Zimbabwe won approval last night to head a key United Nations body charged with promoting economic progress and environmental protection despite protests from the U.S., European nations and human rights organizations.
The approval was voted 26-21 with three abstentions by the 53-member U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development despite the fact that the government of President Robert Mugabe presides over one of the world's worst-performing economies...
Jennifer Windsor, executive director of the Washington-based human rights group Freedom House, called the Zimbabwe nomination "preposterous."
"The Mugabe government clearly has nothing but scorn for the U.N.'s founding principles of human rights, security and international law," she said. "But for it to preside over an institution examining ways toward sustainable development is particularly ludicrous."
Critics say the once-prosperous Zimbabwean economy has all but collapsed under Mr. Mugabe, who has been in power for more than a quarter-century...
Bookmarks