The UN, Human Rights and Israel

The follow-up World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) began this week in Geneva.   After failing to eliminate problematic language from the proposed final statement, the United States joined Canada, Israel and a host of other countries in boycotting the conference.  And, the opening day harangue by Iranian President Ahmadinejad made a mockery of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's efforts to avoid a repeat of the excesses that characterized the 2001 WCAR conference in Durban.

For many Jewish organizations, the WCAR conference reinforces a hostile perception of the United Nations' role as a neutral protector of human rights.  As in many UN confabs, Israel will be singled out for criticism in a manner that turns on its head the principles and values that motivated the formation of the United Nations in the aftermath of World War II.  And yet, I want to make a plea that those who care about both human rights and Israel should not write off the UN human rights system completely.

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