Unilateral coercive measures targeting the Sudan restrict trade and investment in the country, which in turn forces the population to face enormous challenges to their enjoyment of human rights. Coercive measures affect the right to health and an adequate standard of living, the right to food, the right to education and the right to development.

Jazairy: Nemesis of UN rights experts, then himself a UN rights expert
Hypocrisy reached new heights in March 2015 when the UNHRC appointed Jazairy as one of its human rights monitors: he is the same man who, as Algerian ambassador, personally headed a major campaign to muzzle the Council’s human rights monitors, by imposing a “Code of Conduct.”
UN Watch sounded the alarm before he was appointed in 2015, but to no avail.
(Update: In October 2016, the Tribune de Geneve exposed Jazairy’s conflict of interest in being a UN expert and also heading a front group funded by the United Arab Emirates.)
As Algerian ambassador on the UNHRC, Jazairy also took many other actions inimical to the protection and promotion of human rights:

• After Sri Lanka killed 40,000 of its own people, Jazairy co-sponsored a 2009 resolution that praised Sri Lanka for “promotion and protection of all human rights”

• Genocide by Sudan in Darfur didn’t stop Jazairy from sponsoring a 2006 resolution that praised the regime for “cooperation,” while demanding that the international community “honor their pledges of support” and “provide urgent and adequate financial and technical assistance to the Government of Sudan.”

• Jazairy repeatedly defended genocidal Sudan. When UN monitors reported attacks on Darfur civilians by Sudanese government-allied militias, they were immediately challenged by Jazairy: “And I say the alleged links between the government of Sudan, and the militias referred to by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have yet to be objectively documented.” