GENEVA, Dec. 5, 2012 — Despite massive abuses by its military recently committed during a brutal crackdown, Côte d’Ivoire was elected yesterday by the UN to serve as Vice-Chair of its Disarmament Commission, a decision eliciting sharp protest from the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, which called for the move to be reversed.
“A government whose military has just committed widespread human rights abuses — including arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, extortion, inhuman treatment, and torture — should not be made vice-chair of a U.N. arms control body. The U.N. should recognize that it has sent absolutely the wrong message at the wrong time, cancel the decision, and apologize to the victims,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director.
Abuses by the Côte d’Ivoire military were documented by the Guardian, citing a Nov. 19th report by Human Rights Watch.

President Ouattara’s rule is increasingly precarious, according to another Guardian article, with his government accepting military help from a rebel group now accused of carrying out mass atrocities against members of ethnic groups known to be allied with former president Laurent Gbagbo, now under detention by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Human rights groups have published voluminous reports detailing extensive abuses by the former Force Nouvelle, a rebel group based in the country’s north that allied itself with current President Ouattara and helped him seize power.

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Despite massive abuses by its military recently committed during a brutal crackdown, Côte d’Ivoire has just been elected by the UN to serve as Vice-Chair of its Disarmament Commission, for its upcoming 2013 substantive session, a decision eliciting sharp protest from the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, which called for the move to be reversed.

“A government whose military has just committed widespread human rights abuses — including arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, extortion, inhuman treatment, and torture — should not be made vice-chair of a U.N. arms control body. The U.N. should recognize that it has sent absolutely the wrong message at the wrong time, cancel the decision, and apologize to the victims,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director.

Abuses by the Côte d’Ivoire military were documented the Guardian, citing a Nov. 19th report by Human Rights Watch.

President Ouattara’s rule is increasingly precarious, according to another Guardian article, with his government accepting military help from a rebel group now accused of carrying out mass atrocities against members of ethnic groups known to be allied with former president Laurent Gbagbo, now under detention by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Human rights groups have published voluminous reports detailing extensive abuses by the former Force Nouvelle, a rebel group based in the country’s north that allied itself with current President Ouattara and helped him seize power.

The post Despite Military Atrocities, Ivory Coast Elected as UN Disarmament Commission Vice-Chair appeared first on UN Watch.

Rights groups protest sure win by Pakistan, Venezuela,
Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and UAE

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 — At around 11:30 am New York time today the U.N. will announce today’s voting results and name Pakistan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and the United Arab Emirates to the UN’s highest human rights body, though they are unfit under the U.N.’s own membership criteria. Click here for UN Watch’s full report  — Executive summary below.

“Pakistan, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, and UAE systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, “and they have consistently voted the wrong way on U.N. initiatives to protect the human rights of others.”

UN Watch this year led an international coalition of 40 MPs and NGOs that appealed to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, the EU, and world leaders to oppose the bids by Chavez and Pakistan.

– See Pakistan appeal, petition, testimonies: https://unwatch.org/StopPakistan

– See Venezuela appeal, petition, testimonies: https://unwatch.org/StopChavez

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “neither the U.S. nor the EU said a word. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies are complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

“We saw the same indifference last week when Sudan, whose leader is wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, was elected by 176 votes — with support from at least 10 EU states — to ECOSOC, a principal U.N. organ that oversees the accreditation and work of human rights NGOs, and decides the composition of U.N. women’s rights bodies.”

“Chavez backs the murderous regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and threw a judge in jail after she released a political prisoner in compliance with a U.N. ruling. Pakistan has a Christian mother of five on death row and coddles the extremists who shot a girl in the head for advocating education for women and girls,” said Neuer.

“It is an insult to their victims — and a defeat for the global cause of human rights — when the U.N. helps gross abusers act as champions and global judges of human rights.”

“When the U.N.’s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the world’s victims suffer.”

A Friday press briefing by UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation featured genuine and courageous champions of human rights who pleaded against the election of their oppressors:  Eligio Cedeno, Venezuela’s most famous political prisoner prior to his 2009 escape to America; Marcel Granier, a persecuted journalist from Venezuela; Sajid Christopher, a Christian minority rights activist from Pakistan; and Igor Vinyavsky, a journalist from Kazakhstan who was a political prisoner released from jail earlier this year. (See photos on the right, for higher quality photo album click here.)

EVALUATION OF CANDIDATES FOR 2013-2015
MEMBERSHIP ON THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Click here for full report PDF

Presented at U.N. Headquarters

Executive Summary

This report evaluates the countries that have submitted candidacies for the Nov. 12, 2012 election of 18 new members to the UN Human Rights Council. To evaluate qualifications we applied the membership criteria established by UNGA Resolution 60/251, in particular by examining (a) each candidate’s record of domestic human rights protection; and (b) its UN voting record. The report finds as follows:

Not Qualified
Seven candidates have poor records and are not qualified:
Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, UAE, Venezuela

Questionable
Two candidates have problematic records and thus questionable candidacies:
Kenya, Sierra Leone

Qualified
Only 11 out of 20 candidate countries are qualified to be Council members:
Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Montenegro, South Korea, Sweden, United States

The absence of competition this year in four out of the five regional slates is scandalous, undermining the very premise and rationale for holding elections. Nevertheless, this report reminds UN member states that they have the right to refrain from voting for countries deemed Not Qualified, even if those happen to be running on closed slates. Instead, as detailed in the report, during the ballot they can actually defeat such candidacies, and instead free up the process for qualified alternatives to come forward. We note several alternative candidacies for the relevant regional groups, who have better human rights and U.N. voting records:

Qualified Alternative Candidates
Africa: Cape Verde, Ghana, Namibia, Zambia
Asia: Mongolia, East Timor
Latin America: Panama, Paraguay

In regard to candidate countries deemed Questionable, they should, at a minimum, be asked to commit to redress the shortcomings identified in this report.

Click here for full report PDF

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