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U.N. reaches out to win back middle America
Severely EFLThe United Nations is out of touch with most Americans yup, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world uh huh, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff. *Gasp!* Is that a clue? "In a very real way very, very real, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N. which are now being acted on by President Bush and the Republican Party and the nations that make up the Coalition of the Willing... and who feel that we've drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world," Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday. The organization will propose changes in the coming weeks to begin repairing its reputation by revamping its "human rights machinery" to keep dictator nations off the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Oh. Ok. I guess that's progress. Of a sort. Governments making up the current membership include Cuba, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia. Libya is the outgoing chair of the committee. *sigh* The plan would "try and restore the credibility of this and have people on that commission who really are people of stature and reputation and record and come from countries of the same thing, with real human rights standing in the world," Mr. Malloch Brown said. I guess that leaves out the U.S. and Israel, then. Human rights groups say rights violators on the commission stick together as a bloc to prevent criticism of one another — a conclusion that has been endorsed by a panel of experts advising Mr. Annan on U.N. reform. Any changes proposed by Mr. Annan would have to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly, comprising all 191 U.N. member nations. A package of U.N. reforms is expected to be debated at a U.N. world summit in New York in September. Too little, too late? Stay tuned for the next episode of "As the U.N. turns" Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-17 |
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