On Wednesday, the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council nominated the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which meets next month to shape policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. ECOSOC’s nomination is effectively decisive, as the UN General Assembly customarily rubber-stamps such nominations without a vote.

In addition, ECOSOC by acclamation elected China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the influential Committee on NGOs, which oversees the work, accreditation and UN access of thousands of human rights and civil society groups that enjoy consulative status at the world body.

The United States was the only ECOSOC member to object, saying that Iran, Cuba and Nicaragua were “unfit.”

UN Watch today called on all democratic ECOSOC member states — Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland — to explain why they joined in the election of serial abusers of human rights to key UN bodies that oversee human rights.

“Appointing China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia to oversee the work of human rights activists is like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s truly indefensible, and puts lives at risk.”

“As an organization accredited with special NGO consultative status at the United Nations, and which regularly gives a platform to dissidents from China, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua, we are gravely concerned that brutal dictatorships were elected to oversee our work and credentials — and it is scandalous that Western democracies put them there.”

“This means dictatorships will have a majority on the committee in order to deny United Nations accreditation to independent organizations that call out their human rights violations, and to accredit more fake front groups created by the regimes,” Neuer said.

“It harms the ability of pro-democracy dissidents to protect the most vulnerable victims and to advocate for human rights inside the United Nations.”

“By their cynical actions at the UN, major Western states have betrayed their own human rights principles, severely undermining the ruled-based international order that they claim to support.”

“We note that Western states did take action in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar ECOSOC bodies, and we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan,” said Neuer.

Activists Issued Warning Before ECOSOC Election

Ahead of the election, 70 civil society and human rights groups warned that countries with poor records were at risk of being elected. The group International Service for Human Rights gave a failing grade to China, Cuba, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and others. Yet their warning was ignored.

Key Documents and Sources

• Video showing ECOSOC’s nomination without objection of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k12/k12k3u0ohr?kalturaStartTime=4582
• UN document listing election by acclamation of China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the Committee on NGOs:
  https://press.un.org/en/2026/ecosoc7225.doc.htm
• UN website showing that ECOSOC members currently include Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland: https://ecosoc.un.org/en/about-us/members
• U.S. statement dissociating itself from ECOSOC decisions, the only one of 54 ECOSOC members to do so: https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-position-on-the-ecosoc-election-of-the-committee-on-non-governmental-organizations-and-the-committee-on-program-and-coordination/

About UN Watch

United Nations Watch is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva whose mission is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter. UN Watch holds the UN accountable to its founding principles by exposing hypocrisy, bias, and abuses. For more information, visit www.unwatch.org.

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Watch as UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer is the only person in the room to call out regime-proxy Alena Douhan for hijacking the Human Rights Council to attack the West and excuse despots, all while collecting over $1,000,000 from China, Russia, and Qatar. 

Background: The Sanctions Mandate

The UN mandate on Unilateral Coercive Measures (UCMs), a technical term for sanctions, was established by an Iran-sponsored resolution in 2014, with the support of Russia, China, Venezuela, and Cuba. Its primary objective is to invert reality: claiming that Western sanctions, not repressive governments, are to blame for humanitarian crises in targeted countries.

This process grants the facade of UN legitimacy to the twisted narrative that Western nations cause the mass suffering of people in Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and elsewhere. Since sanctions limit the economic power dictators use to secure citizen loyalty, these regimes opt to manipulate the UN and its multi-million dollar reports and conferences funded by your tax dollars, to advance their propaganda and absolve themselves of accountability. To citizens living under strict censorship, the regime-controlled media then reports that an independent and “objective” UN body has “concluded” that their repressive leaders are, in fact, the victims.

The absurdity is furthered by the fact that during the annual UCM debates at the Human Rights Council, regimes inundate the UN with front groups masquerading as legitimate human rights organizations to pollute the dialogue and spread further propaganda.

At the latest Human Rights Council session, a Panel Discussion on UCMs was held, featuring the UCMs mandate holder, Alena Douhan, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk. All NGOs that spoke, except for UN Watch, were regime front groups (GONGOs) acting under the guise of legitimate human rights defenders.

Of the six NGOs that spoke on the UCM panel, five were based in Tehran or Havana. Given how these regimes treat genuine human rights advocates, their location alone makes it clear that they operate in affiliation with their respective regimes. A brief review of their work confirms it.

1. The Cuban United Nations Association (Havana-based)

• Affiliation: Its leaders include former top communist politicians and diplomats, such as the former Cuban Ambassador to Belgium, Norma Goicochea Estenoz, a key member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, Juan Marinello, and a high-ranking communist politician who served under both Batista and Fidel Castro, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez.
• Propaganda: The group openly states it identifies with the Cuban regime, asserting that the Cuban legal order “protects the exercise of civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights”—a blatant misrepresentation of reality. They routinely accuse the US of a “genocidal campaign against Cuba.”

2. Jameh Ehyagaran Teb Sonnati Va Salamat Iranian (Tehran-based)

• Red Flags: Lacks a public website or identifiable leadership, classic indicators of a GONGO that is only activated to spout propaganda during relevant UN debates, such as the UCM and UPR debates.
• Propaganda: Their limited work focuses on anti-UCM rhetoric. They went so far as to claim that “Western countries (commit) medicinal bio-terrorism,” while predictably ignoring the thousands of Iranian protestors harmed by the regime’s own medical neglect and violence.

3. Medical Support Association for Underprivileged Iranian Patients (Tehran-based)

• Red Flags: Practically no publicly available information; their only activity online is related to UCMs, exposing them as a clear regime front-group.

4. Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (Tehran-based)

• Propaganda: Publishes articles that are blatantly anti-US and anti-Israel (labeling Israel as “pure evil”). In contrast, they compiled official quotes to praise Iran, commending its “significant role in the region” and its “innovative and progressive model of a free and inclusive electoral system”—a surreal claim given Iran’s authoritarian system.

5. Charitable Institute for Protecting Social Victims (Tehran-based)

• Propaganda: While they blamed German police for mistreating arrestees in their German UPR submission, their Iran UPR submission makes zero mention of Iranian police blinding or beating protestors. It focuses exclusively on the impact of UCMs.

Quotes from the UN Debate: 

Russia: Large-scale and uncontrolled use by Western countries of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) contradict the UN’s fundamental human rights documents.

Islamic Republic of Iran: Financial and trade sanctions are unlawful, and contrary to the Charter of the United Nations.

UN Rapporteur Alena Douhan: It is a privilege for me to participate today in the biennial panel meeting on the impact of unilateral sanctions. Unilateral sanctions regimes violate fundamental human rights, the right to life, right to decent life, freedom from torture, prohibition of discrimination…

UN Rights Chief Volker Turk: Unilateral coercive measures that are inconsistent with international law pose serious risks to the enjoyment of human rights.

Venezuela: Unilateral coercive measures are counter to the United Nations Charter and international law, and are applied as weapons of war.

Cuba: The economic, commercial, financial blockade imposed by the US government has devastating effects on all sectors of Cuban society, in particular, on the right to food.

Pakistan: On unilateral coercive measures (UCMs), Pakistan has consistently maintained that they contravene the UN Charter.

China: UCMs are pure and simple hegemony.

