EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

No reward for abuses

The United Nations Human Rights Council is once again up to its old tricks of enabling dictators and winking at their violent abuses.

This time, the most favoured nation of the supposed human rights monitors is Syria. The regime of Bashar al-Assad has recently killed more than 700 citizens who criticised the ruler in their streets, and hundreds of others have ''disappeared''. Tanks have rolled into cities where Mr Assad believed Syrians were organising protests against his rule. In the meantime, the UNHRC is preparing for an ''election'' in about two weeks where Syria will be welcomed as a full member. This matters even more than usual, because the chairman of the UNHRC is Thailand.

The human rights division of the United Nations has long served the dictators and military juntas of the world. The people who have lost their human rights have rarely got a look from the body. Several years back, the group became so ludicrously pro-dictator that the UN itself dissolved it, and created the UNHRC. The idea was to keep the most dreadful abusers off the council _ Burma, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc _ while suffering the occasional milder torturer. Of course, it never works out that way, as Mr Assad is currently demonstrating.

He convinced many he was a reformer, but he is the same old violent dictator that his father was.

One of the main problems is that members of the UNHRC are not actually elected. They are selected by region, on a basis of nothing more than whose turn it is. Thailand had the temerity to actually run for a position on the council twice, and was soundly defeated both times. In 2009, it became the country's turn to take a three-year seat, and the ''election'' was a foregone conclusion. It is all as democratic and accountable as, well, an election in Syria.

This year is Syria's ''turn'' to be named to the UN body charged with monitoring human rights around the world. The country has been strongly endorsed by the Arab League, which should be ashamed of bestowing such an honour on such a violent and abusive regime as that of Mr Assad. And since the Asian region backs Syria as a member, the rest of the UNHRC will blindly follow.

That includes the chairman of the group, Thailand. Since becoming the chair of the UNHRC nearly a year ago, Thailand has yet to go on record to question any country over its human rights actions or abuses. Last month, Thailand as a member of the UNHRC strongly approved a laudatory report on the dedication to human rights of Libya. Burma last year told the UNHRC it ''has now reached the final stages of its transition to democracy''. Thailand signed a report that ''supported [Burma's] democratisation and national reconciliation processes''. Under Thai guidance, the UN body wrote that Laos needs to keep up the splendid work in education, its fight against poverty and the continuous advances in human rights.

This is not to say that the UNHRC has totally ignored its duty to investigate countries. It has scheduled a meeting to review the human rights situation in Syria. The hearing will be held on Oct 7 and last three hours.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has denounced the Syrian regime for killing hundreds, but refuses to intervene in the UNHRC process. It was only a month ago that the Human Rights Council was about to sign off on a report lauding Libya for its adherence to high principles. There is simply no way that Syria deserves the honour of a seat on the UNHRC, and Thailand should be taking strong, public steps to stop it.