A Table for Tyrants

Tomorrow the United Nations General Assembly will engage in just such an “election” when it votes to fill the vacancies on the 47-member Human Rights Council.Only 20 countries are running for 18 open seats. The seats are divided among the world’s five geographic regions and three of the five regions have presented the same number of candidates as there are seats, thus ensuring there is no opportunity to choose the best proponents of human rights each region has to offer.

Like the citizens of Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia, I know what it is like to live in a country where the state controls public discourse, suppresses opposition and severely curtails freedom of expression. It is thus doubly dismaying for me to see the willingness of democracies in Latin America and Asia to sit by and watch the council further lose its credibility and respect.

但是，中国广大的普通老百姓网民还是发挥了一定的作用的。这些草根一族形成了一股力量，这股力量也再要求政府有所改变。有人怕放开会乱了（这个有待考虑，但是这些人的论据是我国民素质不高，其实更加怕的是以前管得太紧，现在放开怕报复。如果高层说放，那么也得慢慢来，不是不来！）不管怎样乱了对谁都不好。一个和谐社会首先是稳定的，稳定在美国和我国都可以实现。