Tuesday, July 09, 2013
World's Worst Abusers Vying for UN Human Rights Council Seats
GENEVA, July 9 -- As a United Nations meeting is right now hearing live campaign pitches (webcast link) from the UK, France and other democracies vying for seats on the world body's Human Rights Council, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group UN Watch revealed its "List of Shame" -- naming some of the world's worst abusers who are also running in the Nov. 2013 election, and expected to win seats: Algeria, Chad, China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. Though unconfirmed, reportedly Iran and Syria may also be running. Click here for full report (PDF).
"This is a recipe for disaster," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. "By electing massive abusers of human rights to the very body charged with protecting them, the UN is about to add more rotten ingredients into the soup. We should not be surprised by the results."
The council currently includes Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Mauritania, Venezuela, and many other countries with dismal human rights records.
Recent UNHRC sessions have adopted Cuban-sponsored resolutions antithetical to human rights, attacked Israel in one-sided condemnations, and turned a blind eye to abuses by the countries listed above. Despite some U.S.-led successes, the 47-nation council has not said a word or convened any urgent meetings to address the massive abuses recently perpetrated by Turkey and Egypt, or by terrorists in Nigeria and Iraq. As a rule, China, Cuba, Russia, Zimbabwe, and their friends always get a free pass.
UN Watch is already working with dissidents and NGOs from China, Cuba and Russia to oppose those candidacies. UN Watch successfully led international coalitions of MPs and NGOs to block past bids by Syria and Sudan. However, most abusers win election. "Politics, not principles, are too often what rule in UN elections," said Neuer.
"Candidates like Algeria, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia have one thing in common: they systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens," said Neuer, "and they have consistently voted the wrong way on UN initiatives to protect the human rights of others. Chad has child soldiers -- how can it be a candidate?"
"It's not only that these governments are unqualified; they are the ones who should be in the dock of the accused, not sitting on high as prosecutor and judge."
"It is an insult to their victims -- and a defeat for the global cause of human rights -- when the UN allows gross abusers to act as champions and global judges of human rights," said Neuer.
"When the U.N.'s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the world's victims suffer."
Quebec Disaster: Runaway Tanker Train Oil Originated in Bakken
Sabotage Suspected
The train that got loose and crashed into a Quebec forestry town was transporting crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken field to a refinery in New Brunswick, Canada.
Read more.
Energy pipeline proponents will try to use the disaster--the death toll is still rising as many people are unaccounted for and presumed to have been killed in the huge explosion caused by the derailment--to argue against train transportation of crude oil. But pipelines are costly and controversial; and long-distance truck transportation of crude oil is clearly uneconomical. So use of so-called unit trains--40 or more tanker cars hauled by an engine--will increase in the coming years. (Not for nothing did Warren Buffett buy a railroad.)
Decades of downgrading and neglect of America's rail infrastructure, however, have made freight terminals, in general, and rail-served fuel terminals, in particular, much more scarce. These assets are likely to rise in value as the country's energy landscape continues to shift rapidly, radically altering the ways in which domestically produced fuels are produced, processed, and distributed.
In the meantime, the deadly, mysterious crash--crude oil, though toxic, doesn't typically explode--will be cited by anti-oil activists as more proof that the fossil fuel on which the world still depends is dangerous, regardless of how it is transported. For them, the issue isn't pipelines or rail, or ocean freight, for that matter; rather, the issue is reducing dependence on oil, even if the supplies are produced at home or imported from a friendly nation, including a most friendly neighbor and ally--Canada.
Reuters reports:
Much is at stake: Oil by rail represents a small but important new source of revenue for big operators like Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd and Warren Buffett's BNSF, which have suffered a drop in coal cargo. It is also a flexible and cheaper option to more expensive European or African crude for refiners like Irving Oil, which confirmed on Sunday that the train was destined for its 300,000 bpd plant in Saint John, New Brunswick.
And for producers like Continental Resources Inc which have pioneered the development of the Bakken fields in North Dakota, railways now carry three-quarters of their production; new pipelines that can accommodate more oil are years away.
Saturday's train wreck may also play into the rancorous debate over the $5.3 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Midwest, which is hinging on President Barack Obama's decision later this year.
Monday, July 08, 2013
Muslim Brotherhood Calls for Islamist Insurrection
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which ascended to power with assistance from the Obama administration, called for an Islamist uprising in the wake of today's violence.
Read more.
The army can't back down; giving into MB demands would spell doom for Egypt's Christians and secular Muslims.
What Liberal Idiots of Appeasement of Radical Islam Don't Understand: What Happened in Egypt Was a Democratic Coup
Turkish Regime Becoming More Paranoid
Islamists Plan Probe of Financial Markets
Turkey's "moderate" Islamists are looking for enemies everywhere.
Posts
