Lowering the Bar:

Disdain for Human Rights Is Spreading Across the US and Beyond

Rasa - Disregard for human rights is a disease, and it is a disease that is spreading fast, that’s according to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

News ID: 427764

Date: 28 February 2017 - 23:33

RNA - In a keynote address at the Human Rights Council on Monday, he said, “We are increasingly seeing the perverse phenomenon of populism and extremism feeding off each other in a frenzy of growing racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred, and other forms of intolerance.”

But coming from a world body that has no intention to condemn the US administration for declaring "Islam" the enemy, encouraging and championing global white nationalists, and taking steps to ban entry to people from Muslim countries that are not part of the White House pool, Guterres’ words ring hollow:

There is now a growing intolerance in the US and Europe towards Muslim immigrants and despairing refugees, as far-right figures and White Supremacists such as President Donald Trump gain power and prey upon the most vulnerable. It is here that the rights of migrants and refugees come under attack day in day out. It is also here that the Trump administration bars refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries in a sweeping travel ban.

Make no mistake, there will undoubtedly be others, as many far-right European governments will soon follow suit. They will help the Trumpsters to make the world "darker" and "more unstable.” They are also partly to blame due to the nationalistic thread that runs through their countries in addition to their failure to explicitly condemn the hateful acts and stop supporting Washington in its wars against the Muslim world.

Rightly or wrongly, the most vicious anti-Muslim currents in Europe and America are looking President Trump and his administration as a racist, nationalistic movement granting them permission to attack Muslims, Muslim institutions, and sacred Muslim sites. This adversely affects the states' residents in areas of employment, education, business, family relations and freedom to travel. Despite the wave of anti-Muslim violence and threats, they have only offered vague condemnation, while at the same time elevating individuals, politicians and rhetoric seen by many as divisive and inflammatory.

They are using trickery, deception, and stealth as complements to brute force. Disguising the real impetus behind these executive orders, the far-right governments and groups turn to sky-is-falling psychological mind games, warning their citizens that these steps are necessary to protect the public from dire threats. The Islamophobia-nurturing Muslim travel ban is deceitfully presented as an essential counter-terrorism measure. Immigration raids are defended with the fiction that Muslim immigrants are “bad hombres” and that the refugees are a drain on limited public resources.

The purpose of these appeals and manipulative psychological ploys is simple: To short-circuit the public’s critical reasoning; blame Muslims for everything that has gone wrong, overwhelm them with emotions of fear and dread; and thereby garner either their active support or acquiescence for further restrictions and wars against Muslim immigrants, Muslim refugees, and Muslim countries.

Far more disturbing is that the UN chief says all these harms and violations against human rights and the Human Rights Law are significant and ongoing. But he cannot just say this is not our fault. UN’s slow and inadequate responses can make it partly their fault. The world body must do more than belatedly condemn these anti-Muslim measures at the West. It must act to prevent it as if all humanity were at stake.

True, the Human Rights Council must be part of the cure, but it won’t be. More specifically, it cannot be. As previously, it will sit idly by, because the Security Council and the Human Rights Council are being controlled by the United States, Britain, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. These regimes threaten the multilateral system and intend to withdraw from parts of it. The Trump administration is even considering pulling out of the Human Rights Council over its stance on Israel!

It’s a wake-up call for the world body. By failing to do anything about Washington’s Muslim ban and regime-change wars, a sharply divided UN continues to demonstrate that it cannot be trusted as a podium for international justice and human rights. Instead, it has become an instrument for some members to further their political will in international politics. They put forward a draft resolution whenever their interests are jeopardized and pressure other members to vote for it. At the same time, they veto the resolutions in which their interests or the interests of their allies are endangered.

Secretary General Guterres should not be satisfied with complaining about this sorry state of affairs. Criticism alone is not the cure for this growing "disease". The Human Rights Council and the Security Council both need reforms and the UN chief should help make that happen. They should never be allowed to pursue the interests of some undemocratic discriminates, which are never interested in fairness, justice, political integrity, or human rights.

The United Nations still has the potential for valid exercise of discourse and diplomacy. The overhaul must include streamlined working methods and a more representative membership that reflects geopolitical realities and interests; else, calls for respecting human rights will continue to go unheeded.

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