Russia and China were among the 14 nations to win seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council on November 12.

Their admission to the UN’s main human rights body—along with Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Cuba—unleashed a storm of criticism by some analysts who decry the new member nations’ atrocious human rights records at home. “It was like electing a pyromaniac as chief of the fire department,” one critic of Russia’s election said.

Another critic, global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch Peggy Hick, pointed out that Moscow and Beijing have refused to respond to 13 requests for visits by human rights inspectors to investigate alleged abuses in their countries. Some of these requests date all the way back to 2006. “They’re not allowing the very council they sit on to do its job effectively,” Hicks said. “China and Russia are powerful states that exercise their power in a way to influence others at the council, as well as make it very hard to engage on issues that they don’t want reviewed. … That Russia is able to run unopposed is a real travesty.”

As ridiculous as it is to place some of the world’s most notorious and unapologetic violators of human rights in charge of the UN’s Human Rights Council, it is far from the first time the organization has made such a childish decision.

Back in 2007, Iran—the defiant nation that brags about how it deceives the international community regarding its nuclear weapons program—was appointed vice chairman of the UN Disarmament Commission. Yes, that’s the same Iran that is the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism. The same year, Zimbabwe was elected chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development. That was just a few months before the climax of Zimbabwe’s astonishing hyperinflation crisis. That crisis culminated in the country printing a $100 trillion bank note. The bill said $100 trillion on it (that’s a one with 14 zeros) but within a few months after being printed, it was worth virtually nothing. Does that sound like the kind of country that should head up an international commission focused on making nations economically strong?

The list of ridiculous UN appointments and elections could go on. Since the organization is wracked by corruption, it has routinely given key positions to the most ludicrous candidates available.

The biggest failure by far though is that the UN has not accomplished its stated purpose: keeping the peace. From the UN’s inception in 1945 until early 2010, there have been 267 wars and over 3,000 other military conflicts. Almost as many people have been killed in all these altercations as died in World War ii itself.

One analyst recognized from the beginning that the UN would be, not just a failure at peacekeeping, but a catalyst to conflict. “Already I see the clouds of World War iii gathering at this conference,” theologian Herbert W. Armstrong said at the organization’s inaugural meeting in 1945. “I do not see peace being germinated here, but the seeds of the next war!”

In 1977, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The United Nations won’t be able to bring peace. The aggressor nations—and we are so gullible we never recognize them until after they plunge the world into another war—will go right on with their scheming and diabolical planning for world rule.”

Mr. Armstrong knew that the United Nations would not—could not—bring peace to this world. How did he know? By looking into God’s Word, which reveals the nature of man. The Apostle Paul said, “And the way of peace have they not known” (Romans 3:17). Mr. Armstrong learned, through the Bible, that peace would never come on the Earth by mankind; it could only be possible by Jesus Christ, upon His return with His world-ruling government to usher it in (Revelation 20:4-6; Isaiah 2:2-4; 9:6-7; 11:1-9).

The decision on November 12 to place Russia and China on the Human Rights Council shows that the UN has descended from a failure to a farce. It shows that mankind is further than ever from being able to solve its own problems. It shows that Mr. Armstrong’s analysis all those years ago was spot on.

To understand how Mr. Armstrong was able to accurately identify the true nature of the United Nations even from its inception, request a free copy of our booklet He Was Right.