Democratic Republic of Congo

Current 2018 members of UN Human Rights Council include:
•Iraq
•Cuba
•China
•Qatar
•Angola
•Burundi
•Pakistan
•Venezuela
•DR Congo
•Afghanistan
•Saudi Arabia
•United Arab Emirates pic.twitter.com/Fy5S6M94bs

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 5, 2018

Here’s how UN Watch fights the dictatorships and defends human rights:

In 2017:

In 2016:

The post Farce: Meet 2018 Membership of U.N. Human Rights Council appeared first on UN Watch.

“Why is UN Ignoring Women Victims in Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE?”

Statement by UN Watch
Panel on Violence Against Women
UNHRC 35th Session, 13th June 2017
Delivered by Ms. Sonia Zvedeniuk

Thank you, Mr. President.
United Nations Watch supports the engagement of men and boys in the prevention of violence against women. Regrettably, in many cases, violence against women is actually legitimized and reinforced by the state in their laws and practices.
It is said that engagement is the answer. But is it taking place?
In a number of cases, this Council’s experts are attempting to visit such countries. In Northern Nigeria, Section 55 of the Penal Code allows husbands to beat their wives. In 2013, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women requested a visit. Four years later, no response.
In that same year, the rapporteur asked to visit Egypt, a country with one of the highest rates of sexual harassment. Yet to date, no visit has taken place.
In Pakistan, women and girls are subjected to honor killings and child marriages. In 2012, the working group on discrimination against women requested a visit. Five years later, no response.
In 2014, the group requested a visit to Iran, where a woman needs authorization from her husband to apply for a passport.  Three years later, no response.
Mr. President, there is a separate problem, which is that many of the worst abusers have never even received a request to visit. Indeed there is a question of priorities.
While this Council’s mandate on violence against women has conducted visits to Sweden, the Netherlands, and Australia, not one request has ever been made for Yemen, where over 10 percent of girls under the age of 15 are married to adult men, and where a woman is considered half a person before the court.
No request for Iraq, where thousands of women are victims of honor killings; none for Bahrain or Kuwait, countries where marital rape is legal; and none for the United Arab Emirates, where premarital sex is punishable by one hundred lashes. Not one request.
Mr. President, Where is the engagement?
And I would like to ask the panel: What can be done to increase scrutiny and protection for the victims, vulnerable women and girls worldwide, who need it most?
Thank you, Mr. President.

The post "Why is UN Ignoring Women Victims in Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE?" appeared first on UN Watch.

Unilateral coercive measures targeting the Sudan restrict trade and investment in the country, which in turn forces the population to face enormous challenges to their enjoyment of human rights. Coercive measures affect the right to health and an adequate standard of living, the right to food, the right to education and the right to development.

Jazairy: Nemesis of UN rights experts, then himself a UN rights expert
Hypocrisy reached new heights in March 2015 when the UNHRC appointed Jazairy as one of its human rights monitors: he is the same man who, as Algerian ambassador, personally headed a major campaign to muzzle the Council’s human rights monitors, by imposing a “Code of Conduct.”
UN Watch sounded the alarm before he was appointed in 2015, but to no avail.
(Update: In October 2016, the Tribune de Geneve exposed Jazairy’s conflict of interest in being a UN expert and also heading a front group funded by the United Arab Emirates.)
As Algerian ambassador on the UNHRC, Jazairy also took many other actions inimical to the protection and promotion of human rights:

• After Sri Lanka killed 40,000 of its own people, Jazairy co-sponsored a 2009 resolution that praised Sri Lanka for “promotion and protection of all human rights”

• Genocide by Sudan in Darfur didn’t stop Jazairy from sponsoring a 2006 resolution that praised the regime for “cooperation,” while demanding that the international community “honor their pledges of support” and “provide urgent and adequate financial and technical assistance to the Government of Sudan.”

