ELECTING THE 2018-2020 MEMBERS OF THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Ahead of the Human Rights Council elections by the General Assembly
at United Nations Headquarters, New York, October 16, 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report evaluates the country candidates for the October 16, 2017 election of 15 new members to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Our evaluations applied the membership criteria established by UNGA Resolution 60/251, which requires members to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.” In particular, we examined (a) each candidate’s record of domestic human rights protection; and (b) its U.N. voting record. The report finds as follows:

UNQUALIFIED

7 out of 16 candidates have poor records and fail to qualify: Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Qatar

QUESTIONABLE

4 candidates have problematic human rights and/or U.N. voting records: Mexico, Nepal, Senegal and Ukraine

QUALIFIED

Only 5 out of 16 candidate countries are qualified to be council members: Australia, Chile, Peru, Slovakia and Spain
The absence of competition this year in four out of the five regional slates undermines the very premise and rationale for holding elections. Nevertheless, this report emphasizes to U.N. member states that they have the legal right—and moral obligation—to refrain from voting for an Unqualified candidate—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, thereby freeing up the process for qualified alternatives to come forward. In regard to candidate countries deemed Questionable, they should, at a minimum, be asked to commit to redress the shortcomings identified in this report.

ANALYSIS OF “UNQUALIFIED” CANDIDATES

Afghanistan

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Angola

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DRC

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Malaysia

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Nigeria

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Pakistan

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Qatar

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• Extrajudicial killings
• Disappearances
• Torture
• Rape
• Arbitrary detention
• Mistreatment of detainees
• Looting
• Destruction of property
• Forced evictions
• Vigilante killings
• Denial of fair public trial
• Executive influence on judiciary
• Restrictions on freedom of speech
• Restrictions on freedom of the press
• Restrictions on freedom of assembly
• Restrictions on freedom of movement
• Official corruption
• Violence against women and children
• Trafficking in persons
• Early and forced marriages
• LGBT discrimination
• Discrimination based on ethnic and religious grounds
• Forced labor
• Child labor

