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Group Calls for Libyan Envoy’s Removal From Post as UN Investigator of Human Rights Violations
Published March 8, 2011 | FoxNews.com
A watchdog group is asking the UN to immediately remove a Libyan envoy from her post as an investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries, saying that as a mouthpiece for a regime that’s “deploying hired guns to massacre its own people” it’s “outrageous” to have her in that position.
Najat Al-Hajjaji has been one of five members of “The Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of peoples to self-determination” since its inception in 2005.
Among other things, the group was established to monitor mercenaries and mercenary-related activities around the world, study their impact on human rights, create proposals to further the protection of human rights against threats posed by mercenaries and draft international principles to encourage respect for human rights by companies offering mercenary services, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights website.
But UN Watch, an organization that monitors the performance of the United Nations, says Al-Hajjaji should be the “last person” charged with any of those duties – especially now.
“At a time when [Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is outrageous that one of his long-time representatives would sit on the world’s highest human rights body as a supposed defender of human rights — and, of all things, as a defender of victims of mercenaries,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told FoxNews.com.
But it’s not the first time Al-Hajjaji’s been in a controversial post.
In 2003 she was elected president of the Human Rights Commission against objections from human rights groups and the U.S.
“It is not appropriate for a nation under UN sanctions — a nation with the horrible human rights record that Libya has — to be chairman of this commission,” then U.S. ambassador, Kevin Moley, said at the time.
As someone who “whitewashed the crimes of the Qaddafi regime” for more than a decade, “she also shouldn’t have been the head of the world conference on racism, the Durban II conference, which she chaired for two years,” Neuer added.
But Neuer said it would be hard to imagine a position that would be more of an “obscene irony” than her current one.
“Everybody knew she was sitting on this mercenary group and no one said a thing…and the question is why not?”
In a letter sent Monday to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, UN rights commissioner Navi Pillay, and UNHRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow, UN Watch demanded that the officials take immediate action to expel Al-Hajjaji. Neuer also urged action in letters sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton.
The Working Group on the use of mercenaries and the Libyan Commission to the UN did not respond to requests for comment from FoxNews.com.
Just last week, Libya became the first country ever suspended from the Human Rights Council since it was formed in 2006 for committing “gross and systematic violations of human rights.” Neuer said he hopes Al-Hajjaji’s role in the mercenary group will meet a similar fate as soon as possible.
“This particular issue underscores a pathology at the UN Human Rights Council, where abusers are given the reins of power,” Neuer said. “The worst violators of human rights are made the arbiters and world judges of human rights and that’s something that’s just got to end.”
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Droits humains
8 mars 2011 09:11
Experte libyenne dans
le viseur des ONG
Droits humains
Des ONG de défense des droits de l’homme en ont après une experte libyenne travaillant à Genève.
Une experte libyenne à l’ONU, l’ex-ambassadrice de Kadhafi à Genève Najat Al-Hajjaji, est dans le collimateur des ONG de défense des droits de l’homme. Elles ont demandé mardi au Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’expulser.
La Libyenne est membre du groupe de travail de l’ONU sur l’utilisation des mercenaires avec quatre autres experts, un Espagnol, un Pakistanais, un Russe et un Colombien.
«A un moment où Kadhafi utilise des mercenaires pour tuer des innocents parmi son peuple, il est scandaleux que l’une de ses représentantes de longue date siège dans l’organe de l’ONU chargé de défendre les victimes des mercenaires», a affirmé le directeur exécutif d’UN Watch Hillel Neuer.
«Chaque jour de plus où elle est membre des organes de l’ONU de défense des droits de l’homme est une insulte aux victimes du régime sanglant de Kadhafi», a ajouté le responsable de l’ONG.
Expulsion demandée
Une lettre a été adressée au secrétaire général de l’ONU Ban Ki- moon, à la Haut Commissaire aux droits de l’homme Navi Pillay et au président du Conseil des droits de l’homme pour leur demander de procéder à l’expulsion de Najat Al-Hajjaji. Le Conseil pourrait adopter une résolution pour exclure l’ex-représentante de Kadhafi d’ici la fin de sa session le 25 mars.
Najat Al-Hajjaji a été ambassadrice de Libye à l’ONU à Genève pendant plusieurs années. A ce titre, elle avait notamment été élue présidente de la Commission des droits de l’homme en 2003, ce qui avait contribué au déclin de la crédibilité de cet organe. En avril 2009, elle avait présidé le comité préparatoire de la conférence de l’ONU contre le racisme, au grand dam des défenseurs des droits de l’homme.
L’Assemblée générale de l’ONU a exclu la semaine dernière la Libye des 47 pays membres du Conseil, à la demande de cet organe. La Libye avait été élue l’an dernier pour en faire partie.
(ats)