• Jazairy repeatedly defended genocidal Sudan. When UN monitors reported attacks on Darfur civilians by Sudanese government-allied militias, they were immediately challenged by Jazairy: “And I say the alleged links between the government of Sudan, and the militias referred to by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have yet to be objectively documented.” Click here for video

• Asked by French journalist Caroline Fourest why certain Arab countries imprisoned homosexuals, contrary to human rights, Jazairy said that gay rights was a “Western-centric” attitude, having no basis in universal human rights.

• Jazairy headed a major effort to change international law to prohibit criticism of Islam, under the “Defamation of religion” banner. Jazairy’s non-paper wrote: “Requisite complementary standards shall include the prohibition of publication of material that direct seriously offensive attacks on matters regarded by followers of any religion or belief as sacred or inherent to their dignity as human beings.”

• Jazairy repeatedly sought to distort the meaning of the word anti-Semitism, saying that it targets Arabs and Muslims.

At an April 22, 2008 U.N. meeting on racism, he declared that “Antisemitism targets Arabs, who are also Semites, and by extension, the whole Muslim community.”
In 2011, he elaborated:

Already in the 19th century, Arabs and Jews, who equally belong to the Semitic race, were the target of the same anti-Semitic stereotyping… Since the holocaust, fortunately anti-Semitism targeting the Jews has been eschewed from public speech.
However, it continues to be accepted in the name of freedom of expression when it takes the form of Arabophobia, or by extension, of Islamophobia.

• Jazairy received $50,000 from the Russian Federation for his UN mandate. (UN 2017 report, A/HRC/34/34/Add.1, p.37)  Coincidentally, his application clarified his vision of the anti-American mandate—which included shilling for Vladimir Putin’s aggression:

I regard UCMs [unilateral coercive measures] as an issue which principally affects North-South relations and see this mandate as an opportunity to put to use my experience of half a century in multilateralism as a bridge-builder between North and South. Pre-Helsinki UCMs were an expression of East-West rivalry. Alas! increased tension over Crimea and Ukraine has all but revived this situation. The impact of UCMs on human rights being conversely related to the level of development of the targeted countries, the people of the South are the most vulnerable to Northern “sanctions.”

The post UN’s Idriss Jazairy thinks genocidal Sudan is the human rights victim appeared first on UN Watch.

Swiss FM Didier Burkhalter (left) with Obaid Salem Saeed Al Zaabi (right),
UN Geneva envoy of United Arab Emirates, 13 June 2016. UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré

Days after UN chief Ban Ki-moon admitted that he dropped Saudi Arabia from his list of child-killing countries in exchange for the Saudis and their allies not to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in UN donations, the UN in Geneva today inaugurated an extravagant $22 million “Emirates Hall” with money from the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, an authoritarian monarchy. (See UN announcement below.)
It’s unclear whether the $22 million gift is related to the UAE’s recent election to the UN Human Rights Council, a body that meets two floors above the new room, which has a ceiling that changes colors and level of light according to the time of the day.
Delegates who meet in the luxurious chamber will now be able to “focus on finding solutions—under the blue Emirates sky—to the world’s problems that are being addressed here in Geneva,” says the UN.
UN Watch vigorously but unsuccessfully opposed UAE’s bid for a seat on the UNHRC.

__________

The UN Geneva’s press release follows below.

