Human Rights Day
We may have different points of view on many subjects, but we both care about human rights for all!
In observance of United Nations Human Rights Day, I present a list of the members of the UN Human Rights Commission:
1. Argentina
2. Armenia
3. Australia
4. Austria
5. Bahrain
6. Bhutan
7. Brazil
8. Burkina Faso
9. Chile
10. China
11. Congo
12. Costa
Rica
13. Croatia
14. Cuba
15. Dominican
Republic
16. Egypt
17. Eritrea
18. Ethiopia
19. France
20. Gabon
21. Germany
22. Guatemala
23. Hungary
24. Honduras
25. India
26. Indonesia
27. Ireland
28. Italy
29. Japan
30. Mauritania
31. Mexico
32. Netherlands
33. Nepal
34. Nigeria
35. Pakistan
36. Paraguay
37. Peru
38. Qatar
39. Republic
of Korea
40. Russian Federation
41. Saudi Arabia
42. Sierra
Leone
43. South
Africa
44. Sri Lanka
45. Sudan
46. Swaziland
47. Sweden
48. Togo
49. Uganda
50. Ukraine
51. United Kingdom
52. United States
of America
53. Zimbabwe
Comments
Obviously, the human rights records of some of the countries on this list are worse than others. Also, the provided link may expose only a tiny fraction of a government's human rights violations. In some cases, the worst thing a government can do is to lend material or moral support to the world's most brutal tyrants. In any case, today should be a day for each nation to look inward and reflect on what it needs to do at home to make this world a better, safer place before passing judgment on another.
The citizens of the world may also want to spend some time figuring out how the heck all these treacherous dictatorships attained membership to the human rights commission. How can the UNHCR possibly act to prevent human rights abuses when the worst offenders are sitting right there?? And if the UNHCR is unable to summon the will to end rights violations around the globe, then through what vehicle?
Update: This article from Pak News ("The most reliable news source on internet") reports that a 'big protest procession' led by APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani on the World Human Rights Day today was subjected by troops to brute force this morning...Syed Ali Gilani and dozens of APHC leaders and workers were arrested. The demonstrators were marching to the UN Observers Office to hand over a Memorandum, addressed to the UN Secretary General, Kofi Anan.'
The contents of the memorandum were not disclosed. Reportedly, Syed Ali Gilani and People's Conference head Sajjad Ghani Lone had been quarreling with each other in the late Summer, threatening collapse of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Have they reconciled with each other yet? Did they march together? Does it matter? My knowledge of Pakistani-Kashmiri-Indian politics is severely limited.
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