Discussion
Nigeria experienced its first successful democratic transfer of power in 2015 with the election of President Muhammadu Buhari. Despite this positive step, the government continues to be plagued by corruption at all levels.[1] According to Human Rights Watch, official corruption directly affects the basic rights of Nigerians, more than half of whom live in poverty. One third of school-age children are out of school and one in five children under age five die from treatable, preventable diseases.[2]
While Nigeria has enacted legislation protecting freedom of the press, journalists often face intimidation, harassment and physical attacks both from militias and the police, especially if they are critical of the government or politicians.[3] Reporters Without Borders’ recorded a decline in freedom of the press in Nigeria over the last year. There were at least four separate incidents of government intimidation and harassment of journalists in the first four months of 2017.[4]
Since 2009, Nigeria has been battling a violent insurgency by Boko Haram, a jihadi terrorist group responsible for grave human rights abuses in the northeast of the country. While the government has made progress against the group, Boko Haram continues to terrorize parts of Nigeria.[5]
Government military and security forces also are responsible for numerous human rights violations in the fight against Boko Haram. In June 2016, the Nigerian military massacred more than 80 men in a small farming village in Marte and burned down the village, even though none of the men were identified by villagers as being affiliated with Boko Haram. Witnesses in displaced persons’ camps reported many similar cases of abuse by the military in its search for Boko Haram sympathizers. [6] The military also arbitrarily detained thousands of young men on the basis of random profiling without reasonable suspicion of involvement in Boko Haram activity. This led to overcrowding in prisons with poor sanitary conditions, and resulted in the deaths of more than 240 detainees.[7]
The Nigerian military and police also employ excessive force against other groups, such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). The military killed at least nine IPOB protesters in February 2016. According to Amnesty International, at least 150 IPOB members had been killed between August 2015 and September 2016 with hundreds more arbitrarily arrested. In August 2016, armed men in a government vehicle shot and disappeared IBOP activist Sunday Chucks.[8]
A government judicial commission published in July 2016 found that the military used excessive force in an altercation with the Shia IMN in December 2015 in which 347 IMN members were killed and buried in a mass grave, and in which the government destroyed IMN religious sites and property. IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife continue to be detained without charge even though a federal court has declared the detention unconstitutional and ordered their unconditional release.[9]
Torture and mistreatment of suspects by Nigerian security forces is common. In May 2016, a burglary suspect died after two weeks in custody.[10] Another suspect was beaten with machetes and heavy sticks and released after he paid an $81 fine. Security services also subject women and girls to rape and other forms of violence, with impunity.[11]
The government has carried out forced evictions against many Nigerians without affording them adequate legal protections or alternative housing.[12] Between November 2016 and April 2017, the government forcibly evicted at least 35,000 people in fishing settlements in Lagos, leaving them homeless and without livelihood.[13] The evictions proceeded despite a January 2017 court order that they be halted.[14]
Women and LGBT are also at risk in Nigeria where female genital mutilation continues to be widely practiced and homosexuality can be punished with 14-year prison terms.[15]
U.N. Voting Record
Negative: At the General Assembly, Nigeria backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes, by voting to delay the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against LGBT and by voting against a resolution to protect human rights defenders. Nigeria abstained on resolutions that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Syria and North Korea. At the Human Rights Council, Nigeria voted against resolutions to protect gays and people with disabilities. Nigeria voted against a resolution that spoke out for human rights victims in Belarus. It also voted against a resolution to allow the High Commissioner to choose his own staff.
[1] “Nigeria 2016 Human Rights Report,” U.S. State Department, 2017, pp. 1, 26, available at https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2016&dlid=265288.
[2] Human Rights Watch, World Report 2017, Nigeria country chapter, available at https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/nigeria.
[3] Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016, Nigeria, available at https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/nigeria.
[4] “Nigeria’s Press Freedom Record Worsens in One Year, Reports, Sahara Reporters, April 26, 2017, available at https://saharareporters.com/2017/04/26/nigeria%E2%80%99s-press-freedom-record-worsens-one-year-reports.
[5] Id.; Nigeria 2016 Human Rights Report,” U.S. State Department, 2017, p. 2, available at https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2016&dlid=265288.
[6] Dionne Searcey, “’They Told Us They Were Here to Help Us.’ Then Came Slaughter,” New York Times, Feb. 28, 2017, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/africa/nigeria-civilian-massacre.html?mcubz=0.
[7] Amnesty International 2016/2017 Report, Nigeria, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/nigeria/report-nigeria/.
[8] “Nigeria 2016 Human Rights Report,” U.S. State Department, 2017, pp. 3-4, available at https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2016&dlid=265288.
[9] Id.
[10] Amnesty International 2016/2017 Report, Nigeria, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/nigeria/report-nigeria/.
[11] “Nigeria 2016 Human Rights Report,” U.S. State Department, 2017, p. 5, available at https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2016&dlid=265288.
[12] Id. p. 15; Amnesty International 2016/2017 Report, Nigeria, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/nigeria/report-nigeria/.
[13] Ijeoma Joy Ike and Andrew Esiebo, “’They came while we were asleep’: Lagos residents tell of brutal evictions,” The Guardian, May 31, 2017, available at https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/31/destroyed-community-lagos-nigeria-residents-forced-evictions-demolitions.
[14] Remi Adekoya, “Lagos slums are being razed to make way for luxury properties. That’s Nigeria,” The Guardian, April 14, 2017, available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/14/lagos-slums-razed-luxury-nigeria-poor-ruling-class.
[15] Claire Daly and Mary Carson, “Nigeria: 20 million women and girls have undergone FGM,” The Guardian, Oct. 11, 2016, available at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/11/fgm-nigeria-20-million-women-and-girls-undergone-female-genital-mutilation; Rachel Banning-Lover, “Where are the most difficult places in the world to be gay or transgender,” The Guardian, March 1, 2017, available at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/mar/01/where-are-the-most-difficult-places-in-the-world-to-be-gay-or-transgender-lgbt.

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UN Watch Statement

23^rd Special Session, UN Human Rights Council

 
Thank you, Mr. President.
 
UN Watch welcomes today’s meeting. Yet given that it has been more than five years now since Boko Haram has been on the rampage, killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children, we must ask: Why has the UN waited so long?
On Christmas Eve 2010, when Boko Haram killed 32 people in bomb blasts targeting churches in the central Plateau state, and when it did the same on Christmas Day in 2011, killing dozens of people outside Abuja and other cities, why was this Council silent?
When two months later, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people, and then released a video describing the UN as a “forum of all the global evil,” and praising Osama Bin Laden, why was this Council silent?
When in July 2012, a suicide bomber detonated himself at a mosque in Borno, apparently to target a moderate Muslim leader, and five worshippers were killed, why was this Council silent?
 
Mr. President, last year the world heard the cries of the victims of Boko Haram when the group abducted more than 200 school girls. Their plight was made famous when the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, posted the Twitter hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls.”
Yet when an attempt was made here during the June 2014 session to condemn this kidnapping, the Council refused to give its support, and the text had to be withdrawn.
 
Mr. President, last month at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, UN Watch and 20 other NGOs hosted one of the Nigerian girls who managed to escape the kidnappers.
She said: “I want my friends and colleagues to come back, who are still in captivity for almost a year now. I want help from the United Nations to bring back the girls so they can continue their studies and be back with their families.”
We ask: When will the UN take action for the innocent victims of Boko Haram?
 
Thank you, Mr. President.
 

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UN Watch Statement

23^rd Special Session, UN Human Rights Council

 
Thank you, Mr. President.
UN Watch welcomes today’s meeting. Yet given that it has been more than five years now since Boko Haram has been on the rampage, killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children, we must ask: Why has the UN waited so long?
On Christmas Eve 2010, when Boko Haram killed 32 people in bomb blasts targeting churches in the central Plateau state, and when it did the same on Christmas Day in 2011, killing dozens of people outside Abuja and other cities, why was this Council silent?
When two months later, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people, and then released a video describing the UN as a “forum of all the global evil,” and praising Osama Bin Laden, why was this Council silent?
When in July 2012, a suicide bomber detonated himself at a mosque in Borno, apparently to target a moderate Muslim leader, and five worshippers were killed, why was this Council silent?
Mr. President, last year the world heard the cries of the victims of Boko Haram when the group abducted more than 200 school girls. Their plight was made famous when the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, posted the Twitter hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls.”
Yet when an attempt was made here during the June 2014 session to condemn this kidnapping, the Council refused to give its support, and the text had to be withdrawn.
Mr. President, last month at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, UN Watch and 20 other NGOs hosted one of the Nigerian girls who managed to escape the kidnappers.
She said: “I want my friends and colleagues to come back, who are still in captivity for almost a year now. I want help from the United Nations to bring back the girls so they can continue their studies and be back with their families.”
We ask: When will the UN take action for the innocent victims of Boko Haram?
Thank you, Mr. President.

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23^rd Special Session, UN Human Rights Council

April 1, 2015

 
Thank you, Mr. President.
UN Watch welcomes today’s meeting. Yet given that it has been more than five years now since Boko Haram has been on the rampage, killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children, we must ask: Why has the UN waited so long?
On Christmas Eve 2010, when Boko Haram killed 32 people in bomb blasts targeting churches in the central Plateau state, and when it did the same on Christmas Day in 2011, killing dozens of people outside Abuja and other cities, why was this Council silent?
When two months later, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people, and then released a video describing the UN as a “forum of all the global evil,” and praising Osama Bin Laden, why was this Council silent?
When in July 2012, a suicide bomber detonated himself at a mosque in Borno, apparently to target a moderate Muslim leader, and five worshippers were killed, why was this Council silent?
Mr. President, last year the world heard the cries of the victims of Boko Haram when the group abducted more than 200 school girls. Their plight was made famous when the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, posted the Twitter hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls.”
Yet when an attempt was made here during the June 2014 session to condemn this kidnapping, the Council refused to give its support, and the text had to be withdrawn.
Mr. President, last month at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, UN Watch and 20 other NGOs hosted one of the Nigerian girls who managed to escape the kidnappers.
She said: “I want my friends and colleagues to come back, who are still in captivity for almost a year now. I want help from the United Nations to bring back the girls so they can continue their studies and be back with their families.”
We ask: When will the UN take action for the innocent victims of Boko Haram?
Thank you, Mr. President.

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UN Press Release

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL TO HOLD SPECIAL SESSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS, ABUSES AND VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY BOKO HARAM
The Human Rights Council will hold its twenty-third special session on Wednesday, 1 April 2015, “in light of the terrorist attacks and human rights abuses and violations committed by the terrorist group Boko Haram”.
The special session will start at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 April in Room XX at the Palais des Nations. The meeting will be webcast live at webtv.un.org.
The President of the Human Rights Council received a letter on 26 March by the Permanent Mission of Algeria, on behalf of the African Group in Geneva, containing the request to convene the special session.
In order for a special session to be convened, the support of one-third of the Council – 16 or more – is required. This request was thus far supported by the following States Members of the Council (20): Algeria, Botswana, Brazil, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Venezuela.
The request was also supported by the following observer States (four): Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Djibouti and Mozambique. The list of signatories remains open up to the holding of the special session.
In connection with the special session, the Human Rights Council will hold an organisational meeting on Monday, 30 March, at 3 p.m. in Room XX. This meeting is also open to the media.

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On the eve of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 2015 session, courageous champions of human rights from around the world will unite to place urgent situations on the international agenda.
February 24, 2015 Centre International de Conférences Genève 17 rue de Varembé, 1202 Geneva
Register now: www.genevasummit.org
 Interprétation simultanée en français 

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UNITED NATIONS — Saudi Arabia and Chad easily won coveted seats on the U.N. Security Council Thursday, despite criticism from human rights groups that their rights records are abysmal. Nigeria, Lithuania and Chile also won seats.
The five candidates endorsed by regional groups faced no opposition because there were no contested races for the first time in several years.
Security Council seats are highly coveted because they give countries a strong voice in matters dealing with international peace and security, in places like Syria, Iran and North Korea, as well as the U.N.’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.
The five countries elected Thursday will assume their posts on Jan. 1 and serve through the end of 2015. They will replace Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo.
Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, denounced the election of Chad, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
“Chad should put an end to the recruitment of child soldiers, which earned it a spot on the U.N. list of shame,” he said. “Saudi Arabia should end its crackdown on human rights activists and grant women their full rights.”

Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, accused Saudi Arabia of denying women the right to vote, drive a car or travel without the permission of a male relative. He also accused it of “praising and shielding Sudan” whose president, Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Neuer said Chad should not have oversight on U.N. peacekeeping operations as long it employs child soldiers.
Chad’s Foreign Minister Moussa Faki told reporters that election to the council is “recognition of the role of Chad in peace and security in the African region.” Chad has protested its inclusion in the “list of shame,” saying it has worked aggressively with the U.N. to end child soldier recruitment and has made significant progress.
He expressed hope that working with other members Palestine will be able to establish an independent state, which he called “the core issue of the difficulties in the Middle East.” He also expressed hope that the Syrian people will achieve “their aspiration for freedom and prosperity and unity.”
“We’ll talk for Africa,” she said. “The African issues are the majority of issues facing the United Nations Security Council today.”
Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, called on the new council members “to consistently utilize their position to prevent atrocities and protect vulnerable populations.”
Chad, Saudi Arabia and Lithuania have never served on the U.N.’s most powerful body while Nigeria and Chile have both been on the council four times previously.
This year, there were initially two candidates for a West African seat but Gambia dropped out last week in favor of Nigeria.
In the first round of voting by the 193-member General Assembly, Lithuania was the top vote-getter with 187 votes followed by Nigeria and Chile with 186 votes, Chad with 184 votes and Saudi Arabia with 176 votes. A two-thirds majority of those voting was needed to win.
The 15-member council includes five permanent members with veto power — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and 10 nonpermanent members elected for two-year terms.
“The prestige of a seat at the world’s foremost diplomatic table should prompt the new members to get their house in order,” he told the Associated Press.

The three countries did not address their critics in welcoming their victories.

Original URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/nigeria-chad-saudi-arabia-lithuania-and-chile-virtually-certain-to-join-un-security-council/2013/10/17/4a10071e-36e2-11e3-89db-8002ba99b894_story.html

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As the UN Human Rights Council completed its 4th year, delegates heard testimony from UN Watch on the past 12 months of council reactions to violations worldwide.

The Past Year: Inaction and Double Standards
UN Human Rights Council, 14th Session,
Delivered by Executive Director Hillel Neuer, 15 June 2010

Mr. President, in Article 1 of the Vienna Declaration, the States assembled here committed to protect all human rights. Is the Council living up to this obligation? Focusing thematically on the right to life, let us consider one example from each of the past 12 months:

• June 2009—Tehran. Hundreds of thousands gather peacefully to protest a questionable election. The government responds with brutality. Dozens are killed, hundreds injured, thousands arrested.
• July—China. Troops fire on Uighur protesters; 200 killed, 1700 injured.
• August—Russia. Two aid workers killed in Chechnya, government complicity suspected.
• September—Yemen. Government warplanes bomb a refugee camp, killing 80.

This Council’s response? Silence.

• October—Iraq. A terrorist attacks a mosque, killing the imam and 14 others.
• November—The Phillipines. Fifty-seven opposition activists massacred.
• December—Iran. Renewed protests meet with bullets, beatings and arrests; 10 killed.
• January—Pakistan. One hundred and eighty-two civilians killed in 42 attacks.

This Council’s response? Silence.

• February—Afghanistan. A Taliban attack kills 18, injuring 32, including doctors.
• March—Nigeria. 500 Christians slaughtered in religious killings.
• April—Kyrgyzstan. Troops fire on demonstrators; 84 killed.
• Finally, May. Libya executes 18 foreigners, without due process.

Mr. President, faced with these and other gross violations of the Vienna Declaration, what was this council’s standard response? Silence. No resolutions; no urgent sessions; no investigations. Nothing.

Yet two weeks ago, when Israel defended itself against violent Jihadists on the so-called humanitarian flotilla, we witnessed another standard—a double standard.

Suddenly the council sprang into action, with an urgent debate, a resolution condemning Israel, and yet another investigation where the guilty verdict was declared in advance.

Meanwhile, in this session, not a single resolution has been adopted for 191 other countries.

Mr. President, is the right to life, as guaranteed under the Vienna Declaration, being protected?

No—on the contrary. And millions of victims are paying the price.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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Geneva, Sept. 5, 2008 — UN Watch urged European Union members and UN rights chief Navanethem Pillay to take the floor at a UN anti-racism session today to denounce a proposal by African states that attacks free speech, singles out Israel, and indirectly advocates the elimination of Zionism. The African recommendations, adopted last week in Nigeria, go before the UN working group that meets today to continue drafting the outcome declaration for the April 2009 “Durban II” racism conference.

“The offensive provisions of the Abuja declaration undermine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, encourage Middle East extremism while harming the cause of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, and now threaten to become UN law in April,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, an independent human rights organization. South Africa, the main organizer of the Durban Review Conference, drafted last week’s declaration in Abuja.

The African text veers from human rights principles by calling on states to avoid “inflexibly clinging to free speech” in defiance of others’ “sensitivities” and “religious feelings,” and by supporting the demands of Islamic states that international human rights law be altered to prohibit satirical cartoons or other expressions that question Islamic tenets.

Omitting mention of Darfur or any other African human rights situation, the declaration singles out the “plight of Palestinians,” a thinly veiled dig at Israel. Also, the preamble of the Abuja proposal endorses the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, a 1981 text that commits to the elimination of Zionism, which it likens to Apartheid and colonialism. South Africa objected to the provision when it signed the document in 1996.

In an similar episode in January, former rights commissioner Louise Arbur founder herself in hot water after she lauded a new Arab human rights charter, calling it “an important step forward,” but then backtracked when it was pointed out the charter equated Zionism and racism.

“With the Abuja proposal now on the table, the French government, as EU chair, cannot remain silent at today’s session, nor can High Commissioner Pillay. If the language of totalitarianism and the rhetoric of demonization are met with a business-as-usual attitude, then we are surely headed toward a replay of the 2001 Durban debacle,” said Neuer.

“Tragically, the UN is squandering a golden opportunity to defend human rights and hold perpetrators accountable for genocide, ethnic cleansing and persecution of minorities,” said Neuer.

“Instead, the Durban II process is lending international credibility to repressive governments such as Libya, which was chosen last year to chair the process, with Iran and Cuba among the vice-chairs. Last week, Libya was accused by a Palestinian doctor of gruesome torture practices when he and five Bulgarian nurses were imprisoned as scapegoats for the deaths of HIV-infected children.

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