A general view during the opening day of the 51st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Sept. 12.
Photo:
fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
If pathological optimists still think the U.N. Human Rights Council cares about human rights, they might want to note events last week. A motion was made in Geneva to debate China’s abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, and the council voted 19-17 not even to discuss it.
Siding with China against the motion were regular lackeys such as Cuba and Venezuela, as well as countries such as Nepal, Indonesia and Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that don’t want to offend China or are on the hook as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
The last four in that list are majority Muslim nations voting to ignore the documented persecution of a Chinese Muslim minority group. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, and Pakistan’s state religion is Islam.
In addition to China, the other nations on the dishonor role were: Bolivia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Namibia, Senegal, Sudan and Uzbekistan. There were also 11 abstentions, including India, Mexico and Ukraine. Perhaps Kyiv hopes to keep China from giving military aid to Russia’s invaders, but this wasn’t Ukraine’s finest hour. Mexico under President
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
has never met a left-wing dictatorship it didn’t support.
In August the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights published a report that drew on interviews with former detainees in Xinjiang. “A consistent theme was description of constant hunger and, consequently, significant to severe weight loss during their periods in the facilities,” it said. “Almost all interviewees described either injections, pills or both being administered regularly.”
Read on, if you have the stomach. “Some also spoke of various forms of sexual violence, including some instances of rape,”…
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