Archive for March, 2011

Speech: The UN’s Qaddafi ties

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- at March 31, 2011 in High Commissioner of Human Rights, Jean Ziegler, Libya, Najat Al-Hajjaji and Navi Pillay. 0 Comments

UN Watch Statement
Interactive Dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Delivered by Hillel Neuer, March 3, 2011

Madame High Commissioner, we thank you for your report, and applaud its emphasis on the core principle of accountability. We commend your recent leadership on human rights in Libya. As you stated, “the people of Libya had long been victims of the serious excesses of the Libyan leadership.”

In this regard, given that accountability begins at home, we wish to ask whether your office has begun to reflect upon how, in recent years, the United Nations and its human rights system could have shown greater solidarity with Libya’s victims. We offer five specific questions:

 1. Given that your responsibility is to mainstream human rights throughout the U.N. system, we ask: When the Qaddafi regime was chosen to serve on the Security Council for 2008 and 2009; when its representative was chosen as President of the General Assembly in 2009; when Col. Qaddafi’s daughter Ayesha was designated in 2009 a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador — why did you not speak out?

 2. According to a study of all your published statements from September 2008 through June 2010, you never once mentioned human rights in Libya. Why?

 3. Your report refers to your office’s strong support for the Durban process, for which you served as Secretary-General of its 2009 World Conference on Racism. When a representative of the Libyan regime was chosen to chair that conference’s two-year planning committee, and to chair the main committee, why did you not speak out?

 4. When the Qaddafi regime was elected as a member of this council last year, why did you not speak out?

 5. Your report refers to the council’s Advisory Committee.  In 2008, ignoring the appeal of UN Watch and 25 human rights groups, the council elected the co-founder of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—a propaganda tool for the regime—to this body. Last year he was made the committee’s vice-president. Why did you not speak out? 

 And will you now call on the recipients of this prize—former Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1998, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2004, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 2009, and Turkish PM Erdogan in 2010—to renounce this prize, and to apologize to all the human rights victims—past and present—of Col. Muammar Qaddafi?

 Thank you.

Pilar Rahola to receive UN Watch’s Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award

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- at March 31, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 0 Comments

GENEVA, March 30 – UN Watch is proud to announce that Spanish journalist and human rights activist Pilar Rahola will be the 2011 recipient of the Geneva-based human rights group’s Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award.

The prize honors the legacy of the noted U.S. civil rights advocate and diplomat, born in the American South, who founded UN Watch in 1993 after serving at the United Nations in Geneva, and will be presented at the organization’s 18th Anniversary Gala Dinner next week. Continue reading ‘Pilar Rahola to receive UN Watch’s Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award’

Spanish Journalist Pilar Rahola to Receive UN Watch’s 2011 Human Rights Award

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GENEVA, March 30 – UN Watch is proud to announce that Spanish journalist and human rights activist Pilar Rahola will be the 2011 recipient of the Geneva-based human rights group’s Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award.

The prize honors the legacy of the noted U.S. civil rights advocate and diplomat, born in the American South, who founded UN Watch in 1993 after serving at the United Nations in Geneva, and will be presented at the organization’s 18th Anniversary Gala Dinner next week.

Ms. Rahola was chosen for her tireless championing of the rights of women and children, defending the rule of law, and combating intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism. Continue reading ‘Spanish Journalist Pilar Rahola to Receive UN Watch’s 2011 Human Rights Award’

Selected Resolutions from UNHRC 16th Session

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- at March 24, 2011 in "Defamation of Religion", "Traditional Values", Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Iran. 0 Comments

Strengthening of technical cooperation and consultative services in the Republic of Guinea

Situation of Human Rights in Cote d’Ivoire

  • Resolution (does not include oral revisions)
  • Adopted by consensus as orally revised

Cooperation between Tunisia and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

  • Resolution (does not include oral revisions)
  • Adopted by consensus as orally revised

Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Promoting Human Rights through Traditional Values

Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief (Based on the former “Defamation of religions” resolution)

Outcome of HRC Review

  • Resolution
  • Adopted by consensus, USA disassociated itself

Human Rights in Myanmar (Burma)

