UN Human Rights Council President (right) in Jeddah addressed
a Saudi-hosted conference on religious freedom

GENEVA, June 4, 2015 –  Despite its reputation as one the world’s worst violators of religious freedom, Saudi Arabia is now hosting in Jeddah a UN human rights conference on combating intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, attended by the president of the UN Human Rights Council and other top international representatives.

“It’s time for the politics of oil to stop trumping the basic principles of human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group.
“It’s bad enough that the oppressive and fundamentalist Saudi monarchy was elected to sit on the UN Human Rights Council. But for top UN human rights officials to now visit Jeddah and smile while human rights activist Raif Badawi languishes in prison for the crime of religious dissent, still under threat of further flogging, is to pour salt in the wounds. It’s astonishing.”

UNHRC president Joachim Ruecher addresses Saudi conference on religious freedom (second from left)

UN Watch expressed alarm that the participation of Ambassador Joachim Ruecker, president of the UN Human Rights Council, would grant “false international legitimacy to a regime that beheads people in the town square, systematically oppresses women, Christians, and gays, and jails innocent bloggers like Raif Badawi for the crime of challenging the rulers’ radical brand of Wahabbist Islam.”
The Obama Administration sent two top envoys to participate, religious freedom ambassador David Saperstein, and Arsalan Suleman, Acting Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Also, Heiner Bielefeldt, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, addressed one of the panels.
“We urge the council president, the UN expert, and the two U.S. envoys to, at a minimum, denounce Saudi Arabia for its gross and systematic violation of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of religion. He should also demand that Saudi Arabia end its subjugation of women, in violation of the Article 2 equality guarantee.”

Heiner Bielefeldt, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, in Jeddah

The Jeddah conference is the 5th meeting under what is called the “Istanbul Process” to implement the controversial UN Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, entitled “Combating Intolerance, Negative Stereotyping and Stigmatization of, and Discrimination, Incitement to Violence and Violence Against, Persons Based on Religion or Belief.”

Hosted by the 56-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the official purpose of the meeting is to “discuss the effective implementation of Resolution 16/18 by building on existing initiatives and identifying new collaborative opportunities.”

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GENEVA, Feb. 24, 2015 – The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch today led a coalition of 20 NGOs in giving a rare UN platform to the Nigerian girl who jumped off a truck to escape from Boko Haram, the student leaders of the Hong Kong umbrella protest, and courageous dissidents and victims from China, Cuba, Iran, Tibet, Pakistan, Turkey, North Korea and Venezuela.

The 2015 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, which opened yesterday in a packed UN chamber below the Human Rights Council, concluded today in an adjacent conference center before an audience of 500 human rights activists, diplomats, journalists and students.

The summit aims to place critical human rights situations on the world agenda days before foreign ministers gather on Monday in Geneva to open the annual session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Worldwide media coverage focused on the Nigerian girl who escaped the Boko Haram kidnapping (“Bring Back Our Girls”); a memorial to the murdered Charlie Hebdo journalists by two of their Paris colleagues, Philippe Val and Caroline Fourest; and the bestowal of awards to jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, and to Masih Alinejad, creator of a viral Facebook page that allows Iranian women to show hijab-free photos of themselves.

Notable speakers also included:
· Alex Chow & Lester Shum, Student leaders of Hong Kong protest movement
· Pierre Torres, French Journalist held hostage by ISIS for 10 months
· Yeon-Mi Park, 21-year-old North Korean defector
· Il Lim, North Korean defector and former slave laborer
· Ashiq Masih, Husband of Asia Bibi, Christian mother of five on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy
· Dicki Chhoyang, Foreign Minister of Central Tibetan Administration
· Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader persecuted by Maduro regime (by video)
· Yang Jianli, Former Chinese political prisoner, survivor of Tiananmen Square massacre
Canada, the Czech Republic and the U.S. co-sponsored yesterday’s UN opening session. Some 15 governments also met privately with the dissidents and victims at a meeting hosted by the Canadian Mission in Geneva.

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Human Rights Day: “Please Don’t Abandon Me” 

GENEVA, Dec. 10 — Today, as the world marks the 66th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Watch dedicates Human Rights Day to the cause of freedom and human dignity as exemplified by one person’s suffering: Asia Bibi, the innocent mother of five who is on death row in Pakistan for the crime of blasphemy.

