DISGRACEFUL, USELESS UN REVIEWS CHINA

    The performance of the United Nations Human Rights Council in subjecting China to one of its periodic reviews in Geneva this week was everything critics have long pointed out about the UN system generally, and the UN’s human rights function specifically. It was a carnival of technocratic surrealism, polite uselessness and outrageous lies.
   When the day began, Canada’s contribution stood out not for its candour, but for its weirdness. While most western countries each submitted numerous advance questions on China’s human rights compliance that were fairly elaborate and detailed, touching on China’s multiplying and worsening outrages against several UN human rights charters and covenants, Canada submitted a single, one-sentence question. “What steps is China taking to grant equal marriage and family protections to LGBTI couples in its new Civil Code?”