Geneva, July 2 – The United Nations General Assembly voted today to add the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to the UN Human Rights Council. The council is the world’s foremost international forum for the advocacy and protection of basic human rights and is made up of 47 member states, which are elected by the majority of members of the General Assembly of the United Nations through direct and secret ballot. The General Assembly takes into account the candidate states’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.
“We are delighted that ISIS, a new player on the international stage that has liberated great swaths of territory formerly living in terror under the oppression of violent and savage regimes, will be joining us in our efforts,” said Council president H. E. Baudelaire Ndong Ella. “We have all witnessed the advances in human rights in the areas under its control.”
ISIS, a jihadist Sunni ad hoc agglomeration of lands and peoples from Syria and Iraq assembled in the wake of the bloody internecine war in the former, and the inability of the army to take a stand in the face of invasion in the latter, has created tens of thousands of refugees from its area of control. It has been posting proud videos of decapitations and executions to the internet and has been applying strict Sharia law, such as cutting off the hands of supposed thieves. Its national symbol appears to be a pick-up truck with a machine gun mounted in the back and its stated goal is the recreation of the caliphate from Iraq to the Mediterranean, including Israel.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in March 2007, “All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action,” enshrining the high ideals to which the council has steadfastly adhered. More recently, Mr. Ban indicated that – while most council members had no knowledge of the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers near Hebron – at least he, for one, had indeed heard of the disappearances, but since the UN was not an investigatory body in regards to such matters, he was unable to confirm or deny that any abduction had actually taken place.
The mothers of the three teenagers had flown from Israel to attend the current (8th) HRC session and were given two minutes to make their presentation to the world and to request its help in freeing the boys. The 47 states’ representatives on the council were unmoved, determining that the supposed abduction of Jewish children hardly rose to the high level of noble concern expressed by Mr. Ban. No-one from the council approached the women afterwards to extend a hand in understanding.
Newly-installed ISIS representative Zeheeg He’ayl said ISIS was delighted and honored to be elected and to be entrusted with the protection of basic human rights worldwide. Dr. He’ayl, in his first official statement as a member state’s representative, also commented on the three mothers’ presentation, dismissing their concerns with a wave of his hand. “These people are not human. Why can they not live up to the ideals we practice in Syria and Iraq, where decapitation, mutilation, mass murder and indiscriminate destruction have led to a veritable Garden of Eden? The Israelis know nothing of human rights; if they did, they’d act more like us.”