Meet the newest member of the UN Human Rights Council: Venezuela

My wife has the best takes on things like this:

“Why doesn’t everyone recognize what a joke this organization is?”

Because most people don’t realize things like this are going on, because they’re not widely reported. The public image of the UN is still “peacekeepers” and pennies for UNICEF and all the world getting together to talk instead of fight.

The reality – the anti-Semitic garbage, the institutional corruption and the refuge for dictators – is there to be seen for those determined to pay attention. But most people understandably have other things to do with their time, and while we’ll give props here to the Washington Post for bothering with the story, the MSM are not going to scream at the top of their lungs about embarrassments like this:

The Maduro government, no longer recognized as legitimate by the United States and around 50 other countries, had sought a return to the 47-member panel to counter an image of international isolation — and thwart investigations into its own alleged abuses.

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Venezuela and regional rival Brazil beat out Costa Rica for the two Latin American seats up for election. Costa Rica had declared its candidacy only this month in an effort to deny Venezuela a three-year term, but the support of China, Russia, Cuba and other allies gave the socialist state the win.

So Venezuela is on the Human Rights Council because China, Russia and Cuba – those great paragons of human rights – wanted them there.

Now defenders of the council will point out that membership is very much a rotating thing, and countries rotate in and out all the time, making membership on the council largely meaningless.

That’s actually true, and it’s no real defense of the Human Rights Council. If membership is meaningless, then what’s the point of having members at all? And if a human rights abuser like Venezuela can be a member of the council, then how can the council be said to have anything whatsoever to do with human rights?

This is a country that jails political dissidents, tolerates widespread crime, squanders or steals public assets and has presided over an economic, social and health disaster – all while holding onto power in defiance of the country’s constitution.

If a human rights council has any meaningful role at all, it’s to stand up to regimes like this. Yet the UN Human Rights Council does no such thing, and actually allows such regimes to become members.

The UN is a complete and utter joke. The United States should step giving it any money whatsoever and kick it out of the country. Maybe the UN’s high potentates would to try moving their headquarters to Caracas and living there. The Maduro regime is so big on human rights, after all. I’m sure it would work out wonderfully.