UNITED NATIONS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE MINISTER OF STATE OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES INAUGURATE “LA SALLE DES EMIRATS” AT THE PALAIS DES NATIONS
Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Maitha Alshamsi, Minister of State of the United Arab Emirates, today inaugurated “La Salle des Emirats”, the fully renovated Conference Room XVII of the Palais des Nations, the European headquarters of the United Nations.
Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, in his welcoming remarks, said that “La Salle des Emirats” combines functionality, cutting-edge technology and a design that merges innovation and cultural heritage, very much in line with the spectacular architectural trends that have emerged in the United Arab Emirates over the past years.  “Room XVII does not only shine in a new design, but also has technical features that will ultimately help delegates focus on finding solutions – under the blue Emirates sky – to the world’s problems that are being addressed here in Geneva,” said Mr. Møller. 
Conference Room XVII, situated in Building E and built in the early 1970s, had become dilapidated over time.  No longer serving the modern conference needs of the twenty-first century, the room had warranted a complete renovation.  In autumn 2014, Mr. Møller and Obaid Salem Saeed Al Zaabi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations Office at Geneva, signed an agreement on the renovation of the room, to be fully financed by the United Arab Emirates.  Two renowned architects, Siavosh Adeli, from Lausanne, and Joakim de Rham, based in Dubai, were selected to work on the project.   
The works commenced in July 2015 and were completed in May 2016, for the total cost of $22 million. The spectacular ceiling of the renovated “Salle des Emirats”, which weighs 20 tons, now contains a round metallic structure showing the name of the United Arab Emirates written in stylized Arabic calligraphy.  As impressively, the ceiling of “La Salle des Emirats” changes colours and the level of light according to the time of the day.
Highlighting the many features of the renovated room, including greater accessibility for all and the finest technology, Deputy Secretary-General Eliasson said: “We cannot address today’s global governance challenges with yesterday’s tools. This room now benefits from adaptations that have brought it into the 21st Century and make it a model for open and inclusive discussions.”
Minister of State of the United Arab Emirates Alshamsi said that “the commitment of the United Arab Emirates to provide appropriate working tools to the United Nations System is in line with its constant support to international organizations and it aims at strengthening the role of the United Nations as a Forum for  the international community in order to achieve its objectives and aspirations.”
 This remarkable room, which was refurbished in the context of the renovation efforts of the Palais des Nations, is likely to become a future landmark of the Palais des Nations.  The Palais, home to the United Nations Office at Geneva, should also undergo a complete renovation with the implementation of the Strategic Heritage Plan which is presently in its planning phase.
Building code compliance and greater accessibility for persons with disabilities are among the key objectives of the project, which also foresees the construction of a new building.  Restoration and construction works will begin in 2017 and are expected to conclude by 2023. 
Note to editors: Photos of the ceremony will be available on https://www.flickr.com/photos/unisgeneva/
Media contacts
United Nations Information Service in Geneva – +41 22 917 23 02 ; press_geneva@unog.ch 
Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations in Geneva – +41 22 918 00 00 ; geneve@mofa.gov.ae 
 
 

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• 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.

Togo won more seats that any other candidate, 189 out of 193. Human rights abuses in Togo include:

• Executive influence over the judiciary
• Restrictions on freedom of press and assembly
• Rape, violence, and discrimination against women
• Child abuse, including female genital mutilation and sexual exploitation
• Trafficking in persons.
• Discrimination persisted against persons with disabilities, regional and ethnic groups, and LGBT
• Child labor, including forced child labor
• Togo takes limited steps to prosecute or punish officials who commit abuses. Impunity, including in the security services, ix widespread.

_____________

VOTING RESULTS

 
African Group

Asian Group

Eastern Europe

Latin American Group

Western Europe and Others Group

The post Venezuela, UAE, Burundi elected to UNHRC; Pakistan defeated appeared first on UN Watch.

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2015 — Despite widespread criticism of their human rights records as presented in a UN Watch report yesterday, the governments of Venezuela, UAE, Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, and Togo easily won election today to 3-year terms on the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council. 
UN Watch, together with two other human rights groups, released a report yesterday, at a press conference held at UN headquarters in New York, urging member states to oppose the election of nine countries committing egregious human rights violations.
UN Watch welcomed the defeat of Pakistan today — a major surprise — but lamented the election of at least seven unqualified countries. Only some 40 percent of the 2016 UNHRC membership will be free democracies.
The election of even more rights abusing regimes — on a body that already counts China, Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia as members — marks another severe blow to the credibility and efficacy of a body that was supposed to improve on its discredited predecessor.
For voting results and more, click here.
________
Today: Wall Street Journal TV Interviewed UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer
“Electing U.N. Rights Abusers”

 

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Copyright © 2015, UN Watch

The post Issue 554: Venezuela, Burundi, UAE win UNHRC seats; Pakistan defeated appeared first on UN Watch.

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.

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.