On October 17, 2019, Venezuela, Libya, Mauritania and other non-democracies won election to the UN Human Rights Council. UN Watch led the opposition campaign with a major report.
After the results came in, UN Watch exposed the election of tyrannies to the UN’s highest human rights body. UN Watch was quoted by CNN, Newsweek, UPI, Le Monde and other major media — see below.
Even as apologists for UN immorality sought to justify the election of abusers, UN Watch’s viral tweets, embedded below, dominated the global conversation.
Quoting UN Watch: UN Elects Dictators to Human Rights Council
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a non-government watchdog based in Geneva, compared it to ‘making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief’…
UN Watch took to Twitter minutes after the election to point out that Mauritania, Libya and Sudan were all elected to the council by larger margins than Venezuela’s, despite allegations of human rights abuses in those nations…
« Qu’un pays comme le Venezuela soit “juge en droits de l’homme”, c’est obscène ! », s’exclame Hillel Neuer, le directeur de l’ONG UN Watch… « En Mauritanie, entre 10 % et 20 % de la population sont traités comme des esclaves ; au Soudan, il y a des excisions ; et, en Libye, on trouve des cas de torture, ainsi que des marchés aux esclaves, détaille Hillel Neuer. Tous ces pays auraient dû être disqualifiés. Ce Conseil devait remplacer en 2006 la Commission des droits de l’homme, qui abritait trop de régimes autoritaires. Treize ans plus tard, c’est un échec total. »
Following the vote, UN Watch, a nonprofit organization that monitors the intergovernmental organization, began a petition to expel Maduro from the council, citing extrajudicial killings, torture, the jailing of political prisoners and other human rights violations committed by the regime.
“Electing the oppressive Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro to a human rights council is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. “It’s absurd, immoral and offensive.”
The Geneva-based U.N. monitor, which campaigned in 2010 to have Libya removed from the council, said three other newly elected nations — Mauritania, Libya and Sudan — all had poor human rights records.
“Sadly, today, the U.N. General Assembly disregarded its own rules by electing regimes that violate the human rights of their own citizens, and which consistently vote the wrong way on U.N. initiatives to protect the human rights of others,” Neuer said.
In a report jointly authored report by UN Watch, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Mauritania, Libya, and Sudan were all rated as “unqualified” for the council [and were] criticized for their authoritarian governments, limits on freedom of the press, and for their ‘negative’ UN voting records.
The report singled out Mauritania for its history of corruption, ethnic discrimination by government actors, slavery, human trafficking, child labor, and criminalization of homosexuality.
‘Voting nations can and should refrain from electing rights abusers to the UN’s highest human rights body,’ said Hillel Neuer of UN Watch.”
Costa Rica’s challenge was praised by human rights advocacy groups such as U.N. Watch, which said it hoped the “late but welcome entry into the race in the Latin American group will see countries reject Venezuela’s absurd candidacy.”
U.N. Watch is proposing a major change to the system of electing council members.
“If our own democracies continue to disregard the election criteria by voting for abusers,” said the group’s executive director Hillel Neuer, “then we should just scrap elections altogether, and make every country a member.”
In such a scenario, he said, countries that are not democracies “could no longer hold up their UNHRC election as a shield of international legitimacy to cover up the abuses of their regime.”
“Regrettably, the E.U. has not said a word about hypocritical candidacies that only undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the U.N. human rights system,” Neuer said. “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.”