We have advocated (at the UN, with 50 NGOs, at the Geneva Summit) and shall continue to demand her immediate release.

Until then, we believe that Pakistan should be expelled from the UN Human Rights Council: please click here to sign our petition. 

  ___________

“Please Don’t Abandon Me” 

NOVEMBER 19, 2014 – Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman, was sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam in 2010. The year before, while picking fruit with Muslim women, she took a sip of water from the local well. She was immediately accused of making the water impure by ​the other workers, ​who told her that they could no longer use the well.

A​ccording to her husband, Ashiq Masih, and others, men and women started beating her and accusing her of making derogatory remarks against the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a charge she denies.

Asia is currently in prison waiting to be hanged after losing an appeal ​on ​Oct. 16. She has told her story in a memoir, Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water, written with French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet.

Below is an open letter by Ashiq addressed to the world community. (Madam Mayor refers to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has offered her support to Asia.)

___________

By ASHIQ MASIH

Yesterday, I returned from the prison in Multan where my wife, Asia Bibi, was transferred eight months ago. Since Asia was sentenced to death in November 2010 for drinking a glass of water from our village well, my family has lived in constant fear and under death threats.

I live in hiding with my five children as near as possible to Asia. She needs us very much to help keep her alive, to bring her medicine and good food when she is sick.

After my wife had spent four long years in prison in terrible conditions, we were hoping that the High Court of Lahore would free my wife. She did not commit blasphemy, never.

Since the court confirmed the death sentence on the 16th of October, we do not understand why our country, our beloved Pakistan, is so against us. Our family has always lived here in peace, and we never had any disturbance. We are Christians but we respect Islam. Our neighbors are Muslims and we have always lived well with them in our little village.

But for some years now the situation in Pakistan has changed because of just a few people, and we are afraid. Today many of our Muslim friends cannot understand why the Pakistani justice system is making our family suffer so much.

We are now trying our best to present the final case to the Supreme Court before the 4th of December. But we are convinced that Asia will only be saved from being hanged if the venerable President Mammon Hussain grants her a pardon. No one should be killed for drinking a glass of water.

My five children and I have only survived thanks to the protection of a few faithful friends who risk their lives daily to help us. We are the husband and family of Asia Bibi and many people want us to die. Thanks to our friend Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who has become our sister and helped us for four years now, we speak often about what is happening in Paris and the world to help save Asia.

Hearing that people are supporting Asia from so far away is so important for us. It helps us to hold on. Every time I visit Asia in prison I tell her the news. Sometimes it gives her the courage to keep going.

Just before taking the ten-hour journey to visit Asia, I learned the wonderful news that Paris is offering to welcome Asia and our family to Paris if she is freed. This is a huge honor and we are very humbled. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to you, Madam Mayor of Paris, and to say that we are immensely grateful for your concern. I hope that one day we will visit you alive, and not dead.

When I visited Asia Bibi yesterday she asked me to give you this message:

“My prison cell has no windows and day and night are the same to me, but if I am still holding on today it is thanks to everyone who is trying to help me. When my husband showed me the photographs of people I have never met drinking a glass of water for me, my heart overflowed.

Ashiq told me that the city of Paris is offering to welcome our family. I send my deepest thanks to you Madam Mayor, and to all the kind people of Paris and across the world. You are my only hope of staying alive in this dungeon, so please don’t abandon me. I did not commit blasphemy.”

Ashiq Masih
Pakistan, 17th of November 2014

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Speaking in Arabic and on behalf of UN Watch, Father Gabriel Naddaf of Nazareth intervened during the recent 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Mr. President, I am speaking to you on behalf of UN Watch.

Standing before you is Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Christian citizen from Nazareth, the city in which Christ was raised and where he proselytized.

Dear Sirs, while I stand before you today, the earth of the Middle East is soaked with the blood of Christians being killed daily.

Do you know that at the start of the 20th century, Christians comprised 20% of the population of the Middle East?
Today they comprise only 4%.

Do you know that over the past years some 100,000 Christians have been killed annually? And why? Not for a crime they’ve committed, but only for believing in Christ.

In Iraq alone, more than 77% of the Christians have fled during the year 2000, in addition to thousands killed and expelled.

Some 2 million Christians lived in Syria, but today, they are less than 250,000.

Christians in these countries are treated as second-class citizens; facing racial, religious, economic and social discrimination.

