with a view, from the outset, to overthrowing the Government and tearing down the constitutional order.”
The regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and a special team deployed by OHCHR issued a report of their own based on their monitoring of human rights abuses in Nicaragua during the course of the protests that took place between April and August of 2018. The OHCHR report blamed the government for the “disproportionate use of force by the police that sometimes resulted in extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; obstructions to access to medical care; widespread arbitrary or illegal detentions; prevalent ill-treatment and instances of torture and sexual violence in detention centres; violations of freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression, including the criminalization of social leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and protesters considered critical of the Government.” The Ortega regime obviously did not like the United Nations OHCHR report and decided to kick the human rights monitors out of the country. Nicaragua’s dictator declared that “nobody wants international organizations because they become instruments of the powerful, those who impose their polemics of death on the peoples of planet Earth.” This is the response of a regime that has something to hide.
At least, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights attempted to report honestly on the Nicaraguan regime’s human rights abuses that the UN monitors observed. However, the regime was able to manipulate the UN Human Rights Council forum to blue wash its image, which dictatorial regimes shamefully have been able to do with relative ease.
The United Nations Human Rights Council once again proved that President Trump was right in pulling the United States out of that dysfunctional organization. It has turned into a forum for some of the world’s worst human rights abusing governments to praise each other’s human rights record as well as their own, while bashing Israel at every opportunity.
