Discrediting Falk to bolster a dependent impunity

Richard Falk has long been deemed controversial in circles conforming to imperialist policies. Vilified for contradicting mainstream propaganda emanating from organisations allegedly concerned with human rights, Falk’s latest report about the Palestinian territories has ignited a call for his resignation, this time from the US.
 
Calling the report provocative and offensive, the US representative to the UN Human Rights Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, echoes a previous report by the council campaigning for Falk’s resignation. The report is ostensibly “guided” by the human rights charters and declarations which the organisation is so fond of quoting, albeit within strict, selective criteria.

Ranging from accusations of allegedly supporting anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, his critics insist that Falk’s duties have been compromised by him “committing systematic violations of his duties”.

In the absence of any formal process of accountability for NGOs affiliated to the UN, criticism has deviated in order to focus upon the image of a “controversial” Rapporteur, thus absolving organisations and the international community from their intentional alienation. The vehement accusations are centred upon the organisation’s alleged independence, insisting that an investigation into its role would undermine the foundations upon which the UN was built.

Mainstream history of the UN can be challenged by an alternative approach which discerns an imperialist trend of power seeking to control the international arena while exploiting the issue of human rights. From Jack Donnelly to Guglielmo Verdirame, the issue of human rights and the role of the UN has been a source of unflattering discussion, with the authors having gleaned trends of manipulation within human rights discourse. With human rights descending into the squalor of a bargaining tool, powerful countries constructed a false legitimacy through which their actions are enshrined within the realm of impunity. When applied to the UN, the combination of impunity and submission creates a complex issue of complicity in which human rights become a catchphrase for the illusion of human dignity.

Rather than attacks regarding a purported defamation of UNHRC, it might be pertinent to ask why international organisations are so reluctant to address Israel’s constant contempt for international law and ongoing human rights violations. Falk’s recent report has highlighted facts which activists around the world have taken up as their cause – solidarity and resistance against an illegal occupation which maintains its underserved equilibrium and legitimacy courtesy of the complicity between powerful states and the dynamics of violence.

Falk’s report commences with the words “once again”, an exhausted reminder that, despite recurring news of human rights violations against Palestinians, protecting rights according to the foundations of the UN has amounted to nothing but negligible discourse which exhibits the dependence of the organisation upon imperialism. While organisations may well applaud the insistence for Falk’s resignation, it is unlikely that the same shallow sentiments will echo in the activist realm. Any attempt to discredit a voice which has campaigned tirelessly for the international community to recognise its leniency in allowing Israel to maintain its oppressive culture will resonate solely within the same circles thriving upon dependency and impunity.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.