Why is this happening? Only due to their religion, a religion that advocates love and peace between mankind.
Christians in the Middle East are marginalized, their rights denied, their property stolen, their honor violated, their men killed, and their children displaced.

Where will they go? Who will defend them? And who will guard their property?

If we look at the Middle East, Mr. President, we realize there’s only one safe place where Christians are not persecuted.

One place where they are protected, enjoying freedom of worship and expression, living in peace and not subjected to killing and genocide.

It is Israel, the country I live in. The Jewish state is the only place where the Christians of the Holy Land live in safety.

Christians and Jews live in Israel not only because Christ was originally Jewish, born in Jewish Bethlehem, but because they share a common destiny, and a true hope to coexist in peace.

Does the world acknowledge Israel for protecting its Christians? Many in the international community have chosen to criticize Israel.

This, in my mind, is a double crime: because by doing so, the international community helps those striving to annihilate the Jews, the Christians, the Druze and the Yazidis for political ends.

By doing so, the international community unfortunately contributes to exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. It causes Christians to leave the land of Christ searching for a safe haven across the world.

It is time for the world to awaken and realize the truth of those striving to destroy the Jewish state.

They are hastening the death sentence of Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land, the land which witnessed the birth and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. If they leave, who will remain in it?

I, Father Gabrial Naddaf of Nazareth, stand before you and plead: O world leaders and supporters of peace, stop those who want to destroy the only free Jewish state in the region.

It is the only refuge welcoming and protecting all of its citizens. It is the only place that does not attempt to push out Christians, forcing them to leave their land in search of security.

I implore you from the bottom of my heart to hear the cry of the Christians of the Middle East before it is too late, and you may read about them only in the history books.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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Speaking in Arabic and on behalf of UN Watch, Father Gabriel Naddaf of Nazareth intervened during the recent 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Mr. President, I am speaking to you on behalf of UN Watch.

Standing before you is Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Christian citizen from Nazareth, the city in which Christ was raised and where he proselytized.

Dear Sirs, while I stand before you today, the earth of the Middle East is soaked with the blood of Christians being killed daily.

Do you know that at the start of the 20th century, Christians comprised 20% of the population of the Middle East?
Today they comprise only 4%.

Do you know that over the past years some 100,000 Christians have been killed annually? And why? Not for a crime they’ve committed, but only for believing in Christ.

In Iraq alone, more than 77% of the Christians have fled during the year 2000, in addition to thousands killed and expelled.

Some 2 million Christians lived in Syria, but today, they are less than 250,000.

Christians in these countries are treated as second-class citizens; facing racial, religious, economic and social discrimination.

Why is this happening? Only due to their religion, a religion that advocates love and peace between mankind.
Christians in the Middle East are marginalized, their rights denied, their property stolen, their honor violated, their men killed, and their children displaced.

Where will they go? Who will defend them? And who will guard their property?

If we look at the Middle East, Mr. President, we realize there’s only one safe place where Christians are not persecuted.

One place where they are protected, enjoying freedom of worship and expression, living in peace and not subjected to killing and genocide.

It is Israel, the country I live in. The Jewish state is the only place where the Christians of the Holy Land live in safety.

Christians and Jews live in Israel not only because Christ was originally Jewish, born in Jewish Bethlehem, but because they share a common destiny, and a true hope to coexist in peace.

Does the world acknowledge Israel for protecting its Christians? Many in the international community have chosen to criticize Israel.

This, in my mind, is a double crime: because by doing so, the international community helps those striving to annihilate the Jews, the Christians, the Druze and the Yazidis for political ends.

By doing so, the international community unfortunately contributes to exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. It causes Christians to leave the land of Christ searching for a safe haven across the world.

It is time for the world to awaken and realize the truth of those striving to destroy the Jewish state.

They are hastening the death sentence of Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land, the land which witnessed the birth and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. If they leave, who will remain in it?

I, Father Gabrial Naddaf of Nazareth, stand before you and plead: O world leaders and supporters of peace, stop those who want to destroy the only free Jewish state in the region.

It is the only refuge welcoming and protecting all of its citizens. It is the only place that does not attempt to push out Christians, forcing them to leave their land in search of security.

I implore you from the bottom of my heart to hear the cry of the Christians of the Middle East before it is too late, and you may read about them only in the history books.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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UN Watch testimony delivered by Maryam Wahida, a 21-year-old Iraqi Christian woman, to the UN Human Rights Council special session on ISIS, Sept. 1, 2014                       

Thank you, Mr. President.

