Tuesday, December 11, 2012

U.N. Human Rights Council Elects Country Where Slavery Exists to Leadership Post

I mean... what else can you say about the UN?
(CNSNews.com) – The U.N.’s top human rights body marked Human Rights Day on Monday by electing three countries with poor human rights records as vice presidents for the coming year – including one of the last remaining countries where slavery exists. [...]

According to U.N. Watch, a non-governmental organization that monitors the HRC, none of the democracies on the HRC had “said a word about the election of Mauritania or Ecuador.” [...]

Ruled by a former military coup leader, Mauritania is a North African Islamic state where conversion to another faith is punishable by death. The country’s criminal code provides for a three-day period of reflection and repentance for any Muslim found guilty of apostasy. “If he does not repent within this time limit,” it states, “he is to be condemned to death as an apostate and his property will be confiscated by the Treasury.”

Homosexual acts also carry the death penalty in Mauritania.

Slavery of black Africans has been rooted in Mauritanian society for centuries According to activists, up to 18 percent of the population may still be in slavery today.

Female genital mutilation is formally illegal but “widely practiced,” according to Freedom House. Mauritania was listed in 122nd place (out of 135) in a recent World Economic Forum report on the gap between women and men in economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

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