The purpose of the UN is so that nuclear powers have a forum to talk, instead of, you know, ending all human life on the planet.
Everything else is just sort of stuff that came along once you had all the countries of the world sitting around realizing that they should do something once they’re in the same room.
Say the UN security council ordered Russia to immediately withdraw from Ukraine. Great, right?
Then Russia just says “No.”
Ok now what? What can anyone do when a country that has nuclear weapons refuses to comply with an order from the UN? I guess they could write another strongly worded letter which would also be ignored.
The nuclear powers can unilaterally veto anything because that’s simply the reality of the world. If you have the UN trying to enforce something that a nuclear power doesn’t want that could lead to a nuclear war. Which would be bad.
If countries are satisfied with writing resolutions that accomplish nothing then it’s better than having a war. And that’s the ultimate goal of the UN, to make countries waste time on UN resolutions that accomplish nothing instead of having wars.
Don’t think of the UN as a police force, they aren’t. Think of it more like a global politics version of lemmy. A lot of idiots writing angry things at one another and getting nothing done. But getting nothing done is better than having a war.
Amnesty is not a news source. They are fundraising, here. The article is devoid of necessary contextual information.
UN Commission executive boards are elected not appointed positions. In some UN bodies, chairs rotate in alphabetical order, but not this one. Maybe there was a midterm vacancy and the seat was filled by an appointment process? What is that process? When is the earliest the seat could be recalled?
Mostly they seem to have conferences every decade or so and occasionally declare a “International day for X”. Seems like a PR kind of thing to me.
But at any rate it’s a bad look for the UN. Indicates a dysfunction in the organization that whatever process they have allowed this to happen. I mean it looks like it’s a PR campaign that actually makes them look bad. If Guterres was competent he’d shut the thing down entirely and start another one that didn’t suck. But since he’s an idiot and he will probably just say it’s somehow Israel’s fault.
They may not be journalists, but this certainly is news.
“They campaign against abuses of human rights worldwide.”
The information shared seems to be high-quality and relevant to their cause. It certainly isn’t “10 bad things about Saudi Arabia, number 7 will shock you”.
Uhhh, why are you so hostile? I didn’t make up the concept of good journalism versus sensational shit.
This the the part I am talking about. None of these details are included in Amnesty’s blog post, because it cuts against the outrage. Can’t very well lose your shit over it if nobody else wants the chair. I think it’s safe to say that anyone concerned about this now do their part to make sure the body has the impetus to contest the seat, next time. Perhaps there is more to the story. Perhaps this was a protest? Perhaps spring in the body with no time to mount a challenge? I don’t know.
Saudi Arabia has been chosen as the chair of the UN commission that is supposed to promote gender equality and empower women around the world, after an unopposed bid for leadership condemned by human rights groups because of the kingdom’s “abysmal” record on women’s rights.
The Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, was elected as chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), by “acclamation” on Wednesday, as there were no rival candidates and no dissent at the CSW’s annual meeting in New York.
Alwasil was endorsed by the group of Asia-Pacific states on the commission. When the outgoing chair, the Filipino envoy to the UN, Antonio Manuel Lagdameo, asked the 45 members if they had any objections there was silence in the chamber.
“I hear no objection. It is so decided,” Lagdameo said.
Normally a country holds the chair for two years, but the Philippines was put under pressure from other members of the Asia group to split its tenure and pass the post on to another country after one year. Bangladesh was expected to take over but late in the process, Saudi Arabia stepped in and lobbied for the chair, in what is widely seen as an attempt to burnish the kingdom’s image.
You were attacking the messenger, not the message, which made me think you were defending SA’s appalling human rights record. But you’ve admitted what was written is correct so I’m much less hostile now.
I didn’t make up the concept of good journalism versus sensational shit.
In this case the “sensational shit” was one of the sources that the good journalism was based on.
None of these details are included in Amnesty’s blog post.
Is it really relevant that the seat was won uncontested? Not to an organisation who’s sole purpose is to highlight human rights abuses. Not to OP. OP could have linked to the Guardian’s article rather than Amnesty’s but the point they are making about hypocrisy remains.
I think Amnesty is half shit. This is what they do. They spread half truths and outrage bait and raise money with it. They use some of that money to do some great and important work. They also use some of that money to spread the shit.
This article was not published to inform people. It was published to outrage people and raise money off it. Amnesty is glad this dude got appointed. 🤑
Except they don’t, they even link to a more detailed article that includes many more reference links for more information. Not to mention entire reports about the human rights abuses in detail.
There is no evidence they ‘spread half truths’ or ‘outrage bait.’ Sounds like you just want to discredit them because the human rights abuses they report about Israel make you uncomfortable.
The evidence is in this thread. Try and keep up. They make me uncomfortable because they are half truths. This how Amnesty funds itself. No shite they find human rights abuses wherever they look. Their job is not to vindicate people, it’s to accuse them. Surgeons where I’m from always find a reason to operate. To hammers, everything is a nail. I find your approach to evaluating Amnesty’s credibility as a news publisher to be shallow and self serving.
So you’re mad that a Human Rights Organization is reporting on the details of Human Rights abuses Saudi Arabia has institutionalized to oppress women, showing exactly why the UN appointing Saudi Arabia is a terrible decision. It’s a report on Saudi Arabia, not the UN.
The Guardian is a news outlet reporting on the UN Decision, it makes sense they report on the details of the UN proceedings, and quote Amnesty on the human rights violations.
What part of the Amnesty report is a half-truth? They are reporting on exactly what human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has committed and how. This is not a general news outlet like The Guardian or The Intercept. Amnesty reports on human rights. They don’t report anything on without substantial evidence either.
Who are they vindicating here? It’s certainly not Saudi Arabia, they talk about how they are guilty of oppressing women. It’s not the UN either, they detail exactly how this decision goes against the UN charter.
Your specialty is being emotionally over reactive and putting words in my mouth that I did not say.
If you can’t see the literal language I quoted from the guardian article that was entirely omitted from the Amnesty blog post, and you don’t see what the problem is with treating Amnesty as journalism, than you are beyond redemption and your media literacy is just not adequate.
And btw, Saudi Arabia is a great example of how your buddies in Hamas plan to rule over all of the Levant after for real genociding all the Jews and Christians and installing an Islamic caliphate: theocracies cannot be a legitimate source of human rights since any concept of religious law is entirely made up by the people in charge of it and anyone can claim to be the next prophet.
Nothing in the Guardian article contradicts or discredits the Amnesty article, in fact it uses Amnesty as a source. You’ll notice how the HRW article the guardian also sources also doesn’t go into the details of the UN appointing Saudi Arabia. That’s because human rights organizations focus on reporting about human rights. The details of how the UN appointed Saudi Arabia despite their oppression of women, does not change the reality that Saudi Arabia oppresses women. The human rights organizations are reporting on that reality of oppression, because that’s the focus of a human rights organization.
I support a One-State Solution with equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinians do have a right to armed resistance against Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and settler Colonialism. Hostilities need to end.
Even then, I think an average atheist politician would handle Islamic affairs more fairly than an average Muslim politician would handle gender equality affairs, at least in most cases.
There is no atheist book that the atheist has to follow. The Quran, on the other hand, has misogyny kind of built into it, sadly.
Edit: I feel like I should add that this misogyny problem isn’t unique to Islam. The Abrahamic religions all have outdated takes on gender equality. I would have the same negative feelings about a devout Christian politician being put in charge of gender equality.
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