  • Resolution
  • Adopted by consensus, China and Cuba disassociated themselves

Human Rights in the DRC

Human Rights in the Golan

Follow up to the Flotilla Report

Grave Violations in the OPT and East Jerusalem

Goldstone Follow up

Palestinian Right to Self Determination

Israeli Settlements

UN Rights Council wrongly allows Kyrgyzstan to vote

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- at March 24, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 0 Comments

GENEVA, March 24 — UN Watch, a Geneva-based group that monitors the UN’s adherence to its Charter, expressed surprise that Kyrgyzstan was allowed to vote today at the UN Human Rights Council.

According to a provision of the UN Charter, a member state may temporarily lose its right to vote in the General Assembly if it does not pay its dues for 2 years. The General Assembly maintains a constantly udapted list on its website of countries not eligible to vote under this provision, where currently there are 4 countries listed, including Kyrgyzstan. The UN Human Rights Council is a subsidiary organ of the GA and must follow GA rules of procedure.

“At the first recorded vote at the current session of the Human Rights Council, we were surprised to see that Kyrgyzstan was allowed to vote,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of the Geneva-based monitoring group. “We call on the President of the Human Rights Council to cancel Kyrgyzstan’s votes and uphold the UN Charter’s article 19.”

The fact that Kyrgyzstan cannot vote may have a small significance at the 192-member UN plenary. However, it could have real implications in the 47-member council in Geneva, where every vote is important and resolutions are often adopted with a small margin.

The absence of Kyrgyzstan, which has a generally negative voting record, could tilt the balance in favor of Western democracies on contested resolutions. For example, the US and the EU hope, for the first time at the UNHRC, to pass a resolution that would condemn Iran’s violations and create a special investigator.

The Non-Aligned and Islamic blocs have already lost the vote of Libya, due to its suspension by the General Assembly earlier this month. Kyrgyzstan’s absence could make the difference on important votes.

Hillel Neuer slams Richard Falk in UN debate for “9/11 inside job” remarks

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- at March 21, 2011 in Richard Falk. 0 Comments

UN Watch Statement
Delivered by Mr. Hillel Neuer, March 21, 2011
UN Human Rights Council, 16th Session
Agenda Item 7:  “Human rights situation in Palestine
and other occupied Arab territories”
Interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur Richard Falk

Mr. Falk,  why does your report fail to address the terrorism perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations?  The only reference to Hamas is in paragraph 18, where its members are described as victims. 

We note that on March 9, 2010, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an quoted you as saying that the Palestinian Authority formally asked you to resign, citing the fact, as you put it, “that I’m a partisan of Hamas.”

We are concerned that your justifications for Hamas are integrally related to a broader pattern and practice in your work when it comes to terrorism, conflicting with the applicable Code of Conduct. Continue reading ‘Hillel Neuer slams Richard Falk in UN debate for “9/11 inside job” remarks’

Richard Falk endorses 9/11 “inside job” theory, interviewed in his official UN capacity

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- at March 21, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Richard Falk. 0 Comments

HOST: Hi, this is Dr. Kevin Barrett of Truth Jihad.Com. You may know me as the host of a certain controversial radio show, namely “The Kevin Barrett Show,” heard every Tuesday right here on No Lies Radio. No Lies Radio offers fearless and honest coverage of the 9/11 truth movement, and is a rapidly growing source of alternative news and information. Please help us continue to grow. You can support No Lies Radio, and my show, both by ordering either or both of my books as a thank-you gift with your donation, to No Lies Radio. These books, “Questioning the War on Terror,” and “Truth Jihad,” are collector’s editions that are personally autographed by yours truly. I urge you to go to the donate page at No Lies Radio.org, and make this happen. [musical interlude]

 Welcome, this is the Kevin Barrett Show; I’m your host, Kevin Barrett. My website is Truth Jihad.com. Every week here, I try to bring you the most important voices that aren’t being heard as widely as they should. And that certainly applies to today’s guest. One of the most illustrious people I’ve ever had as a repeat radio guest on this show, Richard Falk. Continue reading ‘Richard Falk endorses 9/11 “inside job” theory, interviewed in his official UN capacity’

Qaddafi-funded groups rally for UN’s Jean Ziegler

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- at March 21, 2011 in Jean Ziegler and North South 21. 0 Comments

Someone apparently thought that this petition would help the reputation of Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Council official who created, managed and won the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize. How, though, isn’t entirely clear.

