“Pakistan’s submission to the UN about its human rights record is filled with lies,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization.

“Our report documents 10 false claims, and we call on the UN Human Rights Council on Monday to hold the Pakistani regime’s representatives to account for trying to cover up gross and systematic human rights violations,” said Neuer.

“The UN must urge Pakistan’s military-dominated regime to put an end to torture, enforced disappearances, child labor, and violence against women, and to stop crushing independent media, censoring Facebook and Twitter, persecuting Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Shia, and Ahmadis, hosting terrorist groups, and backing China’s persecution of Muslim Uighurs.”

Pakistan will go before the UN Human Rights Council on Monday morning, for a mandatory human rights review that all UN member states undergo every five years. While the session is meant to scrutinize governments and thereby strengthen the basic rights and freedoms of their citizens, most of the UNHRC members who take the floor are expected instead to praise Pakistan for its alleged achievements.

Following are some of most absurd claims in Pakistan’s submission to the UN, contrasted with the reality.

1. Democracy and Fundamental Freedoms

Pakistan’s Claim: “As a vibrant democracy, Pakistan will continue to uphold fundamental freedoms including meeting people’s needs and providing an enabling environment for the continued exercise their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.”

Reality: Pakistan is ranked “Partly Free” by Freedom House with a low score of 37/100, meaning that it is not a “free democracy.” This ranking is attributed to various factors including the influence of the military, attacks by Islamist militants, and restrictions on civil liberties. According to Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, the country’s purported democracy is “a facade” and in reality Pakistan is a hybrid regime where the military controls the government behind the scenes. In December 2021, several UN experts condemned the military court’s conviction of human rights activist Idris Khattak. The experts asserted that Khattak’s arrest and conviction was “part of an alarming pattern of silencing human rights defenders and outspoken civil society leaders.”

2. Media Freedom

Pakistan’s Claim: “Pakistan values the role of free media…”

Reality: Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranks Pakistan 157 out of 180 for media freedom—in the bottom 15%. The media in Pakistan is targeted by both the civilian authorities and the military, according to Freedom House. Journalists have been violently attacked by military agents. Furthermore, the planned government regulator—the Pakistan Media Development Authority—would have the power to punish journalists for infringing regulations. RSF considers Pakistan one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. Media reported at least two journalists killed in Pakistan in 2022. One journalist, Pakistan Daily editor Hamza Azhar Salam, has already been threatened in 2023.

3. Enforced Disappearances

Pakistan Claim: “The alleged cases of missing persons are being expeditiously and efficiently dealt by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.”

Reality: This claim is directly contradicted by the Islamabad High Court which, in June 2022, rendered a decision highly critical of Pakistan’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed that the Commission had failed to fulfill its responsibility and called the Commission “a burden” which must “justify its continued existence.” The Court also lambasted the government for its involvement in disappearances, stating “you are proving that [forcibly] disappearing people has been the policy of the State since the days of General Musharraf…”

4. Blasphemy Laws

Pakistan’s Claim: “The Government of Pakistan is committed to curb the misuse of blasphemy laws.”

Reality: The Pakistani NGO Center for Social Justice reported that in 2021 at least 84 people were accused of blasphemy in Pakistan and three people were extrajudicially killed. In October 2022, two people were killed within days of each other for blasphemy. Earlier in the year, a Pakistani court sentenced a woman to death for sharing images on WhatsApp that were considered insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.

5. Gender Equality

Pakistan’s Claim: “The Federal Government has enacted a number of laws, policies, programs and other measures to remove gender disparity and empower women”

Reality: According to the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2022, Pakistan ranks near the bottom, scoring 145/156 for economic participation and opportunity, 135/156 for educational attainment, 143/156 for health and survival, and 95/156 for political empowerment. According to UN Women, Pakistani women account for less than 25% of the workforce, and women’s income is about 16% of a man’s income.

6. Violence Against Women

Pakistan’s Claim: “In addition to policy measures, Pakistan has also enacted various legislations to address VAW including harassment, deprivation from inheritance, domestic violence, acid throwing, and rape.”

