The principle that fundamental human rights are universal and not state-specific or culturally relative was enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN Human Rights Council, now reporting systematically on abuses in all the member states, has no power beyond its ability to shine a light on abuse. Resolutions vetoedRussia has made clear that western overreach in Libya in using R2P as a mandate for overthrowing Gadafy means it will veto future resolutions at the UN Security Council. Russia and China have jointly vetoed eight draft security council resolutions on Syria and Russia has independently vetoed a further six. A quarter century on from Srebrenica, the world has become painfully used to atrocities and not much better at preventing them.

Source: The Irish Times July 11, 2020 00:01 UTC