Buying Friends

An email from UN Watch brings an unpleasant revelation. A recent UN cmte. vote approved a censure of Iran's civil rights violations by a very narrow margin. Iran's motion to take no action on the censure lost by a margin of 10 votes out of 180.
A plenary vote on the censure is expected in December.

The Ottawa Citizen [background info.] lists the Canadian aid recipients who voted with Iran against the Canadian sponsored censure.

• Bangladesh
• Indonesia
• Mali
• Senegal
• Kenya
• Sri Lanka
• Vietnam
• Pakistan
• Zambia
• Malawi
• Bolivia
• Cambodia
• Nicaragua

Two CIDA partners, Honduras and Ukraine voted with Canada. Wealthy Western nations might do well to consider this and other votes on human rights related issues when allocating foreign aid.