The signatories include North South 21 – the Qaddafi-funded organization in Geneva that manages the Qaddafi prize, and which has been closely linked with Ziegler. As the Swiss newspaper NZZ reported in 2006, “North-South 21 had been mandated to manage the Qaddafi Prize for years, as confirmed by Ahmad Soueissi, North-South’s managing director.”

Another signatory, it is no accident, is CETIM, a partner organization of North-South 21 that proudly received the Qaddafi prize, which comes with a reported $250,000 in Libyan funding (see announcement below, from the CETIM website).

In the end, therefore, while the petition claims that Ziegler’s Qaddafi connections are “lies” and a “slanderous smear campaign,” it only ends up substantiating those very connections.

Qaddafi and his UN-accredited “NGO” North-South 21

Published by
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- at March 20, 2011 in Jean Ziegler, Libya and North South 21. 1 Comment

What do we know about the Geneva-based North South 21, which has UN accreditation as a “non-governmental” organization?

 A series of publicly-available documents show how the Qaddafi regime created the organization in 1989, as part of the Geneva-based committee to award an annual “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” Radical anti-Western activist Jean Ziegler played a founding role in the inter-linked organizations.

UN Watch detailed all of this in a major 2006 report here, as cooroborated by a front page story by Switzerland’s leading newspaper,  the Neue Zurcher Zeitung. Further details about the Libyans’ open acknowledgment of North South 21 being a part of the Qaddafi Prize organization can be found here. (Supplement to UN Watch’s June 20, 2006 Report, “Switzerland’s Nominee to the UN Human Rights Council and the Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize”, containing excerpts from http://www.gaddafiprize.org/ that document Jean Ziegler’s role as a 1989 co-founder of the Khaddafi Prize and its 2002 winner, and confirming the Khaddafi Prize organization’s control over North-South XXI and the North-South Institute, of which Jean Ziegler is vice-president.According to the Libyan press agency, the organization in Geneva that awards the Khaddafi Prize is an entity called North-South XXI (or Nord-Sud XXI). See “President Chavez of Venezuela wins International Gaddafi Award for Human Rights,” Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, December 10, 2004, at http://en.ljbc.net/online/news_details.php?id=475 (see Attachment 7 here); “Oxymoron,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 Oktober 2004 (citing Libyan press agency Jana as saying the Prize is awarded by an International People’s Committee and Nord-Sud XXI) (see Attachment 8 here).   Continue reading ‘Qaddafi and his UN-accredited “NGO” North-South 21′

UN Security Council Resolution 1973 on Libya

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- at March 18, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Libya. 2 Comments

UN Security Council Resolution 1973 on Libya creating a no-fly zone and authorizing “all necessary measures” — i.e. air strikes — to protect civilians.

Sudan after the referendum: John Dau, Juan Branco, Bernard Schalscha address Geneva Summit

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- at March 17, 2011 in Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Sudan. 0 Comments

GENEVA, March 15 -  Dissidents and human rights activists from around the globe gathered today for the 2011 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, held in parallel to the main annual session of the UN Human Rights Council. Click here for program.  Below is a summary of the first panel on the situation in Southern Sudan after the referendum.

John Dau, activist and refugee from South Sudan, told the story of his experiences as a “lost boy” of Sudan. His five-year ordeal began when government forces from the North attacked his village in Southern Sudan. He was separated from his family at twelve years old.

