UN "Human Rights" Body Speaks With Forked Tongue

Beware of the UN's "human rights" palaver, writes NRO's Jacob Mchangama. Such Orwellian lingo is actually intended to camoflage a multitude of the UN's anti-liberty, anti-democracy sins:

To Americans, who are protected by the freedoms of the U.S. Constitution rather than by international human-rights conventions, the alarming developments at the U.N. may seem irrelevant. But despite the gross failures of the U.N. human-rights system, the language of international human rights still holds sway in many parts of the world. Governments, NGOs, activists, academics, and journalists often attach great weight to human-rights developments at the world body. Therefore, those who are able to shape the meaning of human rights have a powerful tool to advance political agendas that are quite opposed to individual freedom and protection against tyranny.

Already, human-rights language has started to degenerate into Newspeak where tolerance means censorship and freedom means more government. If this continues unopposed, America will find it increasingly difficult to advance the values of life, liberty, and property under the banner of human rights. Because to a German, an Indonesian, or a Kenyan, human rights is just as likely to mean the right to be given water and socialized medicine and to repress discussion with “hate speech” laws.