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch:

Madam Chair, this panel is premised on the idea that the greatest threat to human rights today comes from Western sanctions.

In truth, the gravest assault on human dignity comes from authoritarian governments that oppress, jail, and torture their own people.

And so we ask this panel, Is it right that the Special Rapporteur, Ms Douhan, has traveled to Qatar, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria and China, not to defend the victims of these dictatorships, but to lend a UN imprimatur to the propaganda of the oppressors?

Ms Douhan, when the people of Venezuela cried out under Maduro’s misrule, when Syrians were bombed and slaughtered by Assad, when Iranian women were beaten for showing their hair, what was your response? To blame the West and excuse the despots.

Why did your office get $50,000 from Qatar? Why $265,000 from Russia? Why $980,000 from China? Who believes that Sheik Tamim, Vladimir, Putin and Xi Jinping gave $1.3 million to help human rights victims?

And let us be clear, sanctions are not the cause of hunger in Cuba, it comes from a one party system that, for decades, has denied its people freedom, choice, and prosperity.

Ordinary Cubans know it is not sanctions that prevent them from growing food freely or importing without state control, it’s their rulers in Havana.

The UN should be defending victims, not enabling their oppressors. By turning this council into a platform against the West, today’s discussion betrays its mandate.

If we care about human rights, let us first demand accountability from the governments that oppress their own people. I thank you. Vice

UNHRC Vice-President: I cannot fail to notice that we have here derogative language or remarks, and that some of them are personal in nature. This is not acceptable in this forum. No personal attacks against mandate holders should be made in this setting, and I will now continue with the speakers list.

Cuba: Thank you Vice President. Cuba categorically rejects the offensive, out-of-order, politicized comments by UN Watch, a so-called NGO, which, far from constructively contributing to the work of the council, dedicates itself systematically to manipulation, provocation, and insulting sovereign states. It is shameful and unacceptable…

The post Hillel Neuer Exposes the UN’s Alena Douhan and the $1.3 Million Scandal Funding Dictator Propaganda appeared first on UN Watch.

The Cuban Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva lashed out at UN Watch and Rosa Maria Paya after she called for member states to remove Cuba from the Human Rights Council during Cuba’s UPR review. 

Full Remarks:

My name is Rosa María Payá, our citizens’ initiative Cuba Decide defends the right of the Cuban people to live in democracy, a right that is denied by the constitution imposed by the leaders in my country.

Mr. President, Cuba should be expelled from this council for its gross and systematic violations of human rights.

In April 2022, Russia was expelled from this Council. Today we officially call for the same to be done with Cuba, under Article 8 of UN Resolution 60/251. The government of Cuba is an ally of Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine and facilitates the sending of young Cubans to the Russian army.

The Cuban government employs state terrorism against its citizens, using the following methods:

1. The government extrajudicially executes its opponents: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that the Cuban state is responsible for the assassination of my father Oswaldo Paya, a Cuban democratic leader, and Harold Cepero.

2. The government represses, imprisons, and tortures those who think differently: There are more than 1000 people in prison in Cuba for publicly expressing their opinions. Among them is Jose Daniel Ferrer, an opposition leader who is systematically tortured and in danger of death.

3. The government violates fundamental human rights and prevents Cubans from prospering from the fruits of their labor, forcing the people into a deep humanitarian crisis.

Despite the imposed hunger and repression, hundreds of thousands of Cubans are peacefully coming out to demand a change of system to democracy.

We urge this Council to listen to the voices of our people and demand that Cuban leaders submit to the sovereign will of the citizenry. To this end, we urge the international community to demand that Cuba guarantee respect for all electoral safeguards, including freedom of expression, association, and access to information, an end to repression, and the release of all political prisoners, with the goal of changing the system in a binding referendum and initiating the transition to democracy.

Mr. Chairman, member states, it is time to side with the Cuban people and expel Cuba from this council.

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GENEVA, November 14, 2023 – UN Watch, in collaboration with Cuba Decide and Center for a Free Cuba, hosted an event at the United Nations on the human rights situation in Cuba on the eve of Cuba’s Universal Periodic Review session at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The impressive list of speakers included:

John Suarez, the Executive Director at the Center for a Free Cuba. Mr. Suarez was previously program officer for Latin America Programs at Freedom House and has been interviewed by TV, radio and print media on the human rights situation in Cuba. He has testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington DC, the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and served as an interpreter for Cuban dissidents in Congressional hearings. Since 2009 he has maintained the blog Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter.

Rosa Maria Paya, Cuban pro-democracy activist and daughter of assassinated Cuban civic leader Oswaldo Paya. A recipient of the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize and a five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Oswaldo Paya was a leading member of the Cuban opposition murdered in 2012 in a car accident determined to have been orchestrated by the Castro regime.

Sirley Avila Leon, Cuban democracy activist and former delegate of the People’s Assembly of Majibacoa in Cuba. After speaking out on state repression to foreign media, she was nearly killed in a machete attack.

Janisset Rivero, Cuban human rights activist. Born in Cuba, Ms. Rivero went into exile in Venezuela with her family as a teenager, before moving to Miami in 1990. She presented Cuba’s struggle for freedom and democracy at the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva and at OAS’s Inter American Commission for Human Rights in Washington, DC on numerous occasions. Her Op-eds have been published in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and US newspapers.

Anamely Ramos Gonzalez, Cuban activist, professor, and art curator. Ms. Ramos Gonzalez has worked alongside Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Michael Sorbo in the defenses of human rights, artisitic freedoms, and the release of political prisoners. She has been denied her right to return home to Cuba since February 16th, 2022.

Yunier Suarez Rodriguez, Cuban human rights defender and artist. Through theater, Mr. Suarez Rodriguez has exposed the mechanisms of repression and violence employed by the Cuban dictatorship.

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Abuses by those candidates are detailed in a new joint NGO report published today by UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, independent non-governmental human rights organizations based in Switzerland, the U.S. and Canada.

“Electing the dictatorships of China, Russia and Cuba as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva.

“It will be slap in the face to their thousands of political prisoners, and to millions of their other citizens subjected to repression, if the UN makes gross abusers into global judges and guardians of human rights,” said Neuer.

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

Because there is no competition in the Asian and African regional groups, with each fielding four candidates for four available seats, China, Burundi and Kuwait are almost guaranteed to win, despite their poor records on human rights.

Fortunately, there is competition in the Latin American group, with police state Cuba vying against Brazil, Dominican Republic and Peru for three available seats, and in the East European group, where Russia is competing with Albania and Bulgaria for two open seats.

“We need to hear the US and EU member states lead the call to oppose the worst abusers. So far, at least in the public arena, they have been silent.”

The report also listed Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Malawi and Peru as having “questionable” credentials, due to problematic human rights and UN voting records that should be improved.

Currently, more than two-thirds of UNHRC members are non-democracies, including Qatar, Sudan, Eritrea, Algeria, Somalia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

Call to Reform Election System

UN Watch is proposing a major reform to the election system. “If our own democracies continue to disregard the election criteria by voting for abusers,” said Neuer, “then we should just scrap elections altogether, and make every country a member, as is the case in the General Assembly’s own human rights committee. Non-democracies could no longer hold up their UNHRC election as a shield of international legitimacy to cover up the abuses of their regime.”

