The United Nations is again revealing its incompetence—as well as its staunch commitment to making grotesque political statements rather than trying to actually solve problems. On May 11, Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe was crowned the new chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

Yes, the main UN body governing international environmental policy and sustainable economic development is now headed by a nation that—under Mugabe’s singularly destructive despotism—has plummeted from prosperity into ruin in a generation.

The ridiculous decision demonstrates an in-your-face defiance among African nations toward Mugabe’s detractors in the West. Under UN rotational rules it was Africa’s turn to choose the head of the commission—and African governments chose Zimbabwe by a 26-21 margin, with three abstentions.

A Washington Times editorial read,

Zimbabwe is a country where, two years ago, the government made refugees of approximately 1.5 million of its citizens in “Operation Clear the Trash,” which bulldozed “unlawful” town and cities. This is a country where potatoes are a “strategic crop.” This is a country whose opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is arrested repeatedly and beaten by regime forces for the “crime” of speaking out and holding political rallies. Now, this regime’s representatives are entrusted with an organization whose inspiring principles include the following: “Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development.”

Ian Pearson, the British minister for Climate Change and the Environment, aptly said, “Zimbabwe’s election will be seen as an outrage by millions of people who look to the United Nations for help to escape from poverty.”

This is by no means the UN’s first farcical commission appointment. In fact, it was only April 9 that the United Nations Disarmament Commission reelected, as its recording secretary, Syria—and to the senior office of vice chairman, that exemplar of disarmament, Iran.

The UN, built on a mandate of peace, is at its core deceitful, greedy, and crippled by the evil influence of human nature. Its design as an international authority to keep peace between national governments has been a spectacular failure. Read “The Corruption of the United Nations” to understand the cause of this failure and its solution.