With hearings to be held in Geneva next week by the UN Human Rights Council inquiry into the Israel-Gaza war, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, it is interesting to recall that former UN rights chief Mary Robinson, as well as former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, were among the many international personalities that refused U.N. offers to head the mission. Continue reading ‘Why Mary Robinson rejected the mandate accepted by Judge Goldstone’
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The U.N. Human Rights Council’s “fact-finding mission” on Gaza will next week hold hearings in Geneva, Judge Goldstone presiding. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz makes a powerful case that the one-sided mandate established by the Arab-controlled council turns the inquiry into a kangaroo court.
Meanwhile, the U.N. appears to be tightly controlling the witness list. With only 6 days left, no information has been published for how witnesses can register. UN Watch’s repeated queries to the mission secretariat on this have so far gone unanswered.
The U.N.’s continued silence on Iran is deafening. Yes, eventually we had a handful of statements by Ban Ki-moon and rights chief Navi Pillay, but the system as a whole — especially compared to how they treat certain other regions in the Mideast — has effectively ignored the men and women being beaten, brutalized and shot in the streets of Tehran.
The Security Council is silent; the Human Rights Council is silent; and no member state nor U.N. official has dared to call for an emergency session of either body. Why is the U.N. abandoning Iran’s hundreds and thousands of brutalized victims? Would the young woman Neda have been killed if the U.N. had put the Mullahs on notice, and expressed the world’s outrage? Continue reading ‘Why no U.N. emergency session on Iran’s killings of civilians? Ottolenghi on Cohen vs. Cohen…’
While the appointed experts of the U.N. Human Rights Council are always quick to slam Israel and the United States for alleged violations, the regime of Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak won high praise today.
After an 8-day visit to the country, Catarina de Albuquerque, the council’s “Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation,” said she was “leaving impressed by the efforts being made to improve access to drinking water.” Continue reading ‘U.N. human rights expert fawns over Egypt, leaves “impressed”’
The Pakistan government sees the failure of the United Nations to issue a resolution regarding the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks despite unprecedented pressure from India, as its diplomatic win over its neighbour, reports Asian News International (ANI).
Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Hussain Haroon said Pakistan was emerging as the most important country on the world map due to Islamabad’s diplomatic efforts.
“It is shameful that U.N. bodies such as the Human Rights Council have ignored the victims of the Mumbai terror attack due to political pressure by Pakistan, which chairs the 56-strong Islamic group,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “Pakistan is cheering because the U.N. chose politics over victims.”
William Easterly of Aid Watch, gives his scorecard on UN human rights:
On something like “the right to water,” where it is impossible to identify who is violating such “rights,” the UN talks big. On human rights violations like killings and torture, where the UN knows precisely who is the violator, the UN sometimes shows up on the violator’s side.
Amnesty International’s Sameer Dossani disagrees, but doesn’t seem to answer Easterly’s pointed question: “Who is depriving the poor of their right to an adequate income?”
According to Amnesty, the lack of access to clean drinking water, adequate education, housing, employment and so on, are all human rights violations, “and it is ultimately the responsibility of governments to end them.” Yes, but, once again, who exactly is committing the violations?
Jerry Okungu of Kenya, writing in New Vision, Uganda, was “miffed by the so-called African envoys at the United Nations Human Rights Council that purported to have spoken on behalf of the continent” in slamming Prof Alston’s report on abuses by the Kenyan government. Asks Okungu:
Wasn’t it embarrassing enough that the African Group at the United Nations Human Rights Council could taken a stand and condemn a UN Special Rapporteur for merely reporting that there were human rights abuses in Kenya? After watching news clips on that unfortunate story, many Kenyans were taken aback and asked where these so-called African Commissioners at the Council were when Kenyans were being slaughtered and gunned down by militias and the State Police…
At the UN Human Rights Council, the European Union (EU) won a rare victory today when it succeeded, by one-vote, to secure the passage of its amendments to a draft resolution on Sudan. The primary purpose of these amendments was to maintain scrutiny of the human rights situation in that country, which the original text failed to do.