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “the EU has not said a word about hypocritical candidacies that only undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

Click for Report

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UN Watch led the campaign to oppose their election in October to the UN Human Rights Council, but the EU and its member states, as well as other democracies like Canada, were silent.

Prior to the election, UN Watch, an independent Geneva-based human rights organization, documented the abuses of Russia, China and Cuba in a Joint NGO Report, which detailed the regimes’ egregious domestic human rights records as well as their equally negative voting records on UN resolutions concerning human rights.

UN Watch filed formal protests at the United Nations, published as official UN documents, opposing the election of China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

On the eve of the election, UN Watch organized an online press conference featuring human rights dissidents who were persecuted for their activism by China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan. They joined in calling on all UN member states to oppose those countries’ bids for election to the 47-nation council. However, due to cynical politics trumping human rights at the UN, each was elected.

Below are the reasons why these regimes do not deserve to be joining the UN’s highest human rights body, as well as a fact-check of their key campaign claims.

.@EU_eeas:

Why didn't you object to China, Russia & Cuba running for the UNHRC?
(We did: https://t.co/R1uQEo7P6l)

Why didn't you host dissidents like @yangjianli001 @RosaMariaPaya & @vkaramurza?
(We did: https://t.co/ZlmIbBwJJ5)

Why didn't you take the floor @UN?
(We did: ⬇️) pic.twitter.com/590DBSfh1z

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 27, 2020

China’s Human Rights Record

China commits serious human rights violations, including: forced disappearances; political prisoners; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary interference with privacy; lack of independence of judiciary; attacks on journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners and their family members; interference with the rights to freedom of assembly and association; severe restrictions on religious freedom; coercive birth limitation policy; inability of citizens to choose their government; corruption; official repression of Tibetans and other ethnic and religious minorities; and, perhaps most urgently today, the imprisonment of more than 1 million Uighur Muslims in extrajudicial camps in Xinjiang, where China subjects detainees to abuses, torture and killings; arbitrary or unlawful killings;

Claims Versus Facts

China’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[1] included the following claims:

1. Claim: “The Chinese Government…has protected people’s rights to vote, to know, to participate, to express…”

Fact: The citizens of China do not choose their leadership in free and fair elections. Rather, the Communist party leadership selects the President.[2] China also violates the right to  freedom of expression. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, China is among the ten countries with the most censorship and has been one of the top jailers of journalists for more than twenty years.[3] China also increasingly jails human rights activists and even ordinary WeChat users for online activity.[4]

2. Claim: “China has ensured independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power and improved the judicial accountability system.”

Fact: The U.S. State Department reports that the Chinese Communist Party dominates the judiciary, controls judicial appointments and “in certain cases directly dictated the court’s ruling.”[5] This has been affirmed by the UN’s Committee Against Torture, which in 2016 expressed concern about the lack of judicial independence in China.[6] In 2017, Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People’s Court attacked the very notion of judicial independence, calling it a “false western ideal.”[7] In 2019, President Xi himself published an article avowing that China would “never follow the path of Western ‘constitutionalism,’ ‘separation of powers,’ or ‘judicial independence.’’’[8]

3. Claim: “China has actively participated in United Nations human rights affairs, earnestly fulfills its international human rights obligations, carried out extensive international human rights cooperation…”

Fact: China routinely blocks criticism by civil society at UN meetings. When President Xi addressed the UN in Geneva in January 2017, NGOs were barred from attending the speech. A few months later, UN security officials ejected Chinese-Uighur rights activist Dolkun Isa from a meeting at its NY headquarters.[9] In June 2018, then-High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Hussein expressed dismay at “China’s continuing efforts to prevent independent members of civil society from engaging with human rights mechanisms, including Treaty Body reviews, this Council’s UPR, and many mandate-holders.”[10] The UN Secretary-General’s reports on reprisals regularly include cases of Chinese activists subjected to harassment and intimidation for their efforts to engage with the United Nations.[11]

4. Claim: “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese Government has been giving top-most priority to people’s lives and health…” and “China has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, updating COVID-19 information in a most timely fashion.”

Fact: Chinese authorities covered up the initial outbreak, punished those who tried to sound the alarm and save lives — like the courageous Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan — and fought other countries’ efforts to stop the spread of the disease, by measures such as travel restrictions.[12] China’s delay in providing critical information to the World Health Organization to stem the spread of COVID-19 has now been widely reported.[13]

5. Claim: “China will prioritize the development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas, respecting and protecting the rights of ethnic minorities.”

Fact: The U.S. State Department reports that Chinese authorities have “arbitrarily detained more than one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in extrajudicial internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities.”[14] Likewise in Tibet, China uses criminal laws to justify ethnic and religious persecution.[15] For example, China imprisoned Tibetan language advocate, Tashi Wangchuk for “inciting separatism.”[16]

Details on China’s Abuses

China is an authoritarian one-party political system led by President Xi Jinping who is also the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party. No Chinese national leader is freely elected.[17] In March 2018, President Xi amended the constitution to eliminate presidential term limits, enabling him to rule the country indefinitely.[18]

Under President Xi, China brutally silences criticism and dissent through a variety of tactics, including torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders NGO asserts that under President Xi, China has become “the most draconian and invasive since the 1980s.”[19] According to Human Rights Watch, “human rights activists are now enduring their worst persecution since peaceful protesters took to Tiananmen Square and streets across China in 1989.”[20]

China severely restricts basic civil liberties including freedom of expression and freedom of association. As a result of a recent crackdown, a number of prominent advocacy NGOs have been forced to shut down[21] and by January 2019, nearly 6,000 NGOs had been sanctioned.[22]

Human rights defenders are regularly subjected to arbitrary detention, imprisonment and enforced disappearance.[23] According to data published by the U.S. Congress, there were nearly 1600 political prisoners in China as of October 10, 2019.[24]

Moreover, China arbitrarily detains more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in government internment camps in Xinjiang where they are subjected to military-style discipline, political indoctrination, systematic torture and other degrading treatment.[25] Uighur women are also subjected to forced birth control, including sterilization and abortions.[26] The persecution is designed to erase their religious and ethnic identity.[27] China also persecutes other religious and ethnic minorities, including Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners and Jehova’s witnesses.[28]

Due process violations are rampant in China, and include the excessive use of pretrial detention, lack of access to lawyers and forced confessions.[29] In addition, detention facilities in China are known for being overcrowded with poor sanitation and humiliating living conditions.[30] Torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment are common.[31]

China’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: China voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Syria, Cuba, Crimea and Myanmar. China backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, China voted against a resolution in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

—–

Cuba’s Human Rights Record

Cuba commits serious human rights violations, including: abuse of political dissidents and prisoners; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests; political prisoners; lack of independence of the judiciary; arbitrary interference with privacy; restrictions on freedom of the press and assembly; restrictions on religious freedom; elections not free and fair; corruption; trafficking in persons; severely restricted workers’ rights, including ban on labor unions; forced labor. 

