Monday’s Colorful Quote

The first two and a half days at the ongoing Human Rights Council session are its “High Level Segment,” speeches by the foreign affairs and other ministers who come to Geneva from far and wide for the occasion. These speeches usually are quite bland and polite, but sometimes there are fireworks. Yesterday’s colorful quote came from the Cuban Ambassador to Geneva, who accused Sweden–that notorious human rights violator!–of “carry[ing] out ethnic cleansing that only allows those whose skin and hair color fit with the racial patterns of former Viking conquerors to remain in the country.” This was prompted by the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, including Cuba on a list of the country situations that Sweden would like to see the Council consider.