After so many complaints that the United Nations Human Rights Commission is host to some of the most abusive human rights violators on the planet, one would think that the United States is being hypocritical by opposing planned reform at the UN for scrapping it and creating a new Human Rights Council that’s more effective in dealing with these issues. That’s what you’d think if you only read the headline and first paragraph of this Guardian Unlimited article, anyway.

U.S. Against Proposed U.N. Rights Panel

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The United States announced its opposition to the proposed new U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, putting the U.S. administration on a collision course with many U.N. members, key human rights groups, and a dozen Nobel peace laureates.

Well, I guess that’s settled! Can’t argue with a few nobel laureates and the rest of the world. Or can you? Because judging by the rest of the article, these nobel laureates and European countries that pride themselves on their human rights records are willing to settle on minimal changes as long as it doesn’t upset anybody.

Just read it. You’d almost get the idea that there is something inherently bad with wanting to push the envelope. Blocking major human rights abusers from being on the council? Pshaw! Impossible!… Why else do you think this current “reform” is going through in the first place? Because the Axis of Evil suddenly wanted to agree to human rights protection?

The fact is, almost every country in the United Nations is looking for a token way out of reforming the system, mostly for their own benefit over creating an effective system of dealing with human rights abuses. So while critics try to accuse the United States of being hypocritical by opposing meaningless symbolic reform, it is actually those who put themselves up on a pedestal, making human rights a major issue in their politics, who are the hypocrits. If Zimbabwe is ever going to stop making decisions about human rights that affect the entire world, these people need to back further and deeper changes that will eliminate such conflicts of interest.