Philip Duck from SOLO wants to know why New Zealand is required to prostrate itself before the world’s torturers?
New Zealand's Justice Minister Simon Power and a small army of bureaucrats from various government ministries and departments have been ordered to New York to front up to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
The Minister will, over a two-day session, be asked by the representatives of countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, to 'provide detailed information on cases in which electro-muscular disruption devices, Tasers, have been used by the police.’ And Power is also going to be asked to provide information on ‘Operation Eight’ and explain whether ‘Maori individuals and their families were victims of violations of their rights and subjected to discriminatory treatment.’
So, the Algerian government, which is highly corrupt, controls the judiciary and routinely uses its secret police to beat journalists, is going to interrogate Power on New Zealand’s unarmed police force's use of the Taser?
And the government of Egypt, which refuses to make spousal rape illegal, allows the searching of people and places without a warrant, detains without charge for 'security-related' offenses more than 12,000 people every year and, in 2008, shot and killed at least 32 migrants attempting to get into Israel, is going to challenge Power on ‘Operation Eight?’
The reason for the Minister’s trip is sick; it is not just a waste of time and money. It is far worse than that. By appearing before the committee, Power will not only deflect attention away from the worst of the world’s human rights abusers and the governments of countries such as Iran, Zimbabwe, China, Egypt, North Korea and Sudan, he will also allow them to continue to engage in the sickest of moral equivalency and say, “Look! Don’t pick on us, human rights problems are everywhere!”
If Simon Power were truly concerned about the worst of human rights abuses he would pull down his trousers and give the U.N his very own performance of a Whakapohane while telling the committee to sod off.
5 comments:
Another step to giving up our sovereignty and moving to global governence.
Helen must be overjoyed she will be Keys boss before you know it.
If experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. His very existence, indeed, is a standing subversion of the public good in every rational sense. He is not one who serves the common weal; he is simply one who preys upon the commonwealth.
H.L.Mencken, "The Politician", Prejudices: A Selection. 1924
This is the Human Rights Committee, not the Human Rights Council. Simon Power will not be asked questions by the representatives of any country. He will be asked questions by some independent individuals who happen to be from certain countries.
Pointing out that these people are from countries with poor human rights records is like calling Nelson Mandela a prominent figure during apartheid-era South Africa. It's accurate, but completely misses the point.
The time to lay this complaint was a year ago - when Simon Power appeared before the Human Rights Council. That UN Body has member states on it, who are bound to follow their Governments - it is a political, representative, body.
This isn't. Criticising it on the basis that some of its members have the same nationality as unsavoury Governments is like criticising a decision of the New Zealand Supreme Court on the basis that the Chief Justice is an Aucklander, and John Banks is too conservative.
Decisions of the Human Rights Committee, like decisions of the New Zealand Supreme Court, are open to debate and criticism. But not because of the places of birth of their members.
Independent individuals? That seems highly naive. The Algerian member, for example, was a senator when he was elected to the committee. He is hardly independent and doesn't pass the 'high moral character' test either; he continues to defend his government's ugly human rights record. Egypt's representative doesn't seem to be independent either; he is a career diplomat.
True enough, the questions Power will be asked don't come directly from a country's representative (and the op-ed should have been more clear on that) but it's difficult to see how these 'independents' aren't doing the work of their political masters.
Philip
@ Graeme
Their nationality per se doesn't matter. But the fact they have this position combined with this nationality does.
Unless they're dissidents who have fled, it's highly unlikely they get this potion without supporting, or at least sanctioning their government.
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