Thread: UN Chief Urges US to Join UN Rights Body

UN Chief Urges US to Join UN Rights Body

Friday, December 12, 2008 2:30 PM



GENEVA -- The United States needs to reverse course and play a more active role in the United Nations' protection of human rights, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Friday.

Ban, visiting Geneva for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said the Human Rights Council created in 2006 was falling short of expectations, in part because the United States refused to join.

"That should be the council of all the member states of the United Nations," Ban said. "For that to be possible, then it is necessary and desirable that the United States takes part as a member of the council."

The United States, which played a leading role in creating the rights declaration under former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, has stayed on the sidelines of the 47-nation council since it was created in 2006 to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission.

Washington has frequently criticized the council for spending much of its time attacking Israel's treatment of Palestinians while downplaying human rights abuses in other parts of the world.

Ban agreed that the council needed to do a better job and urged its members to "rise above partisan posturing and regional divides."

"Abject poverty, shameful discrimination and horrific violence continue to plague millions of people," he noted.

Ban said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has assured him he will work for a "stronger partnership between the United Nations and the United States."

Looking ahead to 2009, Ban said severe financial problems would share the global stage with the need to combat climate change and the chance to bring peace to the Middle East.

Next year is "shaping up as a time of serious economic distress for developing countries," he told reporters.

Only a year remains to complete negotiations on a new approach to fighting climate change _ "one of the most complex multilateral treaties ever" _ but Ban said he was convinced it could be achieved.

"We can grow and be green at the same time," he said.

The U.N. chief also cited 2009 as "a year which I hope will bear fruit in the Middle East," saying that progress toward Middle East peace was being made behind the scenes by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

http://www.newsmax.com/international/un ... 61282.html

Do these "globalists" ever realize that America's unique spiritual traditions have already made us a champion of rights? No, they always seem to be living in a bubble, detached from the greater reality.

"We can grow and be green at the same time," he said.

That's the lease of our priorities, our main focus should be to abandon socialist agendas and remain free. to hell with your globalist unions and your multi-culturalism, which causes untold racism and social unrest. The United States needs to kick the U.N. out.