The Council had voted in September to extend the mandate of the UN expert on Sudan for a period of only six months rather than the full, customary one-year term. Human rights advocates feared this would be a stepping stone to the full elimination of independent scrutiny over Sudan’s rights record in this month’s session. Continue reading ‘EU Wins Rare Victory: Council Votes to Maintain Independent Scrutiny Over Sudan’
This morning at the UN Human Rights Council, Morocco interrupted the session with false allegations against an NGO speaker. Before the representative of International Educational Development could even take the floor, the Moroccan delegate raised a point of order, questioning whether the speaker is entitled to testify on behalf of that NGO given that she had previously addressed the Council twice for another NGO, called France Liberte. Continue reading ‘Morocco Interrupts Rights Council With False Allegations Against NGO Speaker’
Today the UN Human Rights Council undertook debates of rights violations in Israel and Sudan. The Council majority harshly chastised Israel for violating the rights of Palestinian people, especially with regards to its military operations in Gaza, while providing their “encouragement” and “support” to the Government of Sudan. Continue reading ‘Rights Council Slams Israel, Praises Sudan’
Debate commenced today at the UN Human Rights Council on the report by Ms. Sima Samar, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. In her opening remarks, she called for the government to implement the recommendations of her report, a large number of which are being ignored, “particularly in areas of protection of civilians and accountability in justice.” She accused the government of Sudan of continuing its attacks on the people of Darfur and of detaining and torturing human rights defenders and aid workers.
The Council divided largely between Western and non-Western States with the former arguing for increased human rights monitoring in Sudan and the latter calling for the elimination of the mandate of the independent expert. Continue reading ‘Sudanese Front Groups Crowd Out Victim Voices’
Today at the UN Human Rights Council, the Palestinian delegation attacked the Jewish nature of Israel. While critiquing the recent two-state solution peace plan proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it said its “most dangerous” aspect is “his request to our people to recognize the Jewish nature of the Israeli State.” Such a demand is “evidence of a systematic and organized racist policy.”
Taking it a step further, the Palestinian delegate specifically targeted the non-Jewish members of the Israeli delegation, asking, “People in the Israeli mission here who aren’t Jewish, can they continue to pursue their tasks? What would be the fate of non-Jews in Israel who are original citizens of Israel?”
Continue reading ‘Palestinian U.N. Envoy Rejects Israel as a Jewish State’
Debate commenced today at the UN Human Rights Council on “Human rights violations in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” This agenda item is the only one devoted to addressing one, specific country situation. The UN had originally intended today’s discussion to focus on a report on the situation in Gaza by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, as called for by the resolution adopted in January’s Special Session convened to address Israel’s military operations there. Continue reading ‘Arab, Islamic States Bash Israel for Lack of Cooperation with One-Sided Gaza Mission’
For the past year, the New York Times columns of Roger Cohen urged us week after week to “think again about Iran.” He characterized the 1979 Khomeini revolution as an act of liberation, under which “freedom has ebbed and flowed.” Iran boasted “significant margins of liberty, even democracy.”
Cohen was obsessed. Not just on the topic of Iran, but of Iran and Israel, the title of one of his latest dispatches.
Our greatest threat, Cohen insisted, came not from Iran, Hamas, or Hezbollah—whose grievances he legitimized—but from warmongering Americans and chauvinist, rapacious Israelis bent on distorting the Tehran government’s peaceful and democratic nature.
On June 10 (“Iran Awakens Yet Again”), Cohen raved about Iran’s “incomplete” but “vigorous” democracy. His concluding paragraph came back to his chief preoccupation: the “anti-Iran hawks” and their “foolishness.”
In his latest piece – after the world witnessed what we at UN Watch knew well from listening to victims like Ahamad Batebi and their champions like Nazanin Afshin-Jam — Cohen now offers that he “erred,” somewhat, in a qualified mea culpa that he buried deep down at paragraph 14.
Cohen is guilty not of a minor “error.” No, what Cohen did this year was use the unparalleled global platform of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune to legitimize a regime that brutalizes its own people even as it seeks to the same to its neighbors. He did so in face of the most glaring evidence to the contrary.
