Archive for the 'Security Council' Category

UN Indifferent to Gaza Rocket Attacks on Israel: Ambassador

Published by
HQ Insider
- at January 4, 2012 in Israel, Middle East, Security Council, Terrorism and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. 1 Comment

The absence of any United Nations condemnation of the ceaseless Gaza-sourced rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities is highlighted in a letter Israel has sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council.

“This is a dangerous trend,” Ambassador Haim Waxman, Israel’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, says in comments reflecting the letter’s content.

“During the past month, more than 40 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israeli cities. Israel holds Hamas fully responsible for all acts of terrorism emanating from Gaza. We will continue to exercise our right to self-defense and take all measures necessary to protect our citizens.” Continue reading ‘UN Indifferent to Gaza Rocket Attacks on Israel: Ambassador’

Rights activists urge South Africa to ‘vote like a democracy’ on Security Council, recall poor voting record of prior term

Published by
unwatch
- at October 12, 2010 in Security Council and South Africa. 0 Comments

GENEVA, October 12, 2010 – UN Watch congratulated Colombia, Germany, India and South Africa on their election as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for 2011-2012.

In regard to South Africa, UN watch executive director Hillel Neuer said it was “important that a major African democracy be represented on the council.”At the same time, Neuer recalled that during South Africa’s previous term at the Security Council, in 2007-2008, “there were serious concerns expressed by civil society groups regarding that country’s voting record on critical human rights issues. At the time, UN Watch and other human rights groups had objected to a series of decisions where South Africa used its seat on the Security Council to stand with the perpetrators instead of the victims.”

For example, said Neuer, in 2007, “South Africa joined China and Russia as the sole members to oppose a resolution urging Burma to free political detainees and end sexual violence by the military. Pretoria helped hardliners Moscow and Beijing to kill the text, shielding the generals of Rangoon.”

“In that same year, South Africa outdid even Saudi Arabia in opposing or refusing to support resolutions for victims of human rights violations in Belarus, Burma, Iran, and North Korea. When questions arose over this policy-which South Africa’s own Archbishop Desmond Tutu called ‘a betrayal of our noble past’, the government’s reaction was to lash out,” said Neuer.

“We urge South Africa – as a leading democracy with a vital role to play in world affairs – to ensure that this time, whenever vital human rights issues are at stake at the UN, it will vote like a democracy.”

South Africa Opposes UN Human Rights Resolutions

Published by
unwatch
- at December 9, 2007 in Burma (Myanmar), Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Security Council and South Africa. 0 Comments

The following op-ed appeared in today’s Sunday Times of South Africa.

South Africa at the UN: Your Freedom and Mine

Hillel Neuer

At the United Nations recently, South Africa outdid even Saudi Arabia in opposing or refusing to support resolutions for victims of human rights violations in Belarus, Burma, Iran, and North Korea. When questions arose over this policy, criticised in March by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a betrayal of our noble past”, the government’s reaction was to lash out. It would do far better to simply respond to the legitimate concerns of its citizens.

The current debate emerged in local newspapers and on national radio after an exposé in a recent issue of the Sunday Times, citing data from non- governmental organisations (NGOs), including the Switzerland-based UN Watch. But for observers of the world body the government’s latest votes were all too familiar, part of an increasingly long line of decisions in 2007 that have seen South Africa stand with the perpetrators instead of the victims.

In January this year, shortly after assuming its two-year seat on the Security Council, South Africa joined China and Russia as the sole members to oppose a resolution urging Burma to free political detainees and end sexual violence by the military. South Africa has often dismissed such initiatives as campaigns by the wealthy North. Yet if Ghana, Panama and Peru could support the text — and Congo, Indonesia and Qatar could quietly abstain — why did Pretoria help hardliners Moscow and Beijing to kill the text, shielding the generals of Rangoon?

Here, as elsewhere, South Africa gave technical reasons. The resolution, said UN ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, treated issues “best left to the Human Rights Council.”

To call this disingenuous would be an understatement. Not only had the majority of the new council proclaimed a strict policy of blocking consideration of country situations, but South Africa was a vocal proponent. It actively voted in March to discontinue scrutiny of violations by Iran and Uzbekistan. On June 12, it urged members to “terminate all country mandates.” The result? A week later, the independent experts into abuses in Cuba and Belarus saw their mandates permanently scrapped.