Claims Versus Facts

 Cuba’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[32] included the following claims:

1. Claim: “Cuba remains committed to promoting consideration of the just historical demands of the peoples of the South and the rest of the world on such issues as…combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance…”

Facts: The U.S. State Department reports that Afro-Cubans suffer racial discrimination and have been subject to racial epithets and beatings by security agents in response to political activism. State agents threatened antiracist activist Norberto Mesa Carbonel after he published an open letter to the government on structural racism in Cuba.[33]

2. Claim: “As part of its policy of cooperation with the human rights treaty bodies, Cuba systematically complies with requests for information from the special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council.”

Facts: According to a UN special procedures database, Cuba has barred entry to the Council’s human rights experts on torture, free assembly, free expression, and arbitrary detention, rejecting their requests to visit the island and report on the situation of human rights.[34]

3. Claim: Cuba commits to promoting democracy by highlighting “the exercise of power by the people” and “the participatory and democratic nature of the Cuban political system.”

Facts: Freedom House reports that Cuba is an authoritarian one-party system that  excludes the public from any genuine and autonomous political participation.[35] Cuba arbitrarily detained leading rights activist and anti-government opposition figure Jose Daniel Ferrer in October 2019 on false charges and subjected him to brutal torture in prison, from which he was just released after six months.[36]

4. Claim: “Cuba will continue to promote its traditional initiatives on such vital issues as the right to food and the promotion of cultural rights as essential requirements for the enjoyment of all human rights.”

Facts: Cuba institutionalized censorship of independent art and culture by passing Decree 349 in December 2019, which established violations for art that was not regulated or recognized by official cultural institutions.[37] Because of Cuba’s failed policies, including centralized control, its citizens lack basic foods.[38]

5. Claim: “Cuba seeks to…prevent the Council’s work from being tainted by the political manipulation that discredited and put paid to the Commission on Human Rights.”

Facts:  Cuba is more responsible than any other country in the world for the political manipulation of the UNHRC, sponsoring resolutions that seek to erode the meaning of individual human rights and to empower dictatorships. When Cuba came up for mandatory Council review in 2013, the regime committed a massive fraud on the Council by orchestrating 454 front groups to officially register 93 statements falsely praising Havana’s policies and practices.[39] In addition, Cuba systematically opposes UN resolutions that speak out for human rights victims in Iran, North Korea and Syria. Cuba has backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes.

Details on Cuba’s Abuses

Cuba is an authoritarian state, which until recently was led by Raúl Castro, who held the three most powerful governmental positions: president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, Communist Party first secretary, and commander in chief of the security forces. Previously these positions all were held by Fidel Castro.[40] Fidel Castro’s reign was known for its harsh suppression of civil and political rights, backed up by the State security forces and the Cuban legal system, including a judiciary lacking in independence.[41]

After Raúl Castro succeeded his brother in 2006,[42] he continued the same abusive tactics, including surveillance, beatings, arbitrary detention, and public acts of repudiation (i.e., violence and intimidation against dissidents).[43]

Today, under President Miguel Diaz-Canal, Cuba continues to be a one-party communist state with the Communist Party being the only legal party recognized by the constitution.[44] The Communist Party controls all government offices and most civil institutions. Thus, there is no independent judiciary. In addition, Cuba does not have free or fair elections with all candidates being prescreened by the Communist Party, and any opposition eliminated through government harassment and intimidation.[45]

Individual Cubans are not free to express their political views without fear of government retribution.[46] The Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the most authoritative regional mechanism, has stated “Cuba is the only country in the Hemisphere where it can be categorically said that there is no freedom of expression.”[47]

In this vein, the government of Cuba also severely restricts freedom of association. Political groups that are not officially recognized are prohibited by the constitution. Legal recognition is denied to opposition political parties and NGOs. Independent civil society organizations and their members are subjected to intimidation, raids, confiscations, physical assaults, arbitrary detentions and charges, and forced exile, as a matter of course.[48]

Cuba routinely uses arbitrary detention as a tool to silence government critics and human rights activists.[49] Furthermore, police are known to violate procedural laws and commit human rights abuses with impunity in connection with these arbitrary arrests. Detentions are often accompanied by violence, and police and security forces frequently employ physically abusive tactics, threats, and harassment during questioning. The government also mistreats political prisoners, holding them in isolation for extended periods, subjecting them to abuse in custody, and denying them access to home visits, prison classes, telephone calls, and family visits.[50]

Cuba’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: Cuba voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Syria, Crimea and Myanmar. Cuba backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, Cuba voted against a resolution in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

[1] Letter dated 2 June 2020 from the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, UN Doc. A/75/90.

[2] Freedom in the World 2020: China, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-world/2020.

[3]10 Most Censored Countries, Committee to Protect Journalists (Sep. 2019), https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistan-journalist/#5.

[4] China media bulletin, Freedom House (November 2019), https://freedomhouse.org/report/china-media-bulletin/2020/china-media-bulletin-2019-internet-freedom-trends-shutterstock.

[5] U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (March 11, 2020), https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/china/; [hereinafter State Department Report on China].

[6] Comm. against Torture, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of China, UN Doc. CAT/C/CHN/CO/5, ¶ 22 (Feb. 3, 2016) [Hereinafter CAT Report China].

[7] China’s top judge denounces judicial independence, Financial Times (Jan. 17, 2017), https://www.ft.com/content/60dddd46-dc74-11e6-9d7c-be108f1c1dce.

[8] Charlotte Gao, Xi: China Must Never Adopt Constitutionalism, Separation of Powers, or Judicial Independence, The Diplomat (Feb. 19, 2019), https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/xi-china-must-never-adopt-constitutionalism-separation-of-powers-or-judicial-independence/.

[9] The Costs of International Advocacy, HRW (Sep. 5, 2017), https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/09/05/costs-international-advocacy/chinas-interference-united-nations-human-rights.

[10]Opening statement and global human rights update, OHCHR (June 18, 2018), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23206&LangID=E.

[11] Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/39/41, ¶ 22 and Annexes I and II (Aug. 13, 2018); Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/42/30, ¶¶ 45-46 (Sep. 9, 2019).

[12] Alice Su, A doctor was arrested for warning China about the coronavirus Then he dies of it, LA Times (Feb. 6, 2020), https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-06/coronavirus-china-xi-li-wenliang; Barnini Chakraborty, Chinese doctor who first raised the alarm over COVID-19 vanishes, Fox (April 1, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-doctor-critics-who-first-raised-the-alarm-over-covid-19-vanishes; UN Watch Exposes China’s Abuse, Demands W.H.O. Fire Chau Now, UN Watch (May 20, 2020), https://unwatch.org/un-watch-exposes-chinas-abuse-of-w-h-o-calls-to-fire-chau-now/.

[13] China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO, Associated Press (June 3, 2020), https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae; Isabel Togoh, Report: China Delayed Releasing Vital Coronavirus Information, Forbes (June 2, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/06/02/report-china-delayed-releasing-vital-coronavirus-information-despite-frustration-from-who/#60e351897a40.

[14] State Department Report on China, supra note 6.

[15] “Illegal Organizations” China’s Crackdown on Tibetan Social Groups, HRW (July 30, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/07/30/illegal-organizations/chinas-crackdown-tibetan-social-groups.