Until he reached safety in Kenya at the age of seventeen, he lived as a refugee, hiding from government forces that targeted young boys from the South to keep them from growing up to be rebel soldiers. He and his fellow lost boys froze, starved, and suffered from thirst, with many of them falling prey along the way to the elements and to attacks by air and ground forces. Continue reading ‘Sudan after the referendum: John Dau, Juan Branco, Bernard Schalscha address Geneva Summit’

Dissidents Gather at Geneva Rights Summit

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- at March 15, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 0 Comments

Click for Photos Here

GENEVA, March 15 – In parallel with the current session of the UN Human Rights Council, courageous champions of human rights joined together today in Geneva, Switzerland, to urge action against oppressive governments, support democracy dissidents, and propose country resolutions for the UN council to adopt.

Renowned dissidents, rights activists and parliamentarians who addressed the third annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy include:

  • Mohamad Mostafaei, recently-escaped Iranian lawyer who defended Sakineh, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery
  • Yang Jianli, former political prisoner, survivor of Tiananmen Square and representative of jailed writer Liu Xiaobo at recent Nobel Prize ceremony
  • Mahmoud Salem, alias the “SandMonkey,” Egyptian cyber-dissident and leading voice for the Tahrir Square freedom revolution
  • Mohamed Eljahmi, Libyan rights activist, brother of slain dissident Fathi Eljahmi
  • Jacqueline Kasha, founder of Freedom and Roam Uganda, an LGBT organization in Kampala, colleague of slain gay rights activist David Kato Continue reading ‘Dissidents Gather at Geneva Rights Summit’

China interrupts UN testimony of ex-political prisoner; USA defends Yang Jianli

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Dr. Yang Jianli

GENEVA, March 15 – The Chinese government today interrupted testimony by one of its most well-known former political prisoners in the plenary of the UN Human Rights Council. The Chinese delegate, supported by Cuba, objected that Dr. Yang Jianli, who spoke on behalf of the Geneva human rights group UN Watch, was not addressing the issue under debate, which was “human rights situations that require the council’s attention.”

The U.S. delegate intervened to defend Dr. Yang’s right to speak, and the council president allowed him to complete his speech. See full text below of print version as delivered to the UN. Continue reading ‘China interrupts UN testimony of ex-political prisoner; USA defends Yang Jianli’

Text of Draft UN Rights Council Resolution on Iran

Published by
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- at March 14, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Iran. 1 Comment

The Human Rights Council is considering a draft resolution on Iran that aims to establish a Special Rapporteur to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the country. Co-sponsors of the resolution include Australia, the Maldives, and Norway. Click here for the draft text circulated today at informal consultations in Geneva, which were organized by Sweden, Moldova, Panama, Zambia, Macedonia, and the U.S.A.

UN rights chief backs Qaddafi rep, refuses to fire Libyan “expert on mercenaries”

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GENEVA, March 10 - U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay today rejected growing calls to fire Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, from her post as the UN Human Rights Council’s investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries, which many see as a cruel irony.

Objections to the Libyan’s U.N. position originated last week in Morocco’s Au Fait, and spread to Switzerland, Al-Hajjaji’s adopted home, in the Tribune de Geneve, 20minutes, and the Tages Anzeiger, as well as America’s Fox News and other newspapers and blogs.

However, Pillay, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking about Al-Hajjaji today in a discussion forum held on the sidelines of the council’s current session, said, “It is unfair to single her out.” Continue reading ‘UN rights chief backs Qaddafi rep, refuses to fire Libyan “expert on mercenaries”’

How Libya’s Najat Al-Hajjaji used UN posts to shield Qaddafi’s crimes

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- at March 11, 2011 in Najat Al-Hajjaji. 0 Comments

Libyan diplomat Najat Al-Hajjaji — who in a cruel irony serves as a UN Human Rights Council investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries — acted as a loyal propagandist for the Qaddafi regime over decades, shielding its brutal crimes by portraying the dictator as a human rights champion.

According to this sympathetic biography (in French) by  Abdelaziz Barrouhi from January 2003, Al-Hajjaji began officially championing the Qaddafi regime as the Director of External Relations and Training for the state-controlled Jana news agency, a position she held from 1978 to 1991. Qaddafi, “with whom she has (distant) family ties,” then appointed her to represent Libya at the United Nations in Geneva: as Minister Plenipotentiary (1992-1998), deputy ambassador (1998-2000), and then, from October 2000, as Ambassador and Head of Mission.

