by Ebey Soman

Created on: August 22, 2008

Libya lead the UN Security Council? Is this some king of a Joke or is the world smoking some drug that i am not aware of? Libya is on the list of the few nations not qualified to lead any international organization and should fix its own problems before getting involved in world issues.

On August 2002, US State Department confirmed that Libya is pursuing means of production of biological weapons - a program that is banned by numerous UN and International laws. In fact the UN's official position on these weapons is that they are "illegitimate and inhumane weapons." So how can a nation developing such weapons be in charge of the UN security council?

Libya has a long shadowy history of supporting terrorism and has been on the list of state sponsor of terrorism for significantly numerous years during the past five decades. Its leader considers these groups are "downtrodden" so he has been actively supporting their cause. Libya has also terrorized its own people through torture, persecution of political opposition, suppression of workers rights, and arbitrary prison detainment of innocent people considered a threat to the state. In fact, Libya still has political prisoners in its jails from the 80s.

So when Libya was made the chair of the Human Rights Commission in 2003, it was a slap to the face for all Human Rights activists and organizations. One of the worst violator of Human Rights was put in charge of combating Human Rights violations throughout the world - and even worse, it was a Arab country that hated Israel. So as one can expect, Libya's most significant achievement in the Human Rights Commission was to pass over 30 resolutions condemning Israel for everything from the Palestinian issue to the attacks on Terrorist groups. Meanwhile, Sudan was experiencing a genocide in Darfur that Libya conveniently forgot to bring up in the Commission. But Sudan is not alone here. There was Burma, Sri Lanka, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other regions of the world that experienced Human Rights violations that Libya could not address because it was busy calling emergency sessions on Israel. Better yet, how can a nation that will not ratify the treaty on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography be the chair of this important committee?

Libyan Leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi uses his oil money to ensure that his country gets an important voice in the African Union and thus the reason for the country's nomination from the

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