Global Research

The gloves came off, revealing the iron fist in the velvet glove of U.S. obfuscation condemning innumerable countries for abuse of human rights;  a recorded vote was required on December 18, exposing which countries actually vote in support of UN resolutions protecting human rights, and which country (countries) hold human rights in contempt.

On:  “The Right to Food,” only the U.S. and Israel voted “No.”  188 other countries, including the DPRK, Russia, China, Cuba, Russia, Syria, etc., voted “Yes.”

On:  “Opposing The Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination”  the U.S. and most of the EU voted “No,” while 130 countries, including the DPRK, Russia, China, etc. voted “Yes.”

On:  “The Rights of the Child,” the U.S. and 9 other countries voted “No.”  138 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Russia, Cuba.

On:  “Combating Glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute to Fueling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” the US voted “No” together with Ukraine.  133 other countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, China, Russia, Syria, Zimbabwe, etc.  The EU abstained.

On: “Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order” the U.S. voted “No,” along with 52 other countries, largely EU.   128 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Russia, China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, etc.

On:  “Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the Twenty-Fourth Special  Session of the General Assembly,” the U.S. voted “No,” together with Israel.  186 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, China, Russia, Venezuela, etc.

On:  “Human Rights and Cultural Diversity”  the U.S. voted “No, along with 55 other countries, largely EU, and 136 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, China, Russia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, etc.

On:  “Promotion of Equitable Geographical Distribution in the Members of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies” the U.S. voted “No,” along with 51 other countries, mostly EU, and 134 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Russia, China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, etc.

On:  “A Global Call for Concrete Action for the Elimination of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and the Comprehensive Implementation of and Follow-Up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action,” the U.S. voted “No,” together with 8 other nations, 135 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Venezuela, Russia, China, Cuba, Syria, Nicaragua, etc.  43 countries abstained, primarily the EU.

On:  “The Right to Development” the U.S. voted “No,” along with 23 other countries, mostly EU, while 138 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, China, Russia, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, etc.

On:  “Policies and Programmes Involving Youth, the U.S. voted “No,” along with 14 other countries, while 138 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Venezuela, Cuba, etc.

On:  “Human Rights and Opposing Unilateral Coercive Measures,” the U.S. voted “No,” along with 54 other countries, mostly EU, while 135 other countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, China, Russia, etc.

On “The Right of the Palestinian People to Self-Determination” the U.S. voted “No,” together with Micronesia, Nauru, Israel.  167 countries voted “Yes,” including DPRK, Russia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, China, etc.

When it was a question of the “Country-Specific” resolutions of the Third Committee, which are detested by many countries, as these generally unbalanced  one-sided resolutions are  conspicuous for their double standard, and used and abused for biased, politically motivated and repressive purposes, the U.S. enthusiastically voted “Yes” on each and every one, despite principled protest by a large number of states.   These resolutions demonize the nations independent of Western, and especially U.S. control.

These country-specific resolutions included:  “Situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” for which the U.S. voted “Yes,” along with 105 other countries, with 57 abstentions and 15 “no” votes, including DPRK, China, Russia, Venezuela Zimbabwe, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc.

A similar outcome obtained with the resolution:  “Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” With the U.S. voting “Yes,” along with 80 other nations, 70 countries abstained, and 30 countries voted “No,” including DPRK, Russia, China, Venezuela, Zimbabwe Nicaragua, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, etc.

The resolution “Situation of Human Rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, Ukraine,” of course demonizes Russia, which, at this neo-McCarthyite period of Western history serves as the convenient whipping-boy upon which blame is heaped for all the failings and crimes of the capitalist countries (although ascendant China is beginning to share Russia’s dubious distinction).  The U.S. predictably (undoubtedly the driving force for this resolution) voted “Yes,” along with 65 other countries, 83 countries abstained, and 23 countries voted “No,” including the DPRK, China, Russia, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, etc.

The resolution so damning of the DPRK was “adopted by consensus,” which can be explained by the fact that many countries entirely dis-associated themselves from the resolution, making possible the “consensus” of the remaining ones.

Whatever the sanctimonious rhetoric the U.S.  spews forth in its tirades regarding “human rights” at the U.N. Security Council, its actual contempt for universal enjoyment of human rights is revealed in these votes rejecting almost every resolution guaranteeing protection of human rights for every human being on the planet. Ultimately, property is the paramount concern, and property concentrated in the control of the miniscule number of oligarchs who now possess more wealth than over half the human species in the world.  These oligarchs are the only humans who have rights, primarily the right to dictate the course of the lives of the majority of people who inhabit the globe, who now endure a condition very similar to the slavery which was theoretically abolished in the recent past.  The majority of human beings have, in reality, no power, and no rights.  This was revealed in the December 18 vote, as it is daily revealed by the vastly increasing numbers of the homeless, the starving, and the slaughtered in the capitalist “paradise” which Donald Trump promised Kim Jong Un.

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Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. She is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is from National Review