“In the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, but also in New York and UN summits,” reports the biographer, “Najat al-Hajjaji defends, of course, the positions of his government, but at the same time working hard to promote women and protection of children.”

Here’s how Qaddafi thanked her when she won election in 2003 to the UN’s Commission on Human Rights:

January 22, 2003, Wednesday

Al-Qadhafi urges Libyan UN rights envoy to play good role

(Jana news agency, Tripoli, in Arabic 1144 gmt 22 Jan 03; Text of report by Libyan news agency Jana)

Tripoli, 22 January: The brother leader of the revolution Al-Qadhafi held a telephone contact today with sister Najat al-Hajjaji, the Great Jamahiriyah’s envoy at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, during which he stressed to her the need for Libya to play the role entrusted to it to protect human rights in the world and to be at the good opinion the international community, which chose her for this international humanitarian task, had of her.

The brother leader urged the sister envoy of the Great Jamahiriyah, in view of being a Libyan woman assuming this international post, to present the true image of women in Libya to whom the great 1 September revolution had attached great attention.

At her opening speech to the commission, she portrayed Libya’s regime in glowing terms:

Statement of Incoming Chairperson

NAJAT AL-HAJJAJI, new Chairperson of the Commission, said today’s meeting two months before the normal opening of the Commission’s annual session was an important innovation; it would enable the Bureau to get down to work in an efficient and organized manner. Her country was African, and it had an Islamic culture; it had been the site of great historical empires — Egyptian, Phoenician, and Greek, as well as Islamic. Monuments from that past remained. Women played a major role in life and Government in Libya, and the country took its inspiration from the principles of the United Nations. She would make every effort to be open to new ideas and initiatives.

Reporters Without Borders, which in 2003 led the opposition to Al-Hajjaji’s election, described her early tenure:

With Najat Al-Hajjaji, the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s ambassador to the United Nations, as its chairperson, the 59th annual session of the UN commission on human rights could hardly have had a more inauspicious beginning. Contrary to custom, Col. Gaddafi’s protégée had refrained several times from holding a press conference since her appointment two months earlier. She finally met with journalists on the day of the session’s inauguration, on 17 March, but it was primarily to announce that she had proposed to the UN secretariat that Reporters Without Borders should be immediately suspended as a consultative member. This was because, during her opening address, Reporters Without Borders representatives had scattered leaflets in the Palais des Nations assembly hall denouncing Libya’s assumption of the chair.

Hajjaji’s performance at the press conference offered a clear demonstration – if any were needed – that a regime such as Col. Gaddafi’s is an imposter as chair of the commission. She expressed thanks for the questions but each time she said she was unable to reply or was not familiar with the relevant conventions, and passed the buck to the high commissioner. Asked if it would not be appropriate to require a minimum of respect for human rights from commission members, she argued that this would exclude many countries, including her own.  This “would not be democratic,” she added, keeping a straight face.

L’experte libyenne devenue indésirable

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Tribune de Genève
9 mars 2011

Alain Jourdan

Elle fait partie des diplomates restés fidèles au régime. En poste à Genève depuis une dizaine d’années, Najat Al- Hajjaji est considérée comme une proche de la famille Kadhafi. Plusieurs ONG viennent de demander sont expulsion de l’ONU. Depuis plusieurs mois, la diplomate siège comme experte au sein du groupe de travail de l’ONU sur l’utilisation des mercenaires.

«Au regard de ce qui se passe, c’est une insulte au peuple libyen»,fulmine Hillel Neuer, directeur de l’ONG UN Watch. Najat Al- Hajjaji a présidé la Commission des droits de l’homme et conduit les travaux préparatoires de la Conférence surle racisme en 2009. A l’époque, elle s’était illustrée en empêchant le médecin palestinien emprisonnéavec les infirmières bulgares en Libye de s’exprimer dans l’enceinte même d’une assemblée dédiée à la défense des droits de l’homme. Une attitude qui avait alors soulevé l’indignation des ONG présentes.

