The Reformers

Fire of Liberty

Here's a wonderful piece in The Weekly Standard by Scott Johnson (Power Line) on the US Ambassador to the UN Committee on Human Rights. It's a rather interesting piece on what kind of people President Bush wishes to represent the US in various posts like the UN or the UNCHR. Unfortunately try as he may, President Bush seems to have hit several speed-bumps in filling some these posts.

Though the news and the various Senators are hemming and hawing about John Bolton's tough diplomatic nature and his seemingly disdain for the UN, few of America's citizenry fail to realize that the US Senate in a 99-0 vote approved Rudy Boschwitz as the US Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). What's even more surprising is the fact Ambassador Boschwitz also shares the same disposition towards the UN as Secretary John Bolton. I guess you need to have the same tenacity and determination as Secretary Bolton when your trying to promote "human rights" in a organization that has the likes of Cuba, Egypt, Sudan and Zimbabwe deciding who has committed violations of such rights. Though the array of nations in the UNCHR always dish out the usual resolutions that condemn Israel (More likely because the nation exist in a sea of hostility), Ambassador Boschwitz was still able to push through two resolutions which condemned the human rights violations committed by Cuba and Belarus. Luckily President Bush knows the value of promoting human rights and that a forceful advocate like Ambassador Boschwitz can reform the this international madhouse. One has to be heartened about the US Ambassador's ability to put this place in order after reading these lines from his April 14, 2005 press release:

The absence of votes and the votes themselves confirm that the membership of the CHR still contain too many arsonists and not enough firefighters. When a "no action" vote on Belarus wins by a single vote; when the Nays and Abstentions against the Castro regime total 32 of the 53 member Commission; when 23 members of the Commission cannot see their way clear to condemn the gross human rights abuses of North Korea; when it is clear that there aren't enough votes to censure Zimbabwe so no resolution at all is offered--then there is no doubt that the CHR needs to be changed.

This is underscored by the failure today to undertake the real test of the 61st Session of the CHR: a strong resolution condemning the most egregious human rights violator of this time, Sudan. The number of deaths in the Darfur region may now be as high as 300,000, and the number of dispossessed is at 2,000,000, and the violence, particularly against women, incalculable. The resolution against the Sudan was put off till Monday. It may well then be moved from Item #9 to Item #19, which means it will become a weakened consensus resolution that will be most unsatisfying to the American delegation. We will surely say so and do everything possible to keep a strong resolution in Agenda Item # 9. If it fails, as it well might, the CHR will have condemned itself.

I just hope we can have this great duo of Bolton and Boschwitz pushing for a dynamic change in the status quo in Turtle Bay. If your going to have a system that promotes peace and human rights, it's good not to have tyrannies in a position of authority in the Security Council and the UNCHR. Such bodies need a good "moral scrubbing" if their are ever going to be effective. Though various Senators might feel that we need stripped-pants diplomats who assuage and coddle the tyrants and dictators who sit in these various organizations to achieve things in the name of the UN, President Bush knows what's at stake and realizes the best way to get things done is through an individual with a determined resolve like John Bolton or Rudy Boschwitz. So thank you President Bush for have such a great understanding of a strong and principled diplomat. Today is not the time for US diplomats to sit on their haunches and drink green tea, luckily John Bolton, Rudy Boschwitz and Secretary Rice and the various other foreign policy appointees seem to retain such an attitude.