Bolton Still Mixing It Up At The UN
U.S. Tries to Exclude Some From U.N. Group
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is trying to exclude seven nations from a new U.N. human rights council, saying their own records make them unfit to sit in judgment of others.
In a reform proposal, Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda would not be eligible to serve on a revised human rights council.
The seven countries are subject to sanctions by the U.N. Security Council for human rights abuses and the United States wants to keep "some of the worst offenders off," Kristen Silverberg, assistant secretary of state for International Organizations said Wednesday.
Forming a new human rights council to replace the "discredited" Human Rights Commission is an important part of the U.S. agenda for reform of the United Nations, she said.
And John Bolton is leading the charge. You remember him. He's the guy Bush had to appoint when Congress went into recess because Democrats didn't think he was fit for the job.
The vague headline sort of puts a negative spin on this, but the reality is that keeping human rights violators off the world body's human rights commission just makes sense. After all, a shelter for battered women wouldn't hire a man convicted of beating his wife, would they?