Roger Cohen was not wrong just about something; he was spectacularly wrong about the single greatest question facing the international community today. On the question of what to do about Iran’s race to acquire a nuclear weapon and threaten the world, his answer essentially was: nothing.
Nothing, and blame Israel.
In his March 2, 2009 column — where he spoke of Iran’s “significant margins of liberty, even democracy” and argued that “anything but mad, the mullahs have proved malleable” – Cohen described Hamas and Hezbollah as “broad political movements widely seen as resisting an Israel over-ready to use crushing force.”
His March 23, 2009 column on the Iran nuclear question, entitled “From Tehran to Tel Aviv,” concludes with Cohen’s thesis and overriding concern:
“[T]his much is clear to me: Obama’s new Middle Eastern diplomacy and engagement will involve reining in Israeli bellicosity and a probable cooling of U.S.-Israeli relations. It’s about time. America’s Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy has been disastrous, not least for Israel’s security.”
His column of April 13, 2009, “Realpolitik for Iran,” had the same prescription for what to do about a nuclear Iran:
“To avoid that nightmare Obama will have to get tougher with Israel than any U.S. president in recent years. It’s time.”
Cohen’s obsessive columns were nasty, odd, and spectacularly wrong.
If he has the slighest sense of responsibility for what he did this year — and if he searches his soul for why he did it – he will draw the necessary conclusions.
Since Cohen’s “error” can only be compared in scale to that of Neville Chamberlain, perhaps the Times’ readers will echo the 1940 demand by a member of the English Parliament to the disgraced leader: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday held a panel on panels. “We now open our panel discussion on panels,” said the president, in what will perhaps rank as the most memorable quote of the current session. The U.N.’s official summary follows.
During today’s debate on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism at the UN Human Rights Council, a number of Western states voiced concerns about barriers to the full participation of legitimate NGOs in the UPR process, with the U.S. saying it is “troubled by practices of countries seeking to silence criticism by lining up friendly speakers. This has a chilling effect on the purpose and spirit of the UPR.” Continue reading ‘Cuba, Sri Lanka Lash Out at Critical NGOs’
Over the last couple days at the UN Human Rights Council, abusive States praised one another’s rights records during the sessions to adopt reports on human rights violations in countries under review. This is not surprising considering that the same phenomenon was evident during the working groups for these Universal Periodic Review (UPR) reports, where rights-abusing countries played a tit for tat strategy of mutual praise, rather than undertaking genuine efforts to review and critique one another’s rights records. (Click here for UN Watch report, entitled “Mutual Praise Society,” detailing this trend). Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka Repays Rights-Abusing Allies with Lavish Praise’
During today’s session at the UN Human Rights Council, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia justified their repression of gays and women with the argument that human rights should be based on “morals” and “traditional values” rather than universal principles of individual rights. Continue reading ‘Authoritarian States: “Traditional Values” Justify Repression of Gays, Women; Russian Draft Resolution Backs Claim’
Today at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Pakistan raised a concern about yesterday’s decision by the Council President to include NGO speeches into the record of the Council’s proceedings, although there had not been enough time for such NGOs to orally deliver their statements. The ruling came after the session on the consideration of the periodic report to examine rights violations in Canada, which ran overtime. Continue reading ‘Pakistan Tries to Stifle NGO Voices’
At the meeting to adopt the report on Cuban rights violations at the UN Human Rights Council today, of the ten slots allotted for NGO speeches, eight were awarded to GONGOs (”Government-backed NGOs,” i.e., front groups) that bestowed lavish praise on the Castro regime. Continue reading ‘Cuban GONGOs Dominate NGO Speaker’s List’
Below is a statement that UN Watch intended to deliver today at the U.N. Human Rights Council’s session to adopt the periodic report on Saudi Arabia’s rights record, but Continue reading ‘UN Watch Statement on Saudi Arabian Treatment of Women’
The U.N.’s human rights officers work hard at allowing NGOs to speak, but today the system failed. Theoretically, NGOs were to form a line outside the Human Rights Council chamber, to sign up to speak at tomorrow’s adoption of reports on the human rights situations in Cuba, Saudi Arabia and other countries. With only ten available slots for NGOs speeches on each country, queuing began at the early hours of the morning, though the sign-up only officially opened at 2:45 PM. Unfortunately, a series of mishaps raised serious questions about the fairness of the process in the eyes of several NGOs. Some claimed they had been told not to arrive at the U.N. before 8 AM (when NGOs are allowed to enter the building), yet reportedly found a line of GONGOs (”Government-backed NGOs,” i.e., front groups) already waiting by the desk long before. If Cuba’s GONGOs manage to take up the whole alloted time, the Castro regime will have blocked the voices of its victims. Continue reading ‘Cuban Front Groups Queue Up to Block Victim Voices’