En début de semaine, une lettre a été adressée au secrétaire général de l’ONU, Ban Ki-moon, à la haut-commissaire aux droits de l’homme, Navi Pillay, et au président du Conseil des droits de l’homme pour leur demander de procéder à l’expulsion de Najat Al- Hajjaji. Le Conseil pourrait adopter une résolution pour exclure l’ex-représentante de Kadhafi d’ici à la fin de sa session, le 25 mars. La présence d’une fidèle parmi les fidèles du régime libyen est devenue encombrante.

Al Jazeera video: UNW’s Hillel Neuer Slams U.N. for Embracing Gaddafi

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- at March 8, 2011 in Hillel Neuer and Libya. 2 Comments

UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer Slams U.N. for Embracing Gaddafi, interviewed on Al Jazeera, Feb. 28, 2011.

Exposed: Qaddafi rep is UN Human Rights Council’s “Expert on Mercenaries”

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- at March 7, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Libya. 0 Comments

GENEVA, March 7 - With the Libyan regime deploying hired guns to massacre its own people, the UN Human Rights Council was urged today to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time mouthpiece of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, from her post as a council investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries.

“Every day she stays with the UN Human Rights Council is an insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group that initiated the successful campaign to suspend Libya as a member of the 47-nation council.

“At a time when Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is outrageous that one of his long-time representatives would sit on the world’s highest human rights body as a supposed defender of human rights — and, of all things, as a defender of victims of mercenaries,” said Neuer.

Since 2005, Ms. Al-Hajjaji has served on the council’s 5-person “Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights.” Click here for UN website listing Al-Hajjaji at bottom.

“For more than a decade, Al-Hajjaji whitewashed the crimes of the Qaddafi regime as its representative to UN human rights bodies in Geneva,” said Neuer. In 2003, human rights groups universally condemned her election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Al-Hajjaji’s tenure was widely seen as the last straw in the decline of its credibility, with Kofi Annan saying soon afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse.

In April 2009, when the Al-Hajjaji chaired the planning committee of the UN’s World Conference on Racism, she silenced testimony by a victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV. (Click here for original video; click here for France 24 video.)

In a letter sent today to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, UN rights commissioner Navi Pillay, and UNHRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer demanded that the officials take immediate action to expel Al-Hajjaji from the Human Rights Council. Neuer also urged action in letters sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton.

After UN Watch Protest, U.N. Rights Council Pulls Report Singing Qaddafi’s Praises

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- at March 7, 2011 in Libya. 1 Comment

On Friday, UN Watch won another small victory for human rights, sanity and the victims of Col. Qaddafi, when the U.N. Human Rights Council announced it was shelving a report — prepared prior to the current massacres in Libya — that lavishly praised the Libyan regime for its record on human rights. See quotes here.

Although the U.N. last week suspended Libya from the council, the overwhelmingly pro-Qaddafi report remained scheduled to be presented on March 18 and then adopted by a council resolution.

But the sham came to halt when UN Watch sounded the alarm, exposing the report as a fraud and demanding that it be sidelined. The story went viral: UN Watch was interviewed on CNN International and Al Jazeera. The New York Times featured the story in today’s Week in Review section. UN Watch was additionally quoted by Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Washington Post online, Asian News International, The New York Sun, The Atlantic online, The Vancouver Sun, Czech daily newspaper Právo, Italy’s L’Opinione delle Liberta, SwissInfo, Estonia’s Ekspress, Spain’s El Correo, and Spain’s Radio Televisión Española. Continue reading ‘After UN Watch Protest, U.N. Rights Council Pulls Report Singing Qaddafi’s Praises’

Video: UNW’s Hillel Neuer urges U.N. rights chief to renounce Qaddafi ties

Published by
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- at March 4, 2011 in High Commissioner of Human Rights and Libya. 18 Comments


The head of the London School of Economics has resigned over his ties to the Qaddafi regime. Rock stars Beyonce, Nelly Furtado and Mariah Carey have expressed remorse for their paid peformances at Qaddafi family parties. Former Egyptian minister of culture Gaber Asfour renounced his 2010 “Gaddafi International Award for Literature.” Only at the UN, however, is no one yet willing to take any responsibility for their institutional embrace of the Qaddafi regime. In the plenary of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer urged U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay to begin the soul-searching; she refused to respond. See video above and text below.

