Two years ago, the U.N. created the "Human Rights Council" to replace the erstwhile "Human Rights Commission." One of the instruments that the new body was given in order to overcome the glaring failings of its predecessor is the so-called country review. In the periodic reviews, the human rights record of each of the 192 U.N. member states is examined and recommendations are made for improvement. The review sessions are supposed to be marked not by the rich Western democracies making paternalistic and condescending reproaches against the world's most brutal governments and most notorious rogue states, but rather by a dialogue among equals. According to the fantasy vision of the body's founders, in such an atmosphere of mutual respect the spirit of tolerance and understanding will be able to thrive and, as if through the calming influence of successful group therapy, one country after another will take up its place in the candle-lit procession of human rights defenders.

In a session that took place earlier this month in the presence of Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, Switzerland was one of the first countries to undergo its examination. But the three-hour debate in the Palais de Nations in Geneva was anything but a shining example of the healing power of unconstrained discussion. Instead, the session more nearly resembled a sort of Kafkaesque theater of the absurd...

...Cuba demanded money: namely, an increase in development aid from 0.4 percent to 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Haiti's envoy wanted to know why ownership of firearms is more widespread among Swiss households than almost any place else in the world, whereas -- so he said -- at the same time the suicide rate among young people is very high. India criticized the lack of any law against slavery, and various other countries called on Switzerland to adopt a law against torture. Just why Switzerland of all countries would need a law against slavery remained something of a mystery...