GENEVA, November 8, 2013 – In reaction to news reports that Jordan’s pull-out from next week’s UN human rights council election was part of a deal that will see Jordan obtain the Security Council seat recently rejected by Saudi Arabia, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer issued the following comment:
It is appalling that seats on the world’s top human rights body are being traded like merchandise, treated as trinkets by non-democracies. We are witnessing backroom deals of the most cynical kind, which show contempt for the official UN membership criteria requiring that candidates be elected on the basis of their record in promoting and protecting human rights.
We call on UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to condemn such crass practices. We also reiterate our call upon U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and EU foreign affairs commissioner Catherine Ashton to end their silence over the absurd, hypocritical and dangerous candidacies of dictatorships like China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia.” (Click here for full appeal.)
