The World's Ultimate Body of Hypocrisy

The world body that acts as a bastion of human-rights protection, holding all its members to a universal standard of respect for the rights of the human being with favour to none, is prepared to file its documentation of human rights abuses attributable to Canada. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, whose advisory council includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Uganda, Nigeria, Guatemala, and Pakistan -- all fervent human-rights-observing states -- sits in judgement of Canada.

This does not represent an organic, humanistic, objective group of countries whose own record on human rights is unblemished and respectable. And the influence within the greater body of the United Nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Unaligned Countries of the world draw upon their voting resources to express as a bloc how they feel about countries they have a grudge with; so much for fair and objective, unbiased judgements.

As an example, the single country of the world which has drawn wildly disproportional criticism, discussion and mendacious sanctions is not those bastions of human rights abuses like Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Gaza, Iran and Syria for starters, but solely and continually, the State of Israel. Examples can be seen in the portions below taken from the UN's HRC's March 22, 2013 assembly.

Regarding Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, adopted by a vote of 44 in favour, 1 against and 2 abstentions, the Council called upon Israel to take and implement serious measures to prevent acts of violence by Israeli settlers. !!!!!!!

In a resolution on the right of Palestinian people to self-determination, adopted by a vote of 46 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions, the Council decided to continue the consideration of this matter at its session in March 2014.  !!!!!!!!

With regard to the resolution on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, adopted by a vote of 46 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions, the Council demanded that Israel cease all practices and actions that violated the human rights of the Palestinian people and requested that the Secretary-General reports on the implementation of the present resolution to the Council at its September session of 2013.  !!!!!!!

Concerning the follow-up to the report of the independent international fact-finding mission investigating the implications of Israeli settlements on rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, adopted by a vote of 45 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions, the Council requested that the relevant Working Group fulfill its mandate accordingly. !!!!!!!!

And now, ta-dum! It is Canada's turn. Attention is focused for lack of a more generalized symptom of governmental/societal dysfunction, on the 'treatment of indigenous peoples', and more specifically the plight of First Nations women, and even more to the point the violence that they suffer. There is the question of how the Government of Canada addresses the issue of violence against women within First Nations communities.

"It provides an opportunity for really straightforward, factual commentary about Canada's treatment of indigenous peoples", said Stuart Wuttke, general counsel for the Assembly of First Nations, speaking from Geneva. "First Nations really look toward these mechanisms as an avenue to address some of the human right issues ... in Canada. We're hoping that it demonstrates the weaknesses and areas that need improvement."

Needless to say, a culture of violence and degraded living condition exists prominently within many tribal and geographically isolated reserves in Canada. It doesn't appear that the Assembly of First Nations addresses itself to this internal issue, but it has high expectations for the government to address and possibly find a solution to this vexing problem of long standing and vicious practise.

The Native Women's Association of Canada estimates that approximately 600 indigenous women in Canada have mysteriously disappeared or have been murdered within the last two decades. "It is such a glaring, long-standing human rights concern. It's an issue which I think no one disagrees in Canada is a tragedy and a crisis", Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada explains. And, of course, he is quite correct; who wouldn't be concerned?

That being the case, why is the issue of violence within reserves and within tribal culture itself not being addressed by the duly elected authorities that claim they represent the best interests of First Nations in Canada, the Assembly of First Nations? Yes, the Government of Canada could set up a commission to closely examine the issue and perhaps come to some conclusions. The most obvious of which is to stop talking and start acting.

Right here, at home. It does representing a fundamental failure within society; both within the greater community and within the First Nations community. Government points to its funding for law enforcement, community safety and violence prevention programs. But it takes an effort on the part of everyone concerned; shuffling the issue off to the responsibility of others simply defers solutions.

And taking an internal issue that should be solved with co-operation between communities to the United Nations Human Rights Council that should be grappling with human rights abuses across the African and Middle East continents at the very least, is the ultimate shedding of responsibility. Taking on Canada allows the UN HRC to take innumerable passes on the issues of truly representative, wide-spread and unpardonable human rights abuses.

Surely we can do better than this.