HRC collision

Three newsmakers share those initials:

Hillary Rodham Clinton

the Human Rights Campaign

and the UN’s Human Rights Council, about which the New York Sun’s Benny Avni has got something to say:

Secretary-General Ban challenged the U.N. Human Rights Council yesterday to “live up to its promise,” but diplomats and observers in Geneva predicted the rights body would fail once more to condemn violations in any country except Israel.

In its fourth session, which opened yesterday, members of the council are expected to reject adverse findings from a fact-finding mission to Sudan. The council has yet to decide whether any human rights violations have occurred in Darfur, although Washington has called the violence in the Sudanese region genocide.

The 47-member Geneva-based body has already singled out Israel for condemnation in eight resolutions and is preparing four new resolutions against the Jewish state in its current session.

Last week, America decided not to seek a seat on the council, a move seen in Geneva as a diplomatic slight intended to discredit the top human rights organ of the United Nations.