_______________

 

UN Watch Statement
Interactive Dialogue with UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights Navi Pillay
UN Human Rights Council Plenary
Delivered by Executive Director Hillel Neuer, March 3, 2011

Madame High Commissioner,

We thank you for your report, and applaud its emphasis on the core principle of accountability. We commend your recent leadership on human rights in Libya. As you stated, “the people of Libya had long been victims of the serious excesses of the Libyan leadership.”

In this regard, given that accountability begins at home, we wish to ask whether your office has begun to reflect upon how, in recent years, the United Nations and its human rights system could have shown greater solidarity with Libya’s victims. We offer five specific questions:

1. Given that your responsibility is to mainstream human rights throughout the U.N. system, we ask: When the Qaddafi regime was chosen to serve on the Security Council for 2008 and 2009; when its representative was chosen as President of the General Assembly in 2009; when Col. Qaddafi’s daughter Ayesha was designated in 2009 a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador — why did you not speak out?

2. According to a study of all your published statements from September 2008 through June 2010, you never once mentioned human rights in Libya. Why?

3. Your report refers to your office’s strong support for the Durban process, for which you served as Secretary-General of its 2009 World Conference on Racism. When a representative of the Libyan regime was chosen to chair that conference’s two-year planning committee, and to chair the main committee, why did you not speak out?

4. When the Qaddafi regime was elected as a member of this council last year, why did you not speak out?

5. Your report refers to the council’s Advisory Committee. In 2008, ignoring the appeal of UN Watch and 25 human rights groups, the council elected Jean Ziegler, the co-founder of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—a propaganda tool for the regime—to this body. Last year he was made the committee’s vice-president. Why did you not speak out?

And will you now call on the recipients of this prize—former Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1998, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2004, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 2009, and Turkish PM Erdogan in 2010—to renounce this prize, and to apologize to all the human rights victims—past and present—of Col. Muammar Qaddafi?

Thank you, Madame High Commissioner.

[Note: In High Commissioner Navi Pillay's response to the plenary, she addressed other groups' questions but refused to address those above.]

UN rights chief faulted for prior silence on Libyan abuses

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- at March 4, 2011 in Libya. 1 Comment

GENEVA, March 3 - UN rights chief Navi Pillay was criticized in the plenary of the UN Human Rghts Council today for allegedly ignoring Libyan human rights violations prior to the current crisis, and for her alleged silence when the UN legitimized the Qaddafi regime through a series of appointments to key human rights and world bodies.

In her response to questions posed by UN member states and NGOs, she declined to answer the queries made to her in the council plenary today by UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights monitoring group.  See UN Watch statement below. Continue reading ‘UN rights chief faulted for prior silence on Libyan abuses’

Victory: After UN Watch protest, UN rights council pulls report praising Qaddafi

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UN Watch
- at March 3, 2011 in Libya. 1 Comment

GENEVA, March 3, 2011 — UN Watch welcomes  the U.N. Human Rights Council’s announcement, in response to our urgent appeal, that its current session is canceling the consideration of a council report lavishly praising the Qaddafi regime’s human rights record, which was scheduled for March 18, and the report’s scheduled adoption by a council resolution in the following week. The U.N. decision was announced today by the US Mission.

However, the Geneva-based human rights group urged the U.N. council to cancel — and not only “postpone” — the fraudulent report, whose main effect, said executive director Hillel Neuer today, “was to bolster Qaddafi’s oppressive regime, demoralize his victims, and harm the reputation of the UN. The review should be completely redone, and the truth told about Qaddafi’s crimes.”

The US announcement of today’s decision features below. Continue reading ‘Victory: After UN Watch protest, UN rights council pulls report praising Qaddafi’

Reversal: UN ousts Qaddafi from human rights council

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UN Watch
- at March 2, 2011 in Libya. 0 Comments
GENEVA, March 1 – Nine months after shamefully electing the Qaddafi regime to its Human Rights Council, the UN today reversed itself and suspended Libya’s membership. Click here for details.

