GENEVA, Oct. 25, 2015 — UN Watch today urged member states of the UN General Assembly to oppose the re-election on Wednesday of Venezuela, Pakistan and UAE to the UN Human Rights Council, as well as Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Togo, due to widespread criticism of these governments for egregious human rights violations.
UN Watch will hold a press conference at UN headquarters to fight the inappropriate candidacies, together with the Human Rights Foundation and the Lantos Foundation, on Tuesday, Oct. 27th. The election will take place at the UNGA on the following day.
“The expected election of rights abusing regimes would deal a severe blow to the credibility and efficacy of a body that was supposed to improve on its discredited predecessor. It will be a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group.
“Sadly, the likely election of oppressive regimes — three out of the five regional groups are running uncontested slates — will only send the message that politics trumps human rights, and will let down millions of victims worldwide who look to the world body for protection.”
According to a comprehensive report by UN Watch, to be released at next week’s UN press conference, Venezuela, Pakistan, UAE, Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Togo have been cited by human rights groups for having committed serious violations of numerous articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including curbs on the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly, along with disregard for fundamental due process. The candidate countries were also found to have voted against UN resolutions taking action for victims of human rights abuses in various hotspots.

• The Council will continue to turn a blind eye to egregious abuses by violators like China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, which have never been addressed in any UN resolution.
• Mechanisms meant to help victims will be hijacked by politicization and selectivity.
• The core principles of individual human rights will be subverted by concepts that increase power for governments.

The post Outrage: Venezuela, Pakistan, UAE, Ethiopia, Burundi Slated to Win UN Rights Council Seats appeared first on UN Watch.

Delivered by Regont Pula

Thank you, Mr. President.
UN Watch is concerned with the human rights situation in Ethiopia, where a government dominates the political scene by detaining political opposition, silencing free media and restricting independent civil society.
UN Watch is disturbed to find that many important UPR recommendations have been rejected by Ethiopia. These relate to the freedoms of assembly, opinion and expression, and include recommendations to end the arrest of journalists, to promote an independent civil society and to seek advice from the Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly.
There have been numerous reports of journalists charged with false terrorism offences, as well as many legislative and financial restrictions on the activities of NGOs. We call upon the government to end such measures and allow for media and independent NGOs to operate freely.
UN Watch is also concerned by the fact that Ethiopia has rejected recommendations to decriminalize homosexuality, which is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment. The government has a responsibility to end all restrictions on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
Last but not least, Ethiopia has rejected recommendations relating to torture, which contradict the government’s declarations about having zero tolerance for torture. There have been allegations that political detainees have been subjected to torture at detention centres in Addis Ababa. If the government is serious in its commitment to end torture, its proclamations must be matched with concrete measures.
Mr. President,
In conclusion, UN Watch regrets the fact that the most meaningful recommendations in the report before us have been rejected by the government of Ethiopia. Accordingly, we see no alternative at this point but for the Council to take action under item 4, and create a Special Rapporteur to monitor the alarming situation of human rights in Ethiopia.
Thank you.

The post End human rights violations in Ethiopia 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

The post U.N. Election Results Soon: Chavez & Pakistan to Win — But U.S. May Lose — U.N. Human Rights Council Seats appeared first on UN Watch.