ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates South Africa’s poor and hypocritical record on addressing severe human rights problems in specific countries at the UN Human Rights Council. It begins with a discussion of South Africa’s support for initiatives to weaken the UN’s human rights investigative system, the special procedures. Next is demonstrated South Africa’s very strong support for the Council’s tough and biased action on Israel. South Africa’s treatment of Israel is the exception. When it comes to Council involvement in the human rights problems in other countries, South Africa’s actions range from remaining on the sidelines to protecting rights-abusing regimes, as will be shown through the cases of Belarus, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.
