An UN-welcome visit
Looks like the notorious UN Human Rights Council has taken a break from its constant bashing of Israel and is focusing on (ready for this?) housing violations in US cities, including New York.
You didn't know that "adequate housing" (whether you pay for it or not) was a universal human birthright?
Neither did we.
Nonetheless, the panel sent its "special rapporteur on adequate housing," Raquel Rolnik, on a whirlwind tour to sniff out these "violations" -- not to say, crimes -- against humanity.
Rolnik launched her US visit last week in the city and is also traveling to places like Chicago, New Orleans and South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
At issue: whether adequate housing is too hard to come by amid the economic downturn.
Never mind genocide in Darfur or, say, Tehran's crackdown on those who protest Iran's stolen June election. (Yesterday, the regime's "supreme leader" said just questioning the results is criminal).
Rolnik says her mission is to "hear the voices of those who are suffering" -- and she doesn't mean overtaxed, rent-controlled landlords struggling to pay their bills. Rather, she's decries "the reduction of the role of the state in housing."
Gee, why not just declare capitalism itself a war crime -- and be done with it?
Actually, since 2000, the UN has had a housing investigator looking into shortages in such obvious places as Cambodia, Kenya and Iran. (Notably, the first place visited was the Palestinian territories.)
But this is its first foray into US territory -- and it remains to be seen whether she'll call for Donald Trump and other landlords to be hauled before the International Criminal Court.
On the other hand, there is a perfect site for new "affordable housing": that patch of land along the East River that's been wasted for 60 years on the UN.
I've posted the whole editorial here but this is the tag line: Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!
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