AFP/Getty Images

There's no doubting the importance and urgency of economic development that meets the needs of the world’s poorest people without harming the planet. In fact, it may be one of the defining issues of our time. Which makes it all the more ridiculous that the world's most important body is handing over the chair of the U.N. Committee on Sustainable Development to ... Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

It's an African country's turn to head the rotating position, and Western efforts to block the appointment have thus been met with criticism by many African countries and rejected by the Zimbabwean delegation. Even if this committee weren't dealing with economic issues, the notion that today's Zimbabwe is fit to lead anything at the United Nations is somewhat ridiculous. But this is a country with 2,200 percent inflation, where the leadership is rationing electricity to four hours a day. That's less than in many parts of Iraq.

Inclusive opportunities for all the world's peoples and nations ought to be at the forefront of the U.N. mission. But so should principled and pragmatic leadership. Apparently the U.N. learned nothing from Sudan, Libya, and Cuba's embarrassing stints on the Human Rights Commission.