[16] The Dark Side of the China Dream: Erasing Ethnic Identity, The Diplomat (Aug. 17, 2018), https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/the-dark-side-of-the-china-dream-erasing-ethnic-identity/.

[17] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3.

[18] Id.; World Report 2019: China Events of 2018, HRW (2019), https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet, [Hereinafter, HRW Report: China].

[19] Defending Rights in a “No Rights Zone”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China 2018, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (Feb. 21, 2019), https://www.nchrd.org/2019/02/2018-hrd-report/. [Hereinafter, Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone].

[20] Human Rights Activism in Post-Tiananmen China: A Tale of Brutal Repression and Extraordinary Resilience, HRW (May 30, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/30/human-rights-activism-post-tiananmen-china.

[21] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3.

[22] Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20.

[23] HRW Report: China, supra note 19.

[24] Congressional-Executive Comm’n on China, China: List of Political Prisoners Detained or Imprisoned as of Oct. 10, 2019 (1,598 cases), https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov/files/documents/CECC%20Pris%20List%2020191010.pdf.

[25] State Department Report on China, supra note 6; Up to one million detained in China’s Mass “re-education” drive, Amnesty International (Sep. 24, 2018), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-one-million-detained/.

[26] China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization, Associated Press (June 29, 2020), https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c.

[27] Up to one million detained in China’s Mass “re-education” drive, supra note 26; https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/the-dark-side-of-the-china-dream-erasing-ethnic-identity/.

[28] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3; U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., 2019 Country Reports on Religious Freedom: China (June 10, 2020), https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/.

[29] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3; Congressional Report on China 2018, supra note 25 at 30.

[30] Id; Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20.

[31] Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20; Congressional Report on China 2018, supra note 25 at 107;  CAT Report China at ¶ 20, supra note 7.

[32] Note verbale dated 8 January 2020 from the Permanent Mission of Cuba, UN Doc. A/75/65.

[33] U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Cuba (2019) [hereinafter State Department Report on Cuba], https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/.

[34] Special Procedures Country Visits, OHCHR (last visited May 25, 2020), https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryvisits.aspx?visitType=pending&lang=en

[35] Freedom in World 2020: Cuba, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020.

[36] Frances Robles, Activist’s Case Hints at What Changes and What Stays the Same in Cuba, New York Times (Dec. 2, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/world/americas/cuban-activist-ferrer-diaz-canel.html?searchResultPosition=2.

[37] Cuba: New administration’s Decree 349 is a dystopian prospect for Cuba’s artists, Amnesty International (Aug. 24, 2018), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/08/cuba-new-administrations-decree-349-is-a-dystopian-prospect-for-cubas-artists/.

[38] Cuba Rations Stable Foods and Soap in Face of Economic Crisis, New York Times (Mar. 11, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/world/americas/cuba-rationing-sanctions.html

[39] https://unwatch.org/fraud-cuba-uses-454-front-groups-subvert-todays-un-review-human-rights-record/

[40] Lily Rothman, How Fidel Castro Went From Revolutionary to Ruler, Time (Nov. 26, 2016), https://time.com/3666177/fidel-castro-cuba-history/; Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Record of Repression, Human Rights Watch (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/26/cuba-fidel-castros-record-repression.

[41] Id. See also Fidel Castro’s terrible legacy, The Washington Post (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fidel-castros-terrible-legacy/2016/11/26/0659042c-b3de-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f3d1e872e45b; Glenn Garvin, Red ink: The high human cost of the Cuban revolution, Miami Herald (Dec. 1, 2016), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article118282148.html.

[42] Daniel Trotta & Sarah Marsh, Cuba’s Fidel Castro made revolutionary mark on history, Reuters (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-castro-obituary/cubas-fidel-castro-made-revolutionary-mark-on-history-idUSKBN13L05O.

[43] Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Record of Repression, supra note 41.

[44] Freedom in World 2020: Cuba, supra note 36.

[45] Id.

[46] Id.

[47] Annual Rep. of the Inter-Am. Comm’n H.R., at ¶ 127, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.130 Doc. 22 rev. 1. (Dec.

29, 2007), https://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2007eng/TOC.htm.

[48] State Department Report on Cuba, supra note 34; Freedom in World 2018: Cuba, supra note 36.

[49] Id.

[50] Id.

—–

Russia’s Human Rights Record

Russia commits serious human rights violations, including: repressive laws designed to suppress political opposition and dissent; government restrictions on media freedom; restrictions on freedoms of expression and assembly; denial of citizens’ rights to choose their representatives in free and fair elections; occupation of Ukraine and related violations; prosecution of individuals supporting Ukraine government or criticizing Russian policies in the occupied Ukrainian territories; politically motivated denial of due process to anti-Putin defendants; discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities; government prosecution of LGBTI persons; torture at detention facilities; overcrowded and substandard prison conditions; executive branch pressures on the judiciary; human trafficking; discrimination against people with disabilities; limited workers’ rights; harassment of civil society.

Claims Versus Facts

Russia’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[1] includes the following claims:

1. Claim: Russia commits to countering “attempts to use human rights protection as an instrument of political pressure and interference in the internal affairs of States, including with a view to their destabilizing and the replacement of legitimate governments.”

Facts: Russia itself systematically interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, waging global disinformation campaigns against Western democracies, including one deployed now during the Coronavirus pandemic.[2] Russia disseminates fake news and contradictory reports, in six different languages, while orchestrating thousands of social media accounts to spread fake conspiracy theories. Russia seeks to undermine the very ability to distinguish between truth and fiction, as an attack on the democratic system.[3]

2. Claim: Russia seeks to “ensure protection of human rights and freedoms on the basis of the rules of international law and strict compliance by States with their international human rights obligations.”

Facts: Russia tramples international law by invading Ukraine, swallowing Crimea, and bombing civilians, hospitals and schools in Syria on a systematic basis, as the New York Times documented in great detail.[4] A report from the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria explicitly accused Russia of direct involvement in war crimes for the “indiscriminate” bombing of civilian areas that killed 43 people and injured at last 109.[5]

3. Claim: Russia commits to involving “civil society institutions in addressing international issues.”

Facts: Freedom House reports that in 2019 the government deemed 74 domestic groups and 19 foreign NGOs as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations, giving authorities a range of sanctions to stifle their activity.[6]

4. Claim: Russia opposes “religious and ethnic intolerance.”

Facts: Last year in the city of Surgut, authorities subjected seven Jehovah’s Witnesses—a religious group banned by the government in 2017—to torture including electric shocks, suffocation, and beatings.[7]

5. Claim: Russia says it pays “considerable attention” to “interaction with the UN Human Rights Council’s system of Special Procedures.”

