As anti-regime protestors are gunned down and arrested daily on the streets of its main towns and cities, the happy news is that Syria has applied to join the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. Elections will be held in May 2011, and those nations selected will serve till 2014. The formal application would make for amusing reading if so many people were not dying at the hands of a regime that clearly has no concept of, nor cares for, the notion of human rights. It contains swathes of voluntary pledges and commitments that would make anyone familiar with the way in which the Syrian Arab Republic is run unsure whether to laugh or cry.

The five-page document makes some breathtaking claims. It says that Syria has “worked consistently on advancing the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This is at best delusional, at worst a lie. It goes on to say that the “promotion and protection of human rights are of highest importance to Syria,” another flabbergasting assertion, and that “Syria’s candidature to the Human Rights Council signifies its commitment to respect and to support the inalienable and indivisible nature of all human rights, both on the national and international levels.”

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