Not on our dime or time

It's human rights season at the U.N. and the latest idea to roll down the pike is the establishment of a gender-based rights entity. Currently there is nothing yet in place and the co-directors of AIDS-Free World released a position paper, Without Operational Capacity the New UN Entity for Women Will Not Succeed. Rough translation: if it doesn't exist, it cannot succeed. Pretty sound logic. The report makes the claim that "discrimination against women is the most widespread and intractable problem affecting humankind.”

Short of establishing this entity, the UN did itself proud on the womens' rights front by naming Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women. We won't pretend to know all the details of the machinations of UN, but this Commission would appear to be a pretty good jumping-off point for establishing an entity that would combat "discrimination against women..." Current membership excluded, of course.

But we digress, slightly...

While there are plenty of reasons to oppose the new gender super-agency at the UN, Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, just this week reiterated the Obama Administration’s support for “advancing the broad set of women’s issues through the UN system, including through the establishment of a robust, efficient, and effective entity to advance women’s issues and women’s rights.” Instead, the U.S. should continue to uphold the human rights for men, women, and children that are enshrined in the Constitution, and work to protect the rights of all vulnerable individuals worldwide through existing human rights institutions and treaties.

That entity already exists. It is known as the U.S. military which has been liberating men, women and children and allowing basic human rights to take hold the world over since the inception of our nation.

Thinking anything constructive with respect to human rights let alone women's rights will generate from within the UN is folly. The President would be well-served on the behalf of the country and women, in general, by dropping his support of any UN gender rights entity.