Facts: Russia has denied entry to UN human rights experts on enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion, who were seeking to visit in order to issue reports.[8] However, Russia did give $50,000 to fund the work of a discredited UN expert who described Russia as a victim of human rights violations, in the form of sanctions imposed by Western democracies.[9]

Details on Russia’s Abuses

Russia commits aggression and human rights violations throughout the world, including in Syria—where it is accused of war crimes,[10] Crimea which it has illegally annexed[11] and Georgia—where it committed ethnic cleansing in 2008 and illegally occupies Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[12]

Due to the international isolation that followed the occupation of Crimea, the Russian government sought to consolidate public opinion with notions of patriotism and traditional values. This led to a crack-down on dissent which continues today.[13]

The government retains strict control over media outlets[14] and dissemination of information in other forms. It routinely targets journalists for arrest and prosecution. For example, in July 2020, Russia arrested veteran journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges after he reported about sensitive topics like the sale of Russian fighter jets to Egypt.[15] Also in July, a Russian court convicted journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva on bogus terrorism charges over a 2019 radio broadcast about a suicide bombing.[16] Dozens of journalists peacefully protesting in solidarity were then subjected to fines and detention.[17]

Russia’s judiciary lacks independence from the executive branch. Career advancement is effectively tied to compliance with government preferences.[18] Corruption in Russia is rampant and, according to the Panama Papers, it reaches to the highest levels, including President Vladimir Putin and other senior figures.[19]

Russia has a long history of assassinating dissidents. On 20 August 2020, opposition leader Alex Navalny was put into a coma by military-grade Novichok poisoning in a presumably politically motivated attack. In August 2019, a Russian agent shot dead a 40-year-old Chechen with Georgian citizenship in Berlin.[20] In March 2018, Russian agents attempted to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal in the UK.[21] In February 2015, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead. Nemtsov was reportedly working on publishing a detailed report on the involvement of Russian soldiers in East Ukraine.[22]

LGBT persons are continuously and systematically persecuted by the authorities, and experience societal persecution. In June 2020, more than 30 people were arrested in Moscow for protesting in support of LGBT rights.[23] In February 2019, the Russian authorities threatened Chechnyan LGBT leader Igor Kochetkov after he announced that he had received credible reports of a new round of LGBT roundups by authorities in Chechnya.[24] In July 2019, LGBT activist Yelena Grigoryeva was stabbed to death in St. Petersburg after being listed on a website encouraging people to “hunt” LGBT activists.[25]

Russia’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: Russia voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Cuba, Myanmar and Syria. Russia backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, Russia voted against resolutions in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

[1] Letter dated 13 March 2020 from the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, UN Doc. A/75/71 (March 18, 2020).

[2] Robin Emmott, Russia deploying Coronavirus disinformation to sow panic in West, EU document says, Reuters (March 18, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-disinformation/russia-deploying-coronavirus-disinformation-to-sow-panic-in-west-eu-document-says-idUSKBN21518F.

[3] William J. Broad, Putin’s Long War Against American Science, New York Times (April 13, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/science/putin-russia-disinformation-health-coronavirus.html.

[4] Christian Triebert, Evan Hill, Malachy Browne, Whitney Hurst, Dmitriy Khavin and Masha Froliak, How Times Reporters Proved Russia Bombed Syrian Hospitals, New York Times (Oct. 13, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/reader-center/russia-syria-hospitals-investigation.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.

[5] Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, UN Doc. A/HRC/43/57 (Jan. 28, 2020).

[6] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-world/2020.

[7] ‘Electric Shocks, Suffocation’: Jehovah’s Witnesses  Say Russian Police Tortured Church Members, Radio Free Europe (Feb. 20, 2019), https://www.rferl.org/a/jehovah-s-wintesses-say-russian-police-tortured-the-church-members/29780911.html.

[8] Special Procedures Country Visits, https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryvisits.aspx?visitType=pending&lang=en (last visited Aug. 16, 2020).

[9] Russia gave $50,000 to UN expert who wrote report calling Russia a victim, UN Watch (Sep. 14, 2017), https://unwatch.org/russia-gave-50000-un-expert-wrote-report-calling-russia-victim/.

[10] Sara Kayyali, Russia Should Be Held Accountable for Any War Crimes in Syria, HRW (Dec. 3, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/03/russia-should-be-held-accountable-any-war-crimes-syria.

[11] Ongoing Violations of International Law and Defiance of OSCE Principles and Commitments by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, US Mission to the OSCE (April 2, 2020), https://osce.usmission.gov/on-russias-ongoing-aggression-against-ukraine-and-illegal-occupation-of-crimea-5/.

[12] Up In Flames, HRW (Jan. 23, 2009) https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/01/23/flames/humanitarian-law-violations-and-civilian-victims-conflict-over-south.

[13] Matthew Luxmoore, A Sweeping Clampdown In Russia Has Putin Critics Warning of New Repressions, Radio Free Europe (July 10, 2020), https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-sweeping-clampdown-putin-critics-warning-repressions/30719838.html.

[14] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, supra note 82.

[15] Rachel Denber, Another Journalist Arrested in Russia, HRW (July 7, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/07/another-journalist-arrested-russia.

[16] Damelya Aitkhozhina, Russian Journalist Sentenced on Bogus Terrorism Charges, HRW (July 6, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/06/russian-journalist-sentenced-bogus-terrorism-charges.

[17] Russia: Dozens of Journalists Detained for Peaceful Protests, HRW (July 10, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/10/russia-dozens-journalists-detained-peaceful-protests.

[18] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, supra note 82.

[19] Julian Hans, Panama Papers; The secrets of dirty money, Suddeitsche Zeitung (April 15, 2016), https://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/57161f07a1bb8d3c3495bc36/; Luke Harding, How to hide a billion dollars, The Guardian (April 3, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore.

[20] Georgian’s death in Berlin was a Russian-ordered assassination, prosecutors believe, Deutsche Welle (June 18, 2020), https://www.dw.com/en/georgians-death-in-berlin-was-a-russian-ordered-assassination-prosecutors-believe/a-53860911.

[21] Flora Carr, Ex-Spy Sergei Skirpal is Just the Latest Russian Dissident to Meet Tragedy on British Soil, Time (March 6, 2018), https://time.com/5187333/sergei-skripal-russian-assassinations-uk/.

[22] Sarah Rainsford, Boris Nemtsov killing: Grief, fear and anger one year on, BBC (Feb. 27, 2016), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35675221.

[23] Police detains over 30 protesting LGBT activists in Moscow – monitoring group, Reuters (June 27, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-lgbt-arrests/police-detains-over-30-protesting-lgbt-activists-in-moscow-monitoring-group-idUSL8N2E40DB.

[24] Russia: New Wave of Anti-LGBT persecution, HRW (Feb. 15, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/15/russia-new-wave-anti-lgbt-persecution.

[25] Tim Fitzsimons, Russian LGBTQ activist killed after being listed on gay-hunting website, NBC (July 23, 2019), https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/russian-lgbtq-activist-killed-after-being-listed-saw-inspired-site-n1032841.

The post Russia, China, Cuba set to join U.N.’s top human rights body on January 1st appeared first on UN Watch.

In @BBCNews: “Human rights activists opposed China & Russia's membership. UN Watch said ‘It’s absurd & morally obscene the UN elected to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps & crushed those who tried to sound the alarm on the coronavirus.’” pic.twitter.com/z4rSYnVCak

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 14, 2020

NEW YORK, October 13, 2020—The independent human rights group UN Watch condemned today’s election of rights-abusing governments in China, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan to the UN’s top human rights body, and expressed alarm that the percentage of non-democracies on the UN human rights council now goes from 51% to a staggering 60%.

