"With My Teeth I Will Rip Your Flesh. With My Mouth I Will Suck Your Blood"

The U.S. is seeking election to the Council because we believe that working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights. We hope to work in partnership with many countries to achieve a more effective Council.
U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, March 31, 2009

So how's that working for you?

On June 8, Rania Al Rifaiy--Syrian representative to the UN Human Rights Council--regaled her fellow members with this:

This is a state that is built on hatred, discrimination, oppression and a paranoid feeling of superiority. Hatred is widespread, taught to even small children, who are taught to use weapons, and who are taught to sign missiles that will be fired at Arabs.

Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school. And I quote “With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.”

Not surprisingly, the members of the UNHRC found nothing here worth objecting to--even the chairman could summon up nothing more than a thank you:

In the chair during the Syrian statement today was Council President Alex Van Meeuwen of Belgium, who also said nothing, though he has no trouble finding his voice when it comes to objecting to statements from Israel or other states and NGOs which refer to less popular subjects. Today, following this statement by Canadian representative Jeffrey Heaton – “Canada condemns the lack of respect of the Burmese regime for human rights and fundamental freedoms of its population” – Van Meeuwen responded: “before moving to the next speaker, I would like to ask once again all speakers to refrain from using words such as regime in reference to member states and uphold to UN standards when referring to countries.”

In February, after Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar called upon Iranian leaders to cease denying the Holocaust, Van Meeuwen exceptionally intervened in the debate to chide: “I would like to remind all speakers of the importance to deal with human rights issues with dignity and respect and to and to adhere to the well-established principles of the United Nations.” But when it came to dehumanizing Israeli children, Van Meeuwen had only two words to say: “Thank you.”

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, was silent as well.
But I suppose it could have been worse--she could have pulled a Clinton and kissed him.

As far as changing the UNHRC from inside, questions are already being raised about Susan Rice's own attendance to critical meetings. If half of life is just showing up, we already have a problem.

Technorati Tag: UNHRC and United Nations Human Rights Council and Rania Al Rifaiy.