All-time greatest Mafalda strip
The UN Human Rights Commission came out with a report (in draft form, but since everyone is tweeting about it, I assume it’s the definitive version) on Venezuela.
You may recall that a few days ago, there was drama in Geneva as the Venezuelan government was dragged kicking and screaming to the UN to defend its human rights record.
My favorite parts of the diplomatic, tersely-worded statement, are: (my translation)
“14. The Committee is worried about reports related to human rights violations presumably perpetrated with regards to street protests. About that, and even though it takes into account the information that some of those who participated had done so violently, it is worried about numerous reports related to human rights violations perpetrated in the context of protests which took place in the first few months of 2014, including cases of excessive and disproportionate use of force, torture or mistreatment, arbitrary detentions, and non-observance of basic legal safeguards.”
…
15. The Committee is still concerned about the situation of the judicial system in [Venezuela], particularly concerning its autonomy, independence, and impartiality. It is worried that only 34% of judges have tenure, meaning that the rest are provisional, and their appointments and removals can be done discretionally.”
Really? After Afiuni? After Marvinia Jiménez? After the Human Rights Watch report from 2004 basically alerting this was going to happen, the best the UN can muster is to express “concern” for the independence of the judicial system?
Way to go UN. I can tell you’re way ahead of the curve on these issues.
Perhaps in 2020, the UN will muster enough courage to express “concern” over the “alleged” scarcity of basic products, and over the “alleged” media hegemony.
Bureaucrats …. they are incorregible.
Caracas Chronicles 
I recall an article in the Economist about how it was easier at UN to produce a report criticizing HR abuses in Denmark than in Cuba or Middle East countries. UN is a mess.
LikeLike
It’s not just the Putrid UN, plus dozens of other similar Int’l entities of all sorts. Useless demagogues, decrepit leeches, bureaucratic snails, liars, thieves of tax payer monies.
The real culprits behind all the “ONU” crap are the Politicians in power that we elect. The entire system is flawed to its core. The worldwide public is still ignorant enough to vote for politicians to waste their taxes on such Bullshit organizations. And do nothing to reform them, making them more Effective, with the power to actually DO something. And that’s in Europe, the USA, the First World.. Prehistoric crap, IMO.
We all watch while they talk and talk, “lamenting” this Genocide in Serbia or Syria, Human rights in Africa or North Korea, and our political leaders DO close to nothing about it. When there’s a crisis as in Vzla, who goes? EX-presidents, if you’re lucky and have some oil.
The ONUs of this world a just the result of our collective gullibility and massive ignorance and/or true apathy and egoism, reflected on the lying, triple-faced Politicians we elect.
That’s how everyone on the Planet today seems utterly in Love with Cuba, one of the most atrocious, murderous dictatorships this planet has ever seen. Hey, it’s Politics… it’s you and me. Overall, we really don’t give a flying fuck about others.
LikeLike
si vale preocuparse demasiado es malísimo para la tensión…
LikeLike
John Bolton was always right regarding the UN:
“The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories…If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”
LikeLike
As irritating this could be, what did you really expect? Like someone else pointed out, it’s Politics after all. In this world almost every serious action against abusing governments is taken unilaterally by geopolitical “stakeholders” of the given country; if no one has a meaningful thing to take out of it, that makes it worthy to get in confrontation with the other political Pole, they won’t do shit. That’s how the UN works, by consensus; and I can’t think of any other way it could work without driving the world into the WWIII.
LikeLike
All it shows is that Venezuela still has some diplomatic chips to play in the U.N. I will have to read the remainder of the report, but considering the evidence piling up in front of them, that is a very weak statement.
LikeLike
The UN didn’t do shit when Bashar al-Assad was using chemical weapons against its own people. The UN didn’t do shit when people in Central African Republic were hacking their neighbors to death. And you still expect the UN to act on Venezuela? Seriously dude…
LikeLike
Human RIghts are inefficient. Chávez was all about efficiency. The UN knows nothing about keeping his legacy alive.
LikeLike
¿De qué se sorprenden tanto? Si se supone que SIEMPRE hay que poner “supuesto” y “presunto” delante de cada acusación que se haga, ya saben, por aquello de “inocente hasta que se demuestre lo contrario”, que claro, la dictadura lo aprovecha aunque hayan paredes de evidencia en su contra.
LikeLike
“…and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.”
LikeLike
Does this surprise you? It surprises me more that your are surprised…
LikeLike
To understand why they “express their concerns” regarding those issues, you would have to understand how a massive monster like the UN works. I know, we would like to see more, of course, but the UN was created by the States and is paid by them, so they can only go so far. There is a lot that must be improved, but I do believe it is our job as citizens (and tax-payers) to take these spaces and take as much advantage of them as we can. If you watch the videos, you could see that the representatives of the State made complete fools of themselves :
On the other hand, regardless of the language, that draft recognizes very serious issues we are facing. Yes, they are recommendations because the Covenant says that the Committee can only formulate recommendations… but If they do not follow those recommendations, they wouldn’t be fulfilling their obligations, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights IS binding.
You can fin out more about their working methods here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CCPR/Pages/WorkingMethods.aspx
And a nice summary: http://www.examenonuvenezuela.com/naciones-unidas/el-comite-de-derechos-humanos-publica-sus-recomendaciones-al-estado-venezolano
LikeLike