Coptic Egyptian-American journalist Magdi Khalil, director of the Middle East Freedom Forum, explains in a recent article on the liberal website www.elaph.org how Muslim states are subverting the U.N. human rights system from within, using it to stifle criticism of Muslim countries and of Islam while promoting hostility towards Israel:
The Arab and Islamic States that pushed for a resolution against defaming religion are mostly interested in intimidating and blackmailing the West — while they themselves continue to show no respect for religious diversity… Glancing at [its provisions] it is possible to think that they originated with the Egyptian Ministry of Information or the Pakistani parliament, rather than with a council whose basic mission is to safeguard rights and freedoms — primarily the freedoms of thought and expression.
See this and other excerpts translated from MEMRI here.
UN Watch’s revelation yesterday that U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay is effectively refusing to meet with the Dalai Lama on his visit to Geneva next week is now sparking international attention. Continue reading ‘Ban Ki-Moon asked why U.N. won’t meet Dalai Lama in Geneva’
But welcomes Pillay’s criticism of China’s “systemic violations of human rights”
GENEVA, July 29, 2009 - The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch expressed disappointment at the refusal by United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay to answer whether she will receive the Dalai Lama on his visit to Geneva next week — understood as a negative answer — but welcomed her criticism of China’s “serious systemic violations of human rights” in Tibet, and her call for due process for detainees and access to international observers. Continue reading ‘UN Watch Disappointed at U.N. Rights Chief Refusal to Meet Dalai Lama’
During a meeting today of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva, the United States called a report on Palestinians unbalanced, and described it as part of a ritual at the U.N. to demonize Israel.
That ritual was in full form today when the government of Syria, the Baathist tyranny of Bashir al-Assad, accused Israel of being the world’s only country refusing to abide by international law, in a manner unseen since apartheid South Africa. The Syrian representative said that Israel arrested dissenting journalists, and he lamented “double standards” on Israel.
Whatever Israel’s flaws, Freedom House’s annual survey shows that freedom of speech and freedom of the press find far greater protection there than in any other country in the Middle East.
Syria should be the last one to throw stones on this issue. It regularly arrests and detains its political opponents without fair trial, including bloggers, political analysts, and human rights activists. Pro-democracy activist Kamal Labwani continues to languish in a Syrian prison, serving his third of a 12-year term, despite the recent call for his release by Human Rights Watch in April. The U.N. found his arrest “arbitrary and thus unlawful.”
GENEVA, July 27, 2009 - UN Watch, the Geneva-based human rights monitoring group, condemned the U.N.’s decision today to reject an international Christian charity as a non-governmental organization (NGO), a form of observer status, after it refused Beijing demands to disclose the addresses of its Chinese members, and “concerns” by Russia, Egypt, Cuba, Pakistan, and Sudan about its “ability to contribute” to the world body. Continue reading ‘U.N. Denies Status to Christian Charity After China Objects’
On the second day of the U.N.’s “Question of Palestine” conference in Geneva, a participant said that the states who walked out of the Durban II racism conference were “UN Watch sympathizers” who protested “so-called Holocaust denial.”
The representative of the Third World Network organization also complained that UN Watch had invited Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to speak at a side event during Durban II, and said it was wonderful that he could come to today’s U.N. conference and escape claims of anti-Semitism that are usually made when people debate Israel and Palestine. Continue reading ‘“U.N. Watch sympathizers” blamed for opposing Durban 2 “so-called Holocaust denial”’
While scores have been killed just this month in Iran and China and human rights activists are murdered in Russia, a U.N. conference that commenced this morning has once again put the Geneva spotlight on Israel. As if the hearings of the Goldstone Gaza inquiry earlier this month were not already enough, not to mention last week’s video re-play of the Gaza hearings at the Palais des Nations, the annual International Conference on the Question of Palestine kicked off with a packed room. Delegates from all regions and countries large and small were present in their official capacity, sitting behind their country placards, including from Italy, Switzerland, the European Commission, Belgium, Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala, Bosnia, Serbia, Belarus, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Burundi, Monaco, and Cambodia to name just a few. Continue reading ‘“Question of Palestine” conference keeps U.N. focused on antagonizing Israel’
(National Post of Canada, op-ed page, July 17, 2009)
A case study in U.N. hypocrisy
By Hillel Neuer and Marissa Cramer
Last week, not for the first time, the world witnessed state-sanctioned violence against protesters in Iran and China. Yet the United Nations was instead focused on Israel, due to unprecedented hearings held by a UN inquiry into the Gaza conflict of six months ago. This was precisely the goal of the body that organized the inquiry, the discredited UN Human Rights Council. Continue reading ‘Riots in China. Protests in Iran. UN rights council talks about … Israel’
The diplomats at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva have simply not found any time this summer to help the peaceful protesters being gunned down by state-sponsored forces in Iran and China.
