The UN’s new-look Human Rights Council - don’t hold your breath

If a nation like Zimbabwe stood for election, even if every one of Freedom House’s 88 free nations opposed its candidacy, Robert Mugabe’s regime could still theoretically win a seat, because partly free and unfree nations together exceed the required threshold of 96.

Similarly, if a move was initiated to have Zimbabwe booted off the council, the 88 free democracies could not do so without the support of another 40 countries for whom human rights are less pressing.

Perhaps the only consolation of this provision lies in the fact that if one day, in a fit of indigestion or messianic fervour, people like Fidel Castro or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to get the US booted off the council, they too would need to find 128 votes to do so.

They would not likely succeed.

But they’ll still be cheering in Cairo and Beijing over another provision of the resolution that makes it impossible for any member to serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. At least one year in every seven, they’ll reckon, they can look forward to not being hectored in Geneva by the US

This enforced regular absence applies equally to repressive regimes and democracies.

But then, as Freedom House has pointed out, there are a lot more of them than there are of us.