.@VOATurkish quoting UN Watch's Hillel Neuer: “The election of dictatorships to the UN's highest human rights body undermines its credibility and effectiveness, hands a propaganda prize to the world's worst regimes, and demoralizes dissidents.” | By Asli Pelit @brefootcontessa https://t.co/NJIsd9o97h
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 20, 2019
1. Mauritania still has slaves — an estimated 20% of its population. (https://t.co/VwgXBYHjB9)
2. Mauritania is about to be elected to the UN's top human rights body on Thursday, October 17th.
3. Here is a list of the human rights activist celebrities and athletes speaking out. pic.twitter.com/j1U6YHvbB2
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 15, 2019
No joke: the U.N. will tomorrow elect Mauritania — which has 500,000 slaves — to its highest human rights body.https://t.co/VwgXBYpIcz
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 16, 2019
And now even more dictators seek to join U.N. Human Rights Council in tomorrow's election:
🇻🇪 Venezuela – brutality caused millions to flee
🇲🇷 Mauritania – 500,000 black slaves
🇸🇩 Sudan – female genital mutilation
🇱🇾 Libya – tortures African migrants
🇮🇶 Iraq – kills protesters https://t.co/Z91q8SR81M— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 16, 2019
Meet the candidates: 🇸🇩 #Mauritania set to win U.N. Human Rights Council seat this Thursday.
Credentials:
✅ Has 500,000 slaves
✅ Arrests anti-slavery activists, like Biram Dah Abeid
✅ Torture to extract confessions
✅ Death penalty for homosexualityhttps://t.co/0xdbrI9L3b— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 12, 2019
As the U.N. today elects slave state Mauritania to its Human Rights Council, I share this:
1. "Mr. President, people around the world ask: 'Why does a human rights council include so many non-democracies?' Defenders of the system have a ready reply: “We need a big tent…” pic.twitter.com/TBc9LJCIPi
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019
If our leaders do nothing, on Thursday these 5 get elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council:
🇻🇪 Venezuela – brutality caused millions to flee
🇲🇷 Mauritania – 500,000 black slaves
🇸🇩 Sudan – female genital mutilation
🇱🇾 Libya – tortures African migrants
🇮🇶 Iraq – kills protesters— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 15, 2019
BREAKING: Venezuela beats Costa Rica by 9 votes to win election to UN Human Rights Council.
Here are the % of votes received by top abusers just elected:
🇻🇪 Venezuela: 54%
🇲🇷 Mauritania: 89%
🇱🇾 Libya: 87%
🇸🇩 Sudan: 91%— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 17, 2019
SHAME: Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro destroyed his country, starved his people & crushed dissidents. So the U.N. just now elected him to its "Human Rights Council."
Also elected:
🇲🇷 Mauritania, which has 500,000 slaves – won 89% of votes
🇱🇾 Libya – 87%
🇸🇩 Sudan – 91% pic.twitter.com/0MQO1v1gGe— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro devastated his country, starved his own people and crushed pro-democracy dissidents. Four million have fled. Electing his regime to the U.N. human rights council was obscene.
My op-ed in the New York Post:https://t.co/IWEWBLpc12 @nypost @NYPostOpinion
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 20, 2019
I am pleased to announce the launch of the Global Campaign to Expel Maduro from the UNHRC.
We did the same after Qaddafi won a seat in 2010 by a large majority. People laughed at us. Then the madman went to war with EU states who suddenly embraced our campaign & expelled him. https://t.co/Me088Npck3
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019
Diego Arria, exembajador de Venezuela ante las Naciones Unidas y ex presidente del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas, fue designado como líder de una campaña para desalojar al régimen de Nicolás Maduro del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU.https://t.co/1oO5f8XvL7 pic.twitter.com/yt828ilaIN
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 18, 2019
We have the honor to announce that Diego Arria, former President of the United Nations Security Council & former Ambassador of Venezuela to the U.N., is Chair of the new Global Campaign to Expel Maduro from the U.N. Human Rights Council.https://t.co/wainC4ISkQ @Diego_Arria
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 18, 2019
VERGÜENZA: El dictador Nicolás Maduro de Venezuela destruyó a su país y aplastó a la disidencia, entonces la ONU le dio una banca en el “Consejo de Derechos Humanos”
También electos:
🇲🇷 Mauritania, que tiene 500,000 esclavos – 89% de los votos
🇱🇾 Libia – 87%
🇸🇩 Sudán – 91% pic.twitter.com/Qg9bte71Or— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019