This is a guest note by Mark Leon Goldberg, Managing Editor of UN Dispatch, where this piece originally ran.
Leave it to Muammar Qaddafi to bring together the Israelis and Palestinians at the United Nations.
I have just obtained the copy of a draft resolution from the Human Rights Council that strongly condemns the violence in Libya. The resolution is as strongly worded as they come. But what is more significant than the substance of the resolution is the broad support that it has attracted by a diverse set of members.
Check this out (full pdf):
You’ll also note that Qatar and Tunisia co-signed.
As it happens, Libya is on the Human Rights Council right now. But given the broad support for this resolution, I can’t imagine that they will last much longer. (A two-thirds vote of the General Assembly is required to boot a member from the Human Rights Council.)
Very interesting times. And a situation like this demonstrates the value of the Human Rights Council — it can be used to show the cruel Libyan regime just how united the world is against it.
“We’ve joined many concerned members of the Human Rights Council in supporting this session,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Suzanne Nossel tells me over email, “It is significant that the international community will speak with one voice in condemning the violence.”
— Mark Leon Goldberg
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