China, Human Rights Exemplar

I come not to bury Philonese Floyd, the brother of the late George Floyd, but to praise him.  It would be foolish to neglect an opportunity to turn an organization’s hypocrisy to your advantage.  Thus, on June 17 Philonese Floyd "made a dramatic appeal to the United Nations" when he

addressed a special meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland via video address, telling the assembled diplomats “my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America.”

“I am my brother’s keeper” Floyd continued. “You in the United Nations are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. I am asking you to help me get justice.”

The special session was held after 54 African countries called for a discussion on the “current racially inspired human rights violations, systematic racism, police brutality against people of African descent and violence against peaceful protests” in the United States. The two-day debate will continue tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET, after which the Council’s 47 members will vote on whether to establish an independent inquiry into U.S. racism and police brutality.

"Tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America," he says, more eager for vengeance than justice. Consequently, Floyd went to the right place given the composition and objectives of the UN Human Rights Council. From a Canadian lawyer and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Rights Watch:

No joke: last summer 50 U.N. Human Rights Council reps PRAISED China for locking up 1 million Muslims:
🇵🇸 State of Palestine
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇰🇵 North Korea
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
🇻🇪 Venezuela
🇨🇩 DR Congo
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇧🇮 Burundi
🇩🇿 Algeria
🇷🇺 Russia
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇸🇾 Syria
🇮🇷 Iran
🇮🇶 Iraq
...
READ: pic.twitter.com/ptSfmLOdIP

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 29, 2020

It's hard to believe these- or any- countries- would praise the internment camps Beijing places Uighurs into. As revealed in February, 2020

A leaked government document indicated that a Uighur may have been arrested and detained, indefinitely if a) a religious figure: b) an individual with no official religious duties but with religious knowledge; c) an individual who went on a pilgrimage to Mecca; d) person who has been through re-education; e) man who has worn a beard; f) woman who has worn a veil; g) person who works long-term outside of his/her home region or has sold his property and left the region; g) an individual with unknown whereabouts; or h) any person "in need of re-education," whatever that might entail.

The document released includes a memo with orders to:

"Never allow escapes"

"Increase discipline and punishment of behavioural violations"

"Promote repentance and confession"

"Make remedial Mandarin studies the top priority"

"Encourage students to truly transform"

"[Ensure] full video surveillance coverage of dormitories and classrooms free of blind spots"

It appears that the UNHRC, from which the USA withdrew last year, has taken no official action on the request from Philonese Floyd and some of the most brutal regimes in the world to investigate American racism. This oversight is remarkable- an opportunity missed for the UN Human Rights Council to display the hypocrisy it wallows in.

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