Britain’s Daily Express reports that the UN Human Rights council has identified the British Monarchy as a threat to human rights, saying that the UK must “consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican.” This from a council with members that include Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and Sri Lanka.

Perhaps it’s a step forward that countries like Cuba and Saudi Arabia are demonstrating republican tendencies (small-r republicanism, which advocates an elected head of state). Call me cynical, but I consider this doubtful.

It’s difficult to take this UN Human Rights Council recommendation seriously. This (supposedly) earnest suggestion from the august body reads like a punch line for a Leslie Nielsen spoof film (a la Airplane!). In a world fraught with the palpable evils of tyranny and genocide, our friends at the UN have zeroed in on Elizabeth II as the problem.

Or perhaps, after 232 years, the bureaucrats at the UN have finally discovered the writings of the US founding fathers, learning how George III and his parliament harassed us with their illegal taxes (the Townsend Act, the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, and the Tea Act) while seizing our ships, blockaded our ports, burning our towns, and spilling our blood.

It would have been great to have had these guys at the UN on board in the 18th century. Three centuries later, their efforts are certainly too little, too late. Maybe their next report will recommend that the UK pay the United States reparations.