Norm Coleman: ulterior motive for defunding UN Human Rights Council?

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is once again tilting at his favorite windmill, the United Nations. This time its the Human Rights Council. He wants to ban any further US contributions to the UN to go to the HRC which is a flip flop from his earlier position. To fully understand this, a little background is necessary: The United States left the island before it was voted off the island.

The decision announced today [4/7/06] was influenced in part, officials said, by concerns that the United States might have failed to win one of the seven seats reserved for Western governments. The United States has faced sharp criticism at the U.N. for alleged abuse of terrorism detainees. Meanwhile, Cuba and China, which have troubled human rights records, stand a strong chance of winning election to the council by secret ballot in May, according to senior U.S. and U.N. diplomats.
(WashPo)

President Bush saw the writing on the wall as a result of his pro-torture policies, but was urged to continue to stay involved by none other than Norm:

The debate over the proper U.S. role on the new council has also played out in Congress, where several leaders, including Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), have urged the administration to join what they see as an imperfect U.N. agency and improve it from within. "I think we should engage in the process," Hyde said in a March 27 news conference at the United Nations. "It is the best that's available and you do what you can do with what you have at hand."
(WashPo)

2007 members of the HRC are Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Czech Republic, and Poland, Argentina, Ecuador, Finland and the Netherlands. Last year, Sudan was a member despite the genocide occurring within their country. Has the HRC acted on anything since it was reconstituted in 2006?

"We represent the conscience of humanity." That would be the perfect mission statement for a human rights organization. Chisel it in stone above the dais where the group gathers.

Members can speak in the words' august shadow, forever reminded of a need to represent those who endure oppression and torture, who fall victim to brutality and murder. Yet when those words actually were spoken before a human rights group last year, they inspired no one.

That's because they were uttered on behalf of Sudan, where ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, slavery and genocide have killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

A Sudanese representative made the remarks to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which last month celebrated its first anniversary.

Amid much fanfare about reform at the United Nations, the council replaced the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which was widely regarded as a den of dictators, terrorism sponsors and rights abusers interested in hiding their own crimes and singling out Israel for condemnation.

After a year, what's changed? Only the name. The dictators, terrorism sponsors and rights abusers remain.
(KansasCity.com)

Apparently not. The criticism is legitimate, the HRC has done nothing in its first year. So Norm decides to leap astride his Rocinante grabs a golf club as his lance and storms the UN:

"No one anticipated that within one year it would be possible to gut the intended agenda of the council and make a mockery of its stated purpose on the scale that the Human Rights Council has managed to do," says U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
(KansasCity.com)

Is it ironic that Norm a loyal supporter of a President who has gutted the rule of law and promoted torture as a policy of the US, would criticize the HRC? Upon what moral ground can Norm stand? If Norm is so concerned about human rights, why didn't he investigate Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo when he was Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations? Obviously, that's because he wouldn't do anything to call out the Bush Administration bad behavior.

The Human Rights Watch, an organization whose opinion I trust, advocates demanding accountability and continuing involvement to make the HRC more effective.

The United Nations Human Rights Council was former Secretary General Kofi Annan’s dream child: a new, stronger institution to replace the much-maligned Commission on Human Rights, where human rights would be treated as the UN’s “third pillar” along with security and development.

Putting the council on track requires building a working coalition of states that put allegiance to the cause of human rights above the need for regional consensus and the desire to avoid offense.

But the new council has had a rocky first year, which ended at midnight on Monday night when members agreed to a package of institution-building measures.

In its first year, the council shied away from taking action on most human rights crises, dropped its scrutiny of Iran and Uzbekistan, and managed to condemn Israel’s human rights record without addressing violations by Hezbollah and Palestinian armed groups.

That disappointing record, however, should spur concerned governments into greater engagement rather than to write the council off.
(Human Rights Watch)

So knowing that the US has ruined its international reputation, maybe Norm is trying to provide cover by going on the attack to defund the HRC. Maybe its along the good 'ole "Clinton did it, too" in that they can try and claim that the HRC is as morally filthy as the Bush Administration and thus must be left off the hook.

Maybe Norm is looking for cover for himself. There are so many instances where Norm could have provided oversight that tilting at the UN might be the way he can claim to be for accountability. If so, that's pretty weak. Here's the oversight he failed to do as Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations:

• the Intel reports on WMD's
• Halliburton's excess millions in overcharges
• the Jessica Lynch coverup
• the Pat Tillman coverup
• the production problems for MRAP vehicles
• the Valerie Plame leak
• the secret wiretapping program
• Abu Ghraib
• Guantanomo
• loss of Habeas Corpus
• anything about Dick Cheney