Monday, February 06, 2006

Our New Allies on Civil Rights

Here's a list of our new allies in Human Rights:

Cameroon, China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe

Of our new allies, not a single one is even "partly free" according to Freedom House.

Our new allies joined the US in blocking gay and lesbian NGOs from serving on a UN panel specifically designed to hear from NGOs, "The U.N. panel is a think tank of nongovernmental agencies from around the world." Congressman Barney Frank, openly gay, seemed to be very disappointed in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Chile, Peru and Romania were among those who voted for inclusion, while the United States did not. Wow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whats wrong with Romania?

Ryan said...

Not very much, Freedom House has them listed at 2 and 3 for civil and political freedom (which means they're considered free).

However, most of the west is at 1 and 1, so obviously there's room for some improvement. My only point in mentioning Romania was that America is supposed to be the bastion of freedom... and here is a relatively new democracy that took a more enlightened position than the US.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if there was a limited number of seats on the panel and the US blocked g&l NGO's in favor of inclusion of one we was more important to seat. If not, and there was unlimited seats, I think it would be kinda dumb to not let them on.

In any case, I think calling Iran, Cuba, and Pakistan American allies in any context is out and out false.

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