The human rights chambers are effectively mothballed until the next mandatory session in September. Neda got shot? Uighurs are being slaughtered on the streets? Sorry, I’ve got a lunch-time appointment for water-skiing in Lake Geneva with two of my buddies from the Non-Aligned Movement. Continue reading ‘U.N. diplomats watch Gaza reruns, no time for victims in China and Iran’
The following is based on remarks delivered by Dr. Mukesh Kapila, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, at a June 16, 2009 panel on “Women in Conflict and the Human Rights Situation in Sudan,” organized by UN Watch as a NGO side event during the 11th session of the UN Human Rights Council, together with the Darfur Peace and Development Center and LICRA. The other panelists were Hillel Neuer, Gibreil Hamid, and Diagne Chanel.
The Seven Excuses of Inaction for Darfur
Dr. Mukesh Kapila
I was wondering what I should speak about in such a gathering where you must know so much. It is pointless to rehearse the continuing agony of Sudan, and of Darfur in particular, and catalogue yet again the endless human rights tragedies that are taking place all over Sudan and in Darfur. So I will discuss a couple of themes. Continue reading ‘The Seven Excuses of Inaction for Darfur’
On Saturday, Justice Richard Goldstone of the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict gave an interview with Israel TV’s Channel 1 news, hosted by Yaacov Achimeir. Click here for video, or see extract below:
Interviewer: Mr. Justice Goldstone, how do you explain that during the last seven or eight years of Palestinian shelling of cities, of towns in the southern part of Israel, [that] no UN commission of inquiry was established? Why is that? Continue reading ‘Goldstone defends Christine Chinkin from bias charge’
The hearings in Geneva for Goldstone’s Gaza fact-finding mission came to a close today. The final speaker, Michael Newton, professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt University and expert in accountability in the practice of hostilities, spoke about the application of international law, especially the Geneva Conventions, to both state and non-state actors during combat.
Click here for webcast (requires Real Player).
Continue reading ‘International law expert testifies before Goldstone’s Gaza inquiry team’
During the afternoon hearings of the Goldstone Gaza fact-finding mission at the U.N. in Geneva today, Lt. Col. Raymond Lane, chief instructor in the Irish Defense Forces School, testified on weapons use by Hamas and Israel. Reuters reports here on his testimony, but misrepresents or takes out of context his statements on Israel’s use of certain weapons, as we note further on.
Click here for webcast (requires Real Player).
Continue reading ‘Military expert testifies on weapons use by Hamas, Israel at Goldstone’s Gaza hearings’
At the U.N. in Geneva this morning, the Goldstone fact-finding mission into the Gaza war continued to hear from Palestinian experts. They were Ms. Sahar Francis, director of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Mr. Majd Bader of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel; Mr. Fadi Qwasmi, a lawyer representing members of the Palestine Legislative Council; and Mr. Salehaldin Musa of the Palestinian independent commission for human rights.
Click here for webcast.
Continue reading ‘Goldstone Gaza probe continues to hear from Palestinian experts’
The U.N. fact-finding mission on Gaza, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, continued hearings in Geneva this afternoon. While the morning session focused on Israeli victims of Hamas terror, the afternoon was devoted to pro-Palestinian witnesses and experts from Israel and the West Bank. They were Shawan Jabarin, head of Al-Haq‘s Legal Research and Advocacy Department, Mohammad Srour, former mayor of a West Bank town who testified together with Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, and Mr. Shir Hever of the Alternative Information Center. The mission had previously heard from Gazan victims of the conflict during its travel to the region.
Click here for the webcast.
Continue reading ‘West Bank and Israeli Palestinians testify before Goldstone mission’
This morning the U.N. fact-finding mission into the Gaza conflict, headed by international prosecutor Judge Richard Goldstone, commenced its first day of hearings in Geneva, featuring Israeli victims of Hamas terror. The mission had previously traveled to Gaza to hear from Palestinian victims of the conflict.
Below is our summary. Click here for the webcast. Click here for UN transcript.
Continue reading ‘Goldstone’s Gaza fact-finding mission hears from Israeli victims’
Noam Shalit, father of Israel captive Gilad Shalit, was in Geneva today to deliver the powerful testimony below to the U.N. fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict. Continue reading ‘Father of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit addresses Gazans through U.N. testimony’
While on April 3, 2009, the UNHRC president purported to give new terms of reference to Judge Richard Goldstone’s fact-finding mission, the ensuing council session in June failed to take up UN Watch’s challenge (below) to ratify the purported changes, thereby legally preserving intact the original one-sided mandate that pre-determined Israel’s guilt. Continue reading ‘U.N. Human Rights Council fails to ratify changes to Goldstone Mission’
Judge Richard Goldstone’s fact finding mission on Gaza will hold hearings in Geneva this week. Following was our interactive dialogue with his team in May. As can be seen, regrettably our questions were never really answered. And Prof. Christine Chinkin did not tell the truth when she denied already having pronounced herself on the very matter the mission is supposed to determine…
Continue reading ‘Why Goldstone Mission’s Christine Chinkin must resign’
The large René Cassin square in front of the U.N’s European headquarters in Geneva now features a fitting tribute to Jeanne Hersch, the great human rights theorist and founding director of UNESCO’s philosophy division, as part of a University of Geneva series of exhibits honoring the city’s illustrious thinkers. (Click here for PDF, and see p. 2 for text on Hersh.) Continue reading ‘U.N. Geneva Square Honors Philosopher Who Exposed U.N’s Jean Ziegler’
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’
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.
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