My name is Maryam Wahida, and I am a Christian born and raised in Iraq, where most of my family remains. I am privileged to speak on behalf of UN Watch.

I have come here today, with my family, to bear witness before the world about the horrific crimes perpetrated by the Islamic State against my relatives, against the Christians, Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq.

For many weeks now, the terrorists have invaded our villages, destroyed ancient churches, and burned historical archives dating back many centuries.

Mr. President, I welcome today’s meeting. But given the extreme life-and-death urgency, we must ask: Why has the UN waited so long?

The victims of Iraq want to know: What could be more urgent than stopping the terrorists of the Islamic State from persecuting, attacking, enslaving, raping and beheading our men, women and children?

Mr. President,

Those who survived were forced to flee their homes. As displaced persons, they now live in horrible conditions, without basic hygiene and sanitation. They sleep in the streets, on the floor, inside and outside of churches. Children and the elderly suffer the most, and there are many illnesses that quickly spread among the victims.

I speak on the telephone to my relatives in Iraq. I learned about how my cousin Nawar, a 25-year-old pharmacist in Erbil, started collecting money to buy medical supplies for the sick. He managed to buy a wheelchair for one refugee, a 90-year-old woman, who was very happy to receive the help.

I wish to thank all of the governments that have helped so far. But the international community must do more—whatever it can—to help the victims, such as by creating a safe region for displaced persons within Iraq, and to facilitate asylum and migration.

Mr. President, I hope that I can call my relatives in Iraq tonight with news of strong and effective action from the UN, to save the victims who are in such desperate need of the world’s help.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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GENEVA, August 25, 2014 –  The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, which spearheaded this month’s campaign by rights activists, MPs and Iraqi minority leaders for an emergency UN Human Rights Council session on Iraq, welcomed the news that a meeting will likely be held next Monday, but demanded an outcome with “concrete actions to help the desperate people on the ground.”
The announcement came today at a meeting of the 47-nation body in Geneva, one week after UN Watch launched its global appeal with a rally, press conference and diplomatic marathon featuring Iraqi Christian and Yazidi leaders.
“An urgent session on the Islamic State’s butchering of Iraq’s Christians, Yazidis and other minorities is long overdue, but it’s better late than never,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.
“Our international coalition wants to see three concrete outcomes from the UN meeting: a resolution that strongly condemns the atrocities committed by ISIS; the establishment of a commission of inquiry to document those atrocities; and a revival of the UNHRC’s mandate of a Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iraq, which was wrongly canceled 10 years ago, to ensure that we have an early warning system in place over both the near and long term,” said Neuer.
“With so many lives at stake — men being slaughtered like animals, and women being terribly abused — the UN human rights council must act immediately. We must have deeds, not only words,” said Neuer.
“To date, the silence has been deafening. How can it be that for an entire summer Islamic State terrorists have been beheading children, crucifying Christians, raping and enslaving women and girls, and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes, only to face starvation and dehydration on remote mountain-tops, and yet the world’s top human rights body is out on vacation?”
During the emergency session next week, UN Watch plans to bring a young Iraqi Christian to testify before the council of the horrors suffered by her community.
 

_____________

Related:

• Urgent Appeal to UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay to Stop Genocide in Iraq 
  Signed by an international coalition of Members of Parliament and Human Rights Activists

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• Why HRW’s Ken Roth won’t condemn the kidnapping of Israeli teens

• UN Watch takes the floor at the UN Human Rights Council to expose violations of women’s rights by Sudan, Pakistan, Iran 

• Caracas officials lash out at UN Watch over upcoming Tuesday summit of Venezuelan dissidents

A Times of Israel blog post by Hillel Neuer
Why HRW’s Ken Roth won’t condemn the kidnapping of Israeli children

June 16, 2014
GENEVA – Unlike the UN secretary-general and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the head of Human Rights Watch is refusing to unequivocally condemn Thursday’s kidnapping of Israeli teenagers, emphasizing instead that they attended school in an “illegal settlement,” and demanding that his critics first condemn an unrelated event from a month ago, the alleged IDF killing of masked rock-throwers.
After repeated appeals from Twitter users for HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth to end his silence on the abductions, Roth finally responded with this carefully-constructed tweet: “Attending school at illegal settlement doesn’t legitimize apparent kidnapping of Israel teens. They should be freed.” But…. Click here to read more
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UN Watch takes the floor at UNHRC plenary, calls out Sudan, Pakistan, Iran for stoning, jailing, targeting women

In her final speech, outgoing UN rights chief Navi Pillay (above center) chose to single out Israel for one-sided condemnation, as she “commended Palestine.” While Pillay did criticize several other countries, she failed to say a word about gross and systematic human rights abuses committed by dozens of states, including by UNHRC members such as China, Russia, or Saudi Arabia. Then UN Watch took the floor.

