A history of Tistounet's dirty tricks campaign

October 2016

The Truth Comes Out: UN Whistleblower Speaks Out

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Emma Reilly, a UN whistleblower and Cambridge University graduate, was previously a UN human rights officer and lawyer working under Tistounet, where she was in charge of overseeing speeches by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  

She was also responsible for designing the NGO sign-up system for the Human Rights Council’s speaker’s list. Ms. Reilly suggested conducting consultations with both in-person and remote participation from NGOs. In a meeting with Tistounet discussing the various proposals, he insisted on excluding UN Watch from the consultations, claiming they would ‘try to make trouble for us’. Consequently, UN Watch was left out of the discussions concerning the final algorithm implemented in the system. 

In her testimony against Eric Tistounet, she outlined how she was repeatedly instructed “to move UN Watch further down the list for interactive dialogues and panel discussions, such that they would fall below the maximum number of NGO participants and lose the opportunity to speak.”

It was during one of the regular team meetings, towards the end of January 2012, that Riley first encountered Tistounet’s pronounced negative attitude towards UN Watch. To her surprise, the hostility appeared unwarranted, as it surfaced in response to a general discussion regarding NGO liaison issues, that had no specific mention of UN Watch. As the weeks passed, Riley observed a concerning pattern – Tistounet continued to direct unfavorable remarks toward UN Watch and their director, Mr. Hillel Neuer, both during team meetings and in email communications distributed among staff and supervisors.

According to Reilly, Tistounet was determined to preserve his power to remove UN Watch from lists.

When she proposed to publish NGO lists online, to save the activists from making repeated trips to the UN to find out their placement and schedule, he turned it down.

“Mr. Tistounet refused this suggestion, explicitly on the basis that it would prevent him from manipulating the lists. He once again referred only to UN Watch as an NGO that he would move down a list to prevent them from
taking the floor.”

Other methods used by Tistounet to cancel UN Watch’s speaking slots included his creation of a fictitious requirement that the texts of speeches be submitted in advance, and his orders for staff to suddenly cut off the NGO portion of a debate, just when it was the turn of UN Watch to take the floor, Reilly revealed about her former boss.

 

Tistounet personally obtained all UN Watch speeches in advance, so he could draft unjustified reprimands for the chair to read out afterwards.

 

“Mr. Tistounet had a standing instruction that when a statement was received in advance from UN Watch, it was to be given directly to him either in his office or on the podium, and placed on the desk of his office if he could not be immediately located. This instruction did not exist for any other NGO,” said Reilly.

“On occasion, when a UN Watch speech was received in advance, Mr. Tistounet would request that I draft new language for the President to give a false impression that the speeches broke the rules.”

“He was fully aware that his advice to successive Presidents to reprimand UN
Watch for disobeying rules was false, and that no rule was in fact being broken.”

In addition, when he could get away with it, Tistounet manipulated the clock to remove time from UN Watch.

“When points of order are made during speeches, the NGO liaison and Secretary are responsible for pressing a button on the podium to pause the NGO speaking time.”

“Mr. Tistounet issued a standing instruction that the button was not to be pressed during UN Watch speeches, but instead that their speaking time should be deemed to continue during the point of order. This instruction applied only to UN Watch.”

“Mr. Tistounet made clear on a number of occasions that his ultimate aim was to exclude Mr. Neuer and UN Watch more generally from UN premises.”

 

In an email Emma Reilly is seen confronting Tistounet about attempting to delete UN Watch from a speakers’ list. 

 

UN Watch