In an October study by the Democracy Coalition Project, countries were measured by their support for mechanisms addressing violations in specific countries (like Burma), ensuring the much-touted universal review of all states would be more than a toothless exercise and protecting the independence of country and thematic investigators. In all cases, South Africa was found to be on the wrong side, among those acting to eviscerate Kofi Annan’s original plan for an effective council.

It is time for Pretoria to answer some basic questions:

  • Was Burma’s suffering really “best left to the Human Rights Council”? After the Security Council resolution was blocked, the Human Rights Council predictably said and did absolutely nothing, until long after it was too late. If either body had demonstrated timely resolve, would that have helped to prevent Burma’s bloody arrest of thousands of peacefully demonstrating monks last month — and the killings?
  • The government claims human rights victims are better helped by “quiet diplomacy”. Yet the victims implore the international community to shine a spotlight on abuses their governments seek to hide. From Burma it was Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy who urged the Security Council to speak out. Similarly, from Darfur to Cuba, dissidents and victims come to the Human Rights Council pleading for public action. Does South Africa know something the victims do not?
  • Why, in July, did South Africa join a minority of 13 countries in opposing UN accreditation of a Canadian gay rights NGO?
    Ambassador Kumalo insists his policy is to defend “the rules”. Yet when the Human Rights Council rammed through a set of changes in its midnight manoeuvre on June 19 — famously denying Canada its right to vote and then pretending there was “a consensus”— why was South Africa complicit in this unprecedented trampling of basic procedures?
  • As the greatest beneficiary of UN human rights action to help end apartheid, can South Africa now deny help to others?
  • Why did Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad try to tarnish independent NGOs, falsely claiming they were funded by “major Western powers” and behind a “campaign” against South Africa?

The truth is that the activists for political prisoners in Havana, Minsk and Pyongyang are of the same movement that fought for Nelson Mandela.

South Africa should not forget his famous words: “Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”

Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch in Geneva.

Urgent Message on Darfur: Killings Reported at Kalma IDP Camp

Published by
unwatch
- at October 21, 2007 in Darfur and Security Council. 0 Comments

Gibril

(Gibreil Hamid, left, at UN Watch’s March 2007 activist summit for Darfur, at UN Human Rights Council)

Our friend Mr. Gibreil I.M. Hamid from the Darfur Peace and Development Centre has just sent UN Watch the following urgent message: 

Dear Friends and Human rights Defenders.

As we all read these days, the Government of Sudan has intensified attacks against the civilians in the IDP Camps all over the Darfur region. The newest was on Friday, Oct. 19, 2007, at Kalma Camp, which is about 17 km from the South Darfur Capital of Nyala. Three people have been killed and more than ten injured — all of this at a time when the international community is trying to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur.

I don’t know how long it will take them to reach Darfur, or how many people will die until they respond. We all know how difficult is the situation of the IDPs — these people need protection from the Sudanese regime.

Right now as I’m writing this news there is an attack in Zalinge, in western Darfur.  I was talking to some people in the IDP camp, where the attackers are still in the camp.  I was told that the Sudanese Forces were killing four men and many others were injured.  I have asked the IDPs to tell me the names of the people who have been killed but they cannot go out because the police and the Janjaweed are still in the Camp.  It’s very sad.

This is happening as the international community is preparing for the Libya Final Settlement talks between Darfur’s rebel groups and Khartoum. I’m asking you all to spread this news wherever you can. Help us to stop the suffering of these people.  Also, I’m calling on the international community to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur.                        

Thanks a lot — God bless you all, Amen.

Best regards,
Gibreil

UN Watch condemns election of Qaddafi’s Libya to UN Security Council

Published by
unwatch
- at October 16, 2007 in Libya and Security Council. 0 Comments

Geneva Oct. 16 –  UN Watch condemned the election of Libya today to the UN Security Council. “Electing Colonel Muammar Qaddafi to maintain international peace and security is like naming Jack the Ripper to fight sexual harassment,” said Hillel C. Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring organization. “We’re also concerned with the election of Vietnam, a country that continues to deny its citizens fundamental political and religious liberties.”

Neuer expressed concern that “the West is silent as Libya is quickly acquiring a series of new and important UN posts — including its unanimous August election as head of the UN’s “Durban II” anti-racism process through 2009 – even as its record on human rights remains appalling.” The UN and African Union will meet in Libya at the end of the month for Darfur peace talks.