Shameless Chavez

I'm full of righteous anger now thanks to the HRC (see below) and the revision I'm mired in on mass sexual violence (cheery). But this gave me some light relief* - Chavez has taken over the Venezualan airwaves for a whole 4 days. You've got to admire his bravado, if nothing else...

*(although obviously in Venezuala you might get locked up for openly laughing at the President)

A sick joke

The UN Human Rights Council has really disgraced itself now, in failing to call for an investigation into the clear and large-scale human rights abuses committed in Sri Lanka (by both sides). In doing so, it ignored an impassioned but very reasonable plea submitted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In contrast, the resulting resolution reads like a hearty slap on the back for the Sri Lankan government:

Acknowledging the continued engagement of the Government of Sri Lanka in regularly and transparently briefing and updating the Council on the human rights situation on the ground and the measures taken in that regard [This is the same government that has denied full access to aid agencies and journalists, and has accused The Times of faking photos taken above the combat zone].

...Welcomes the continued commitment of Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of all human rights and encourages it to continue to uphold its human rights obligations and the norms of international human rights law...

As Amnesty International has said, it genuinely makes a mockery of the HRC.

Good article on this from former UK ambassador to the UN David Hannay. [The UK voted against the resolution, thankfully.]

On cultural relativism

I'm up to my ears in theories of cultural relativism, thanks to revision for my upcoming 'Human Rights of Women' and 'International Political Theory' exams.

Anyway, here are a couple of interesting (albeit not necessarily ground-breaking) recent contributions to the debate:

• Oliver Kamm in The Times
• Clive James' Point of View on Radio 4. You can read or listen.
• The Pamela Bone article he refers to is here. I love the cartoon that accompanies it:

A damn shame

Vaclav Havel op-ed on the supposedly 'reformed' Human Rights Council...

Bilderberg

Excellent gonzo dispatches from Charlie Skelton in Bilderberg (allegedly the site of secret annual meeting of the world's puppetmasters...and George Osborne).