Moments after the UN released its latest inquiry accusing Israel of war crimes for defending its Gaza border, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer took the floor to expose the UN Human Rights Council’s support for murderous regimes, forcing UN “right to food” expert Hilal Elver — a pro-Chavez radical who works with & is married to 9/11 denier Richard Falk — to explain why she has ignored the plight of hungry families in Venezuela, in violation of her mandate as the UN expert on the “right to food.” See full transcript, including Elver’s response, below.
Hillel Neuer: Mr. President, moments ago, this Council released a report against Israel, the first of seven in this session that will target the only democracy in the Middle East.
By contrast, out of 120 reports in this session, there is not one for the desperately hungry victims of Venezuela’s government, which is a dictatorship.
And so I ask this Council: Do you truly believe in universality and non-selectivity, as promised in your founding charter?
In particular, I wish to ask you, Madam Elver, about your mandate to fight hunger.
Why is it, that in the annual report you presented just now, out of eleven thousand and fifty eight words, there is not one—not one word—for the millions of Venezuelans who can’t get enough to eat?
Why is it that you wrote three country reports this year, but not one for the desperately hungry families of Venezuela?
Why is it that in all of your 9 reports since 2015, you failed to write one—not one—about Venezuelan children now suffering acute malnutrition?
Are you not aware that, according to the WHO, the malnutrition is now well above the 10 percent threshold for a food crisis?
Why is it, according to the database of country visits, you never even attempted to request a visit to Venezuela?
Madam Elver, if your mandate is to defend hungry people, why have you refused to write a report, or call for an urgent debate or commission of inquiry, for families who are now forced to adopt emergency strategies, of the kind used during famine in war-torn countries?
Are you not aware that thirty-four percent are either selling assets to buy food, eat from garbage bins, or sending a child to beg for food?
But it’s worse. Madam Elver, you have actually tweeted to defend the perpetrator. For example, on August 14, 2016, you tweeted 2 articles from the propaganda site Telesur, one of which said: “No, there is not hunger in Venezuela; actually, as defined by international standards, Venezuela’s still quite high up.”
Madam Elver, are you defending the rights of human beings around the world to be free from hunger?
UN “Right to Food” expert Hilal Elver: Coming to Venezuela, the NGOs that raised these issues must know very well that Human Rights Council cannot, or the Special Rapporteurs, cannot go anywhere if the governments are not cooperating.
So we sent several of letters to ask mission visit but we did not response. This doesn’t mean that we will not look at, we will not do anything, actually, we are doing a lot of investigation but the issue is too complicated.
There are two sides of this conflict, as usual in many other conflicts, and we want to be objective rather than geopolitical interest.
So we try to make as much as possible collect the information and make the right step to make better work for Venezuelan people, rather than some kind of interest of the taking over the government from one side to another. I think I should stop here.