“Today is a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights organization, which deemed those countries to be “unqualified” in a Joint NGO Report, on account of the regimes’ domestic human rights records as well as their voting records on UN resolutions concerning human rights.

At a UN Watch online press conference on Friday, human rights dissidents who were persecuted for their activism by China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan joined in calling on all UN member states to oppose those countries’ bids for election to the 47-nation council.

UN Watch regretted that the regimes won support today from more than 70% of the 193-nation UN General Assembly:

• Cuba: 170 votes (88%)
• Pakistan: 169 (87.5%)
• Uzbekistan: 169 (87.5%)
• Russia: 158 (82%)
• China: 139 (72%)

“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Neuer.

Today, 51% of U.N. Human Rights Council members FAIL to meet the minimal standards of a free democracy.

Thanks to today's election of China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan & Uzbekistan, that figure will rise to a staggering 60% beginning on January 1, 2021.

Have a nice day. https://t.co/CmNSwnRd7s pic.twitter.com/LIik4XAop2

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 13, 2020

“It’s logically absurd and morally obscene that the UN has elected to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, arrested, crushed and disappeared those who tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong,” said Neuer.

“Russia assassinates journalists and poisons dissidents. Cuba is a police state. Pakistan persecutes Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis for the crime of being non-Muslim minorities. And Uzbek government officials routinely torture and harass imprisoned activists,” said Neuer.

UN Watch welcomed, in an unexpected turn of events, the rejection of Saudi Arabia which received only 90 of the 97 positive votes needed for election, and the least votes of all five candidates in the Asian group, the only regional bloc to feature competition.

“Currently, 51% of UN Human Rights Council members fail to meet the minimal standards of a free democracy,” noted Neuer. “Yet because of today’s election of China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, that figure will rise to a staggering 60% beginning on January 1, 2021 when new members officially begin their three-year term.”

UN Watch’s report also listed Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Mexico, Senegal and Ukraine as having “questionable” credentials, due to problematic human rights and UN voting record, however all won election.

Background: Today’s UNHRC Election

As shown in UN Watch’s report, Cuba and Russia had no competition in their regional groups while in the Asian regional group five candidates––including China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia—were vying for four available seats.

UN Watch filed formal protests at the United Nations, published last week as official UN documents, against the election of China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

“Sadly, we failed to hear EU member states speak out and oppose the worst abusers. Silence is complicity.”

The U.N. just elected 15 countries to its Human Rights Council.

Our coalition warned: 13 of these fail to meet the minimal criteria because of how they abuse their own people and oppose UN action for victims. They were elected anyway.

Meet the new world judges of human rights: pic.twitter.com/ElxcDcAnC2

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 15, 2020

UN Watch Calls to Scrap Elections Because Criteria Are Ignored

UN Watch is proposing a major reform to the election system. “It’s clear that our own democracies continue to disregard the election criteria by voting for abusers,” said Neuer.

“That is why we now need to just scrap elections altogether, and make every country a member, as is the case in the General Assembly’s human rights committee. Non-democracies could no longer hold up their UNHRC election as a shield of international legitimacy to cover up the abuses of their regime.”

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “the EU refused to say a word about hypocritical candidacies that only undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

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

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

“Cuba elected for 5th time to UN Human Rights Council. Despite imperial lies, the world recognizes #Cuba, admires firmness of its convictions…“

Let's face it: UNHRC elections don't keep out dictatorships, they hand them propaganda victories.

It's time to scrap the elections. https://t.co/e0ArbQrp3h

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 16, 2020

Think of poisoned Russian dissident Alex Navalny.

Think of Chinese political prisoner Wang Bingzhang.

Think of the family of slain Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá.

What kind of message did the U.N. just send them today? https://t.co/dW3nrj4WjJ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 13, 2020

In the only official U.N. filing of its kind, we dismantled every single one of Saudi Arabia's false claims: https://t.co/RtVphlD5T5 pic.twitter.com/B0g03ZxXrB

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 14, 2020

The post Non-democracies rise to 60% of UNHRC as China, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan win seats appeared first on UN Watch.

A/HRC/45/NGO/119: Candidacy of the Russian Federation for election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for 2021-2023

Excerpt:

The Russian Federation (“Russia”) is running for election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term. Its candidacy should be rejected because Russia does not meet the membership criteria set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251…

As detailed below, Russia is not qualified for membership in the Human Rights Council according to the above criteria…Russia commits aggression and human rights violations throughout the world, including in Syria—where it is accused of war crimes, Crimea which it has illegally annexed and Georgia—where it committed ethnic cleansing in 2008 and illegally occupies Abkhazia and South Ossetia…

A/HRC/45/NGO/121: Candidature of Saudi Arabia for UN Human Rights Council Membership for 2021-2023

Excerpt:

Saudi Arabia is running for election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term. Its candidacy should be rejected because Saudi Arabia does not meet the membership criteria set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251…

As detailed below, Saudi Arabia is not qualified for membership in the Human Rights Council according to the above criteria…Saudi Arabia is governed by an absolute monarchy and theocracy. Citizens have no ability to influence government through democratic practices. The judiciary is highly influenced by the government and is dictated by Sharia law.

The government and courts systematically deny freedoms of expression and the media, prosecuting and imprisoning dissenters and peaceful critics of government policies or the Islamic religion…

A/HRC/45/NGO/123: Candidacy of China for UN Human Rights Council for 2021-2023

Excerpt:

China is running for election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term. Its candidacy should be rejected because China does not meet the membership criteria set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251…

As detailed below, China is not qualified for membership in the Human Rights Council according to the above criteria…China is an authoritarian one-party political system led by President Xi Jinping who is also the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party. No Chinese national leader is freely elected. In March 2018, President Xi amended the constitution to eliminate presidential term limits, enabling him to rule the country indefinitely.

Under President Xi, China brutally silences criticism and dissent through a variety of tactics, including torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention…

A/HRC/45/NGO/124: Candidacy of Cuba for UN Human Rights Council membership for 2021-2023

Excerpt:

Cuba is running for election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term. Its candidacy should be rejected because Cuba does not meet the membership criteria set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251…

As detailed below, Cuba is not qualified for membership in the Human Rights Council according to the above criteria…Cuba is an authoritarian state, which until recently was led by Raúl Castro (Raúl), who held the three most powerful governmental positions: president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, Communist Party first secretary, and commander in chief of the security forces…

Today, under President Miguel Diaz-Canal, Cuba continues to be a one-party communist state with the Communist Party being the only legal party recognized by the constitution. The Communist Party controls all government offices and most civil institutions. Thus, there is no independent judiciary. According to Freedom House, “the overlap between state and party is almost total.”

A/HRC/45/NGO/125: Candidacy of Pakistan for UN Human Rights Council membership for 2021-2023

Excerpt:

Pakistan is running for election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2021-2023 term. Its candidacy should be rejected because Pakistan does not meet the membership criteria set out in UNGA Resolution 60/251…

As detailed below, Pakistan is not qualified for membership in the Human Rights Council according to the above criteria…

Large areas of Pakistan continue to suffer from terrorist violence targeting civilians and the military, mostly perpetrated by the Tehrik-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Pakistani military and security forces are accused of heavy-handed tactics in responding to the militants, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances.

