The chief of the UN Human Rights Council announced today that she has received “credible reports” that the Taliban may be summarily executing people in Afghanistan and committing other “serious violations.” For most of you who have been following the news, that probably comes as sort of a “dog bites man” headline, but it’s rather unusual when you consider that the council currently has China, Cuba, and Russia as members. (Alexey Navalny was unavailable for comment.) But if nothing else, it’s good to see that at least somebody at the UN has noticed the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Kabul. The real question is, what do they plan to do about it? Never fear. Michelle Bachelet wants to set up a group to “closely monitor” the actions of the Taliban. That should fix everything. (Reuters)

The top U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday that she had received credible reports of serious violations committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including summary executions of civilians and restrictions on women and on protests against their rule.

Michelle Bachelet gave no details of executions in her speech to the Human Rights Council, but urged the Geneva forum to set up a mechanism to closely monitor Taliban actions.

The Taliban treatment of women which would be “a fundamental red line”, she said.

Oh, good. The UN wants to declare a “fundamental red line” when it comes to the Taliban’s treatment of women. Because we all know how seriously the Taliban worries about its image in international circles and seeks to avoid controversy.

The curious thing about this emergency session was that it was called at the request of Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). You’ll recall that Pakistan, the nation that shielded Osasma bin Laden for years while we fought our way through Afghanistan looking for him, isn’t exactly a bastion of women’s rights or freedom itself. But is it possible that the Taliban has crossed so far over the line that other Islamic states are suddenly worried that they’re going to make everyone else look bad with their excesses and atrocities?

If anyone truly wants a seat at the table in the world’s major international organizations, they at least have to put on a show of caring about human rights, women’s rights and diversity. Even China sends a representative to talk up a good game while they quietly pursue genocide against the Uighers and lock up people in Hong Kong for the crime of speaking. So I suppose Pakistan feels the need to profess shock at finding executions taking place on the streets of Kabul or gambling in the casino.

It doesn’t appear that Ms. Bachelet is basing her comments on any sort of secret report that’s unavailable to the public. All of the atrocities she’s listing can be found by simply scanning the headlines at the Associated Press or Reuters. She spoke of insurgents going door-to-door with lists of names of people who cooperated with the Americans. We already knew that. She accused them of seizing property from individuals for their own use. Yep. We knew that too. Then there are the executions of course, for crimes as serious as refusing to cook dinner for their fighters.

All of this is horrible, but none of it is breaking news. So what will they do about it? Pakistan has already submitted a draft proposal for the council to consider. But if you want a hint about how serious they are, the draft report “does not mention the Taliban by name, nor would it set up a fact-finding mission to probe them.” One western diplomat speaking on background said that he was “disappointed” and had been “hoping for a stronger text.” So apparently the United Nations plans to deal with the Taliban by writing them a strongly worded letter. Perhaps they should pull in someone from our current State Department to help. They’re pretty good at the whole “strongly worded letter” thing these days.