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August 23, 2002 9:00 a.m. Human-Rights Charade Libya, leading the human-rights crusade at the U.N.

eadership of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights rotates regionally, and it's Africa's turn next year. Some observers figured that African governments would want to put their best foot forward, considering the fact that the Group of Eight industrial countries had agreed in June to promote the continent's economic development in return for progress on human rights, democracy, and corruption. It was called the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

The African countries chose to nominate Libya.

Name a human-rights violation, and it's likely to be practiced by the Qaddafi regime in Libya. Summary executions? Check. Execution of political prisoners? Check. Torture? Certainly, including but by no means limited to: "applying corkscrews to the back," "pouring lemon juice in open wounds," "suffocating with plastic bags," and "attacking with dogs" (to quote the U.S. State Department). There is also the small matter of the regime's history of terrorism.

Libya's foreign ministry issued this statement: "Libya is a country where the respect of human rights is enshrined. The security, political stability and economic prosperity enjoyed by Libya are the proof of its respect of human rights." In other words, being a one-party state is proof of a country's commitment to civil liberties.

Writing in Canada's National Post, Steven Edwards reports that U.S. officials are trying to get the African countries to reverse themselves. They are not, of course, warning them that development assistance is contingent on a reversal-these are American diplomats, after all. They are saying, instead, rather amorally and condescendingly, that Africa may have made the decision in good faith but "without perhaps really thinking about the ramifications and the reaction."

The State Department is, however, being bold on one front, calling for a change to the rotation system and for membership in the commission to require adherence to minimal human-rights standards. That policy would be quite a change for the commission. Its 53 members this year include China, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, the United States lost its membership on the commission, having evidently been deemed unworthy of such august company. We will be returning next year. We shouldn't be-especially if Libya prevails.