In addition, torture by police and security forces is common. In its 2017 concluding observations for Pakistan, the Committee Against Torture expressed concern about widespread police torture to obtain confessions, as well as torture in counterterrorism efforts…

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GENEVA, October 9, 2020 – Human rights dissidents who have been persecuted for their activism by China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan joined today in calling on all UN member states to oppose those countries’ bids for election to the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

The human rights activists were hosted for an international press conference today by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva.

Click below for their remarks:
• On China: Yang Jianli, President of Initiatives for China, former political prisoner
• On Cuba: Rosa Maria Paya, Cuban human rights activist, daughter of late dissident Oswaldo Paya
• On Russia: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian democracy activist and vice president of the Free Russia Foundation
• On Pakistan: Taha Siddiqui, Award-winning Pakistani journalist attacked for criticizing the military

Background: the UNHRC Election to be Held on October 13, 2020

On Tuesday, October 13, the UN will elect 15 nations to its highest human rights body.

Earlier this week, a coalition of non-governmental human rights groups from Europe, the U.S. and Canada called on UN member states to oppose the election of China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, which were deemed “unqualified” due to their human rights records as well as their voting records on UN resolutions concerning human rights.

Abuses by those candidates were detailed in a 30-page joint NGO report published by UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, which is being circulated to UN diplomats.

“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

As shown in the report, Cuba and Russia have no competition in their regional groups. While technically they still must obtain 97 positive votes, in practice their election is virtually certain.

The Asian regional group is the only one being contested, with five candidates vying for four available seats. “Yet because China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are so powerful at the United Nations, it’s almost certain they will be elected as well,” said Neuer.

“It’s logically absurd and morally obscene that the UN is about to elect to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, arrested, crushed and disappeared those who tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong,” said Neuer.

“Saudi Arabia carried out a record 184 executions in 2019. Russia assassinates journalists and poisons dissidents. Cuba is a police state,” said Neuer.

UN Watch has filed formal protests at the United Nations, published last week as official UN documents, against the election of China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

Despite the lack of competition in almost every regional group, Neuer emphasized that there is a myth among UN diplomats that they are obliged to vote for all candidates on a clean slate. “Yet as made clear in our report, voting nations can and should refrain from electing rights abusers to the UN’s highest human rights body. We need to hear the EU’s high commissioner Josep Borrell and member states lead the call to oppose the worst abusers. So far, they have been silent.”

The report also listed Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Nepal, Malawi, Mexico, Senegal and Ukraine as having “questionable” credentials, due to problematic human rights and UN voting records that should be improved.

“Sadly, all signs are that the UN will disregard its own rules and principles next Tuesday by rubber-stamping the election of China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — even though these regimes systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens,” said Neuer, “and consistently frustrate UN initiatives to protect the human rights of others.”

UN Watch Call to Scrap Elections if Criteria Ignored

UN Watch is proposing a major reform to the election system. “If our own democracies continue to disregard the election criteria by voting for abusers,” said Neuer, “then we should just scrap elections altogether, and make every country a member, as is the case in the General Assembly’s human rights committee. Non-democracies could no longer hold up their UNHRC election as a shield of international legitimacy to cover up the abuses of their regime.”

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “the EU has not said a word about hypocritical candidacies that only undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

“It will be an insult to their political prisoners and many other victims — and a defeat for the global cause of human rights — if the UN helps gross abusers act as champions and global judges of human rights. When the UN’s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the world’s victims suffer,” said Neuer.

The post Dissidents Urge Countries to Oppose Election of Abusers to UN’s Top Human Rights Body appeared first on UN Watch.

Speaking at UN Watch’s press conference today concerning next week’s elections to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, Cuban rights activist Rosa Maria Paya urged countries not to elect Cuba. See her remarks below. UN Watch published a detailed report on the elections which examines the pledges and human rights record of each country running. Click here for the report.

Greetings to you all, and a special thanks to Hillel and UN Watch for providing this opportunity.

In 2013, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, received and circulated a petition to create an international committee in order to conduct an independent investigation into the killing of Cuban political activist Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. July 22 will mark nine years since my father, Oswaldo Payá, was assassinated by the Cuban communist regime. The investigation has yet to be conducted by the UN while the Cuban regime is again seeking a seat on the Human Rights Council, from where they pretend to protect their impunity and ensure sure that the multiple accusations against them, or against the rest of their criminal friends, in Venezuela, China, Russia, Belarus, etc. do not prosper.

We know that as a fact, because that impunity has been guaranteed each time the Cuban regime has been seated in the Council. Personally, I have been publicly interrupted, attacked, and even threatened by the ambassadors of the dictatorship in coordination with representatives from other regimes such as Russia, China, and Venezuela while addressing the plenary session of the Human Rights Council. All of these regimes act in gangs, conspiring together to cover their backs and deplete the mission of the Human Rights Council of content and effectiveness.

 The existence of a candidacy without competition of the Cuban dictatorship is not only an outrage against the Cuban people, but also a shame on the governments that sit in the United Nations. So, my words today are especially addressed to the member states of the European Union and the democracies of the Americas which should not legitimize with their vote the presence in the Human Rights Council of the longest dictatorship in our hemisphere. We urge you to vote against the Cuban dictatorship in the highest human rights body.

Actually, the 60-year tolerance of totalitarianism in Cuba demonstrated by the free world has impeded the stability of democracy in our continent and caused serious threats to the national security of several states. As has been widely documented, the Cuban intelligence apparatus of the Castro regime infiltrated the entire hemisphere, from social movements to guerrillas and criminal organizations. During these years, Cuba has served as a center for the dissemination of authoritarian models, such as the so-called “21st century socialism.” The Cuban dictators are involved in criminal and terrorist activities: drug trafficking, trafficking persons through the Communists Medical Brigades, corruption, and providing sanctuary and support to terrorists as recently denounced by the Colombian government.

 In fact, last year, the attacks on democratic regimes in Latin America have been especially intense and even violent, according to the allegations of the OAS General Secretariat. That entity that was forced to make itself available to “the member states in their efforts to confront the destabilizing actions organized by the Venezuelan and Cuban dictatorships.”

Solidarity is crucial now because Cuba is in crisis. Families are living through a deep humanitarian crisis and political repression, a crisis caused by the existence of a corrupt and criminal regime and aggravated by the Covid-19. However, amid hunger and medicine shortages, Cuban regime authorities have been blocking the release of humanitarian aid sent by the Cuban exile community in a citizen-led initiative to help their brothers and sisters on the island. For months now, Castro and Diaz Canel have been arbitrarily withholding the cargo, demonstrating that the dictatorship is the true blockade between the aid and the Cuban people.

We are talking about a regime that imposes a single-party system and prohibits the exercise of politics, freedom of expression and association, and even religious freedom.

All the democracies of the world, especially those that sit in the OAS and in the European Union, must vote against the Cuban dictators.  Josep Borrell and Michelle Bachelet must publicly protest against this candidacy. To do otherwise would be an act of complicity with criminals, an act of treason to the Cuban people and, frankly, a sabotage of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.

It is imperative that all of the nations in the free world support the Cuban people’s fight for change because the victory of democracy in Cuba is essential to open the path to peace, prosperity and stability in the whole hemisphere.

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