In today’s debate on the adoption of the periodic report to examine Canadian rights violations, Cuba, Russia, Iran, and Algeria all condemned Canada for failing to accede to the Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and withdrawing from the Durban Review Conference, “isolating itself from international cooperation in efforts to combat racism,” according to Russia. Continue reading ‘Iran Cites Canadian Violations of Women’s Rights’
Today at the U.N. Human Rights Council, after a number of states and NGOs accused Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, China, and North Korea of violating human rights, these countries demanded their rights of reply to respond to allegations or deflect blame by pointing to purported abuses of their critics. Continue reading ‘Rights Violating States Attempt Response to Accusations’
At the U.N. Human Rights Council today, NGOs and Western States criticized Sudan’s human rights record, with Sweden and the U.S. calling for the extension of the UN mandate in Sudan. Sudan itself, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Arab Group came to Sudan’s defense, saying (respectively), “the security situation has improved so we believe that the appeal for the renewal of this mandate is a request that is flagrantly political in nature and we cannot possibly agree to that,” “Sudan has cooperated with the Human Rights Council and all resolutions and facilitated the voluntary return of displaced persons,” and “we welcome efforts by the Sudanese government to improve the human rights and humanitarian situation in all parts of the country, including Darfur.”
During the afternoon session of the U.N. Human Rights Council today, Israel accused Syria and Iran of gross violations of human rights. The two countries both responded with hyperbolic accusations against Israel. Continue reading ‘Israel Squares Off With Iran, Syria In Rights Debate’
During this morning’s discussion on Item 4: “Human Rights Situations that Require the Council’s Attention,” the Czech Republic speaking for the European Union, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and Argentina took the opportunity to raise human rights issues from around the world. Country situations addressed included Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, the Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Somalia. Continue reading ‘Western States, Japan, and Argentina Pinpoint Rights Violations Worldwide; Cuba Protests’
Pakistan, Algeria: Right to Self-Determination Justifies Terrorism; Morocco: the Right is “Obsolete”
In debate on Item 3: “Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights” at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Pakistan and Algeria insisted that the right to self-determination is the foremost human right. Continue reading ‘Pakistan, Algeria: Right to Self-Determination Justifies Terrorism; Morocco: the Right is “Obsolete”’
Towards the close of today’s afternoon session at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka lashed out at Western States who called for an impartial investigation into its conflict. “We noted with a degree of amusement that the EU, UK, Ireland, and France were all cheering on the notion of an independent inquiry into allegations of human rights violations conducted by ‘all sides’ of the Sri Lanka conflict,” it said. “Sri Lanka is prepared to regard this more charitably if we start from human rights situations that precede the Sri Lanka conflict. Let France institutie an inquiry into the millions of deaths in French Indochina and in Algeria, including those subjected to electroshock during the battle of Algiers and into the disappearance of Ben Baraka and possible complicity in that. Let Great Britain and Ireland inquire into Bloody Sunday of 1972 where dead civilians were strewn on the streets and the only result has been the promotion of every single officer who was there on the day, and command officers being given honors by the queen. If these countreis set an example to Sri Lanka and submit their own conduct to so-called impartial or independent inquiries, Sri Lanka would be ready to regard their suggestion with less contempt than it does at the moment.”
The U.N. Human Rights Council convened this morning to discuss reports of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
Algeria took the opportunity to attack her and the work of her office. While paying lip service to “respecting the independence” of both the High Commissioner and the Council, it said it is “time to address the relationship between the Council and the High Commissioner.” Continue reading ‘Algeria Attacks Rights Chief and Her Office’
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