From the moment the Libyan regime declared its candidacy last year, UN Watch initiated the opposition to Qaddafi sitting as a world judge of human rights. Click here for chronology of UN Watch’s tireless campaign.

In September, when the Libyan regime took its seat, UN Watch launched a campaign demanding Libya’s suspension from the Geneva-based Council, becoming the first voice to do so. We were supported by 27 human rights groups, a number that surpassed 80 in our renewed NGO appeal of nine days ago.

Most powerfully, to support the campaign, victims and relatives of victims showed great courage in accepting UN Watch’s invitation to challenge the Libyan regime at the council and confront their oppressor. Continue reading ‘Reversal: UN ousts Qaddafi from human rights council’

UN Watch’s 9-month Campaign to Expel Libya From the UN Human Rights Council

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UN Watch
- at March 2, 2011 in Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Libya. 1 Comment
  • May 2010: UN Watch leads 37 NGOs in a protest on the eve of Libya’s election to the UNHRC, with a widely covered media event at UN Headquarters in New York, and a mass email campaign. Countries are urged to oppose Qaddafi’s candidacy. Instead, in a secret ballot, the UN elects Libya by a landslide of 155 out of 192 UNGA votes. UN Watch warns on Swiss TV that Qaddafi’s government is a “murderous and racist regime.” Not a single country speaks out against Libya’s candidacy or election.
  • September 2010: Libya takes its seat at the council. UN Watch launches a global campaign, supported by 30 NGOs, and victims of Libyan abuses, to remove the Qaddafi regime. To confront the Libyans in the plenary UN Watch brings Bob Monetti, whose 20-year-old son was murdered in Libya’s 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103; Mohamed Eljahmi, brother of slain dissident Fathi Eljahmi; Kristyana Valcheva, one of the five Bulgarian nurses who were framed, imprisoned and tortured for eight years on false charges of poisoning children with HIV; and Ashraf El-Hajouj, the Palestinian doctor framed and tortured together with the nurses. The Libyans and their allied regimes rudely interrupt the speakers. The incident and the victims’ appeal to remove Libya is widely covered by dedicated stories in Voice of America and Agence France Presse, and by a cover story in Sweden’s Neo magazine. “The HRC grants legitimacy to ‘murderous’ Gadaffi regime,” reported Radio Netherlands on UN Watch’s campaign. Yet the UN council and its member states stay silent.
  • November 2010: When Libya’s abysmal human rights record is addressed under the council’s universal review procedure, UN Watch renews its call for the Qaddafi regime to be removed. The appeal is reported by Germany’s DPA, Swissinfo and elsewhere. Yet the UN council and its member states stay silent.
  • February 21, 2011: Working closely with Libyan dissident Mohamed Eljahmi — who sounds the alarm on massive atrocities being committed by the Qaddafi regime — UN Watch spearheads an international appeal by 70 human rights groups to remove Libya. The plea for UN action is covered around the world. Three days later, the EU requests a special session of the Human Rights Council, but fails to contest Libya’s council membership.
  •  February 25, 2011: The EU amends its draft, and the UN Human Rights Council votes to recommend Libya be suspended from its membership.
  • March 1, 2011: The UN General Assembly unanimously decides to suspend Libya’s membership from the council.

UN Watch has been the leading voice at the United Nations challenging Libyan human rights abuses for many years. To see videos, click here.

Success: UN Watch thanks UNGA for finally suspending Qaddafi from UN Human Rights Council

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UN Watch
- at March 1, 2011 in Libya. 1 Comment

Geneva, March 1- UN Watch, which has led the opposition by rights groups and victims to Libya’s presence on the UN Human Rights Council for the past year, said this afternoon’s vote by the General Assembly — which unanimously suspended the Qaddafi regime — was “better late than never.”

“The election of Libya to the world’s top human rights body last May was a shameful act that bolstered Qaddafi’s regime, demoralized his victims, and stained the reputation of the United Nations,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group. Continue reading ‘Success: UN Watch thanks UNGA for finally suspending Qaddafi from UN Human Rights Council’