Iran's Mini-Empire At The U.N.

Iran has received sanctions from the world community, the US, and the UN regarding human rights issues, the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and a variety of other issues.  But did you know that while being under no less than four binding sanctions from the UN security council, Iran sits on several commissions within the UN specifically aimed at resolving women's rights, human rights, children's rights, and other issues.

The United Nations has just created a new "entity" on women's rights, called U.N. Women. Elections to its governing board are now being organized. How long before Iran wins a seat?

If the question sounds absurd, the realities at the U.N. are even more mind-bending. The most recent high-profile outrage on this score was Iran gaining a seat in April on the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women. But that's the least of it. The reality is that Iran, despite being under four sets of binding sanctions resolutions by the U.N. Security Council, has learned to manipulate the institution in ways that make a mockery not only of the U.N. itself, but also of U.S. claims of diplomatic competence.  

Read more at Forbes

Freedom House Reveals World's Worst Human Rights Abusers

Freedom House today released Worst of the Worst 2010: The World's Most Repressive Societies, its annual report identifying the world's most flagrant human rights abusers, at a side panel during the 14th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
 
The report, which identifies countries earning the lowest scores in Freedom in the World, Freedom House's annual report on political rights and civil liberties, was designed as a resource for human rights advocates. This year's report identifies 17 countries and 3 territories whose citizens live in extremely oppressive environments, with minimal basic rights and persistent human rights violations.

"In this report we identify countries where individuals have almost no opportunity to enjoy the most fundamental rights-regimes whose people experience heavy penalties for independent thought or action and where little or no oppositional activity is permitted to exist," said Paula Schriefer, director of advocacy at Freedom House. "By highlighting these countries, we hope to give human rights advocates a tool they can use to shine a light on these abuses at the world's only global human rights body."
 
Nine countries and one territory are judged to have the worst human rights conditions, receiving the lowest possible score of 7 (based on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 representing the most free and 7 representing the least free) on both political rights and civil liberties: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tibet.
 
An additional 8 countries and 2 territories score only slightly better, with a score of 7 in political rights and a score of 6 in the civil liberties category: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Guinea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
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