UN Watch testimony before the UN Human Rights Council, 26th Session
June 10, 2014
Thank you, Mr. President. . . We wish to focus thematically on violations of women’s rights—in particular, those perpetrated by three members of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is charged with protecting the rights of women.

Video: What Happened to the UN?This new UN Watch video tells the story of what happened to the United Nations—and how UN Watch battled over the past 12 months to defend the true principles of human rights at the world body.

First, Sudan. Last month, Mariam Yehya Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Christian woman, was sentenced to death by hanging, after she declined to profess she is a Muslim, the religion of her father. Sudan charged her with apostasy—and also adultery, for the crime of marrying a Christian.
Mr. President, let the record show that Sudan threw this woman into prison while she was eight months pregnant; that she was forced to give birth in prison; and that she is behind bars together with her 20-month-old son.
If ever there were a prisoner of conscience, it is Ms. Ibrahim. When will this Council take action to protect her?
Second, Pakistan. Two weeks ago, a 23 year-old pregnant woman was brutally murdered for marrying a man against her family’s wishes. A mob of 28—including members of her own family—beat her to death with bricks, in front of the courthouse in Lahore. The police did nothing.
Mr. President, hundreds of women in Pakistan are killed every year in such so-called honor killings. But where is the honor in Pakistani authorities turning a blind eye to these murders?
Finally, Iran. A few weeks ago, journalist Masih Alinejad created a Facebook page where women could post pictures of themselves without their hijab. Now Iran’s state TV has launched a vicious smear campaign against her.
Mr. President, does it make sense that these countries are the UN’s guardians of women’s rights?
Thank you, Mr. President.
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Upcoming UN Watch Summit of Venezuelan Dissidents Raises Ire of Caracas
National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello says UN Watch gathering this Tuesday seeks to “discredit” government

GENEVA, June 15, 2014 –  The head of the Venezuelan parliament was one of several top Caracas officials to lash out at an upcoming UN Watch gathering of Venezuelan dissidents at the United Nations Human Rights Council, where the government’s violent repression of protests is expected to come under intense scrutiny.
The first-ever UN summit of Venezuelan dissidents, which will draw together ambassadors, UN officials, and rights activists, is being organized by the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, with the co-sponsorship of Iniciativa por Venezuela, Human Rights Foundation and Directorio. Read More

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HRC 25th Session
Item 9 General Debate
March 25, 2014

Delivered by Hillel Neuer

Thank you Mr. President.
When civil rights leader Morris Abram founded UN Watch two decades ago, he did so with the same vision of equality that guided his work for the Nuremburg tribunal on the Nazi war crimes and his struggle with Reverend Martin Luther King. This included most famously his successful legal action in which the U.S. Supreme Court finally recognized “one man, one vote;” one of the great victories for African American equality. Today I wish to explore the theme of racism and discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities.
We ask, when will Pakistan end the persecution of minority Shiites? In this past August, we witnessed grenade attacks on minority Ismaili prayer houses in Southern Pakistan which killed two people and wounded thirty others. We are witnessing systematic persecution of other Islamic minorities, as we are of Christian minorities, including women who remain on death row for the so-called crime of blasphemy.
Mr. President, when will Iran respect the United Nations General Assembly’s call to end continued discrimination and persecution of Arabs, Azeri, Beluchis, Kurds and other ethnic minorities?
Mr. President, when will Iran respect the UN General Assembly’s call to end continued harassment and persecution of religious minorities including Christians, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims, and Zoroastrians?
When will Iran respect the United Nations call to end the widespread arrest and detention Sufi Muslims and evangelical Christians including the continued detention of Christian pastors such as pastor Abedini?
Mr. President, just a few days ago we witnessed the leader of Iran, the supreme leader Khomeini question the Holocaust. When will Iran end its holocaust denial and the racism and anti-Semitism that underlies it?
Thank you Mr. President.

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