EDITORIAL: United Nations hypocrisy is a shame to democracy

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The war between Israel and Hamas is underscoring the hypocrisy of the United Nations and its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The UN is one-sided in its criticism of Israel and its refusal to condemn Hamas. This was apparent last week when Canada called for an amendment to a draft resolution calling for a temporary pause in hostilities and was shot down.

Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, put forward an amendment that would have called out Hamas for its vicious Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. This country, along with 45 other nations, abstained from voting.

This is part of a pattern of bias.

This week, Iran was appointed to chair the UN Human Rights Commission. Yes, that Iran. The one with a record of state-sponsored torture and executions and where women’s rights are severely restricted. And in March, Saudi Arabia was elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women for a four-year term. The UN appointments give legitimacy to those regimes.

Why is Russia, which last year attacked its democratic neighbour, a permanent member of the UN Security Council? Ditto China, which recently arbitrarily imprisoned two Canadians — and the UN did nothing.

Last week, Guterres was cozying up to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He attended the Belt and Road Initiative Forum, praising China’s infrastructure investments around the world. Many impartial observers see it as a way to ensnare poor countries in Africa and the Caribbean in the Chinese orbit of influence by building costly infrastructure. It’s a debt that will cost those countries their independence in the future. In a gushing speech praising China, Guterres made reference to the Mideast war,  blaming Israel for bombing a hospital in Gaza — a claim that later proved false. Why was the head of the UN so eager to take sides before the evidence was in?

Frontline UN workers do good work bringing humanitarian aid to stricken countries. Its leadership is an embarrassment to the free world.