Reality: According to UN Women, while Pakistan has enacted laws to empower and protect women, the implementation of those laws is weak. Over 34% of women in Pakistan who are or have been married have experienced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence, and 56% of those women did not seek help or tell anyone. In March 2020, the UN Committee on Elimination of Violence Against Women expressed concern about “the high prevalence of gender-based violence against women and the social acceptance of domestic violence, underreporting of gender-based violence against women and impunity for perpetrators.”

7. Child Marriage

Pakistan’s Claim: “Since the subject of child marriage has been devolved to provinces every provincial government has taken its own initiatives to revise the age of marriage…”

Reality: As reported by UNICEF, there are 19 million child brides in Pakistan. As recently as January 16th, UN experts expressed alarm about this continuing violation. “We are deeply troubled to hear that girls as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law,” they said in a statement. The experts also accused Pakistani courts of enabling the marriages. Former Balochistan lawmaker Yasmin Lehri commented in October 2022 that in the rural areas of Balochistan almost all girls are married before the age of 18.

8. Child Labor

Pakistan’s Claim: “Legislation prohibiting employment of children is in force across the country.”

Reality: Notwithstanding these laws, Pakistan still has high rates of child labor and exploitation. The Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed serious concern about this issue when it last reviewed Pakistan in 2016. More recently, in January 2023, Punjab Provincial Assembly Member Sadia Sohail remarked that “Child labour is a social evil, which cannot be neglected. The state has not been able to safeguard children’s rights and wellbeing, therefore an emergency should be imposed to tackle the issue of child labour.” Punjab Secretary, Labour and Human Resource Department Nabeel Javed, added that “Child labor is fragmented and there is dire need of inter-departmental coordination to work collectively for the eradication of child labour,” emphasizing that all stakeholders from public to private sectors and donor agencies must collaborate to address the issue.

9. Cooperation with UN

Pakistan’s Claim: “Pakistan is working in close coordination with United Nations human rights mechanisms by actively engaging with them, especially the Human Rights Council (HRC), and its allied mechanisms and forums, including but not limited to Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures.”

Reality: According to the UN database on Special Procedure Visits, only three Special Procedures have visited Pakistan. The last visits were in 2012 by the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges. The only Special Procedures Pakistan has invited recently are those on Foreign Debt, Poverty, Education, and Disabilities. Recent visit requests from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2018), Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion (2018), Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls (2020), Special Rapporteur on Torture (2021), and Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings (2023) received no response from Pakistan.

10. Protection for Minorities

Pakistan’s Claim: “In order to protect minorities and promote their public participation, the Government has taken several legislative, policy and administrative measures.”

Reality:  Minorities are particularly unwelcome in Pakistan and comprise only around 4% of the population. The Pakistani constitution discriminates against minorities and prevents them from rising in the political ranks. Pakistani minorities have been subjected to rising violence and attacks according to media sources. In January 2022, Peshawar priest William Siraj was killed by extremists. In May 2022, two Sikh businessmen and an Ahmadi man were killed in separate incidents across Pakistan. The family of the Ahmadi man accused the chief cleric at his seminary of provoking the murder by inciting violence against the Ahmadi community. In June 2022, a Hindu Temple in Karachi was desecrated. In October, Deutsche Welle reported a rise in hate crimes against minorities in Pakistan.

The post Pakistan’s false claims on human rights exposed ahead of Monday’s UN review 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

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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…

The post UN Watch refutes UNHRC campaign claims of China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Saudis appeared first on UN Watch.

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, Pakistani rights activist Taha Siddiqui urged countries not to elect Pakistan. See his 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.

The post Taha Siddiqui Opposes Pakistan’s Election to the UNHRC appeared first on UN Watch.

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch Executive Director, spoke at UN Watch’s Oct, 9, 2020 press conference about the upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council elections. See UN Watch’s detailed report: https://unwatch.org/report-china-russia-cuba-saudi-arabia-pakistan-to-win-top-u-n-human-rights-posts/

The post UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer Opposes Cuba, China, Pakistan & Russia’s Runs for U.N. Human Rights Council appeared first on UN Watch.

Dissidents To Contest UNHRC Candidates Ahead of Tuesday’s Elections,
Opposing China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia & Pakistan

NEW YORK, October 7, 2020 — Ahead of next week’s election of 15 new member states to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the independent human rights group UN Watch invites journalists to register for an online briefing and press conference on Friday, October 9th, at 10:00 am Eastern time, featuring leading human rights dissidents from five of the candidate countries: China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Program: Briefing On UNHRC Elections and Candidates

• Hillel Neuer, UN Watch Executive Director, to present the Joint NGO Report on UNHRC Elections
• Yang Jianli, President of Initiatives for China, former political prisoner
• Rosa Maria Paya, Cuban human rights activist, daughter of late dissident Oswaldo Paya
• Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian democracy activist and vice president of the Free Russia Foundation
• Taha Siddiqui, Award-winning Pakistani journalist exiled in Paris, attacked for criticizing the military
• Saudi Arabian dissident TBD

REGISTRATION: This event is exclusively for accredited media. To request access to the online video press conference, please contact Hilary Miller at media-NY@unwatch.org.

The post Press Conf: Dissidents To Contest UNHRC Candidates Ahead of Tuesday’s Election, Opposing China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi, Pakistan appeared first on UN Watch.

Abuses by those candidates are detailed in a new 30-page joint NGO report published today 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, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva.

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.

Irwin Cotler, head of the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, and former Canadian minister of justice, added: “Regrettably, when the UN itself ends up electing human rights violators to the Human Rights Council, it indulges the very of culture of impunity it is supposed to combat. The world’s democracies must join in the preservation and protection of the Council’s mandate, and not end up accomplices to its breach.”

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 Report: China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia & Pakistan to win top U.N. human rights posts appeared first on UN Watch.

Testimony delivered before the UN Human Rights Council by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, 1 July 2019,
 Thank you, Madam Chair.
This Council is charged with protecting civil and political rights, which includes the freedom of religion, as guaranteed under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Today we ask: Is the UN helping the victims who need protection most?
Now, I’ve just seen the latest annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
As documented therein, I wish to list five of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom:

• China
• Saudi Arabia,
• Pakistan
• Nigeria, and
• Eritrea.

Second, I will now list five members who sit here on this UN Human Rights Council:

• China
• Saudi Arabia,
• Pakistan
• Nigeria, and
• Eritrea

Madam Chair, under Article 9 of this Council’s founding charter, member states have a duty to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.”
So, we’d like to know: Why has there never been a single resolution for religious minorities oppressed by Council members like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia?
Now, we’ve just heard from Pakistan on behalf of the 57-member Islamic Group of states. They spoke of Islamophobia and of criticism of religion.
Yet, if they truly care about Muslims and for their religious freedoms, why has Pakistan and the Islamic Group failed to introduce a single resolution, a single urgent session, or a single commission of inquiry, on behalf one million Muslims currently being detained in camps and persecuted for their religion by China?
Thank you, Madam Chair.

"Madam Chair, I wish to list 5 of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom:
🇨🇳 China
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea

"I now list 5 members who sit here on this U.N. Human Rights Council:
🇨🇳 China
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea

.." pic.twitter.com/NGXaBmRskA

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 5, 2020

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The Committee AGAINST Non-Governmental Organizations

Iran’s Record on Human Rights NGOs
According to the most recent US State Department report on Iran:

• Iran’s new Political Crimes law restricts NGOs, with barriers to speech and advocacy by defining political crimes to include insult against the government and “the publication of lies.” The law also criminalizes political activism. Delineated acts are deemed “political crimes” if they “are committed with the intent of reforming the domestic or foreign policies of Iran”; acts intended to damage the “foundations of the regime” are deemed “national security crimes.”
• Human rights defender and journalist Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2016 for “propaganda against the state,” “assembly and collusion against national security,” and “establishing the antisecurity and illegal ‘Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty’ party.”
• The regime periodically imprisons political activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and briefly suspended her law license due to her advocacy for prisoners of conscience.
• The government restricts the work of NGOs through harassment, arrests, online hacking, and monitoring of individual activists and organization workplaces.
• The government also routinely intimidates human rights activists by repeatedly summoning them in for questioning, and confiscating personal belongings such as cell phones, laptops and passports.
• Iran imprisons lawyers and others affiliated with the Defenders of Human Rights Center advocacy group.
• Human rights defenders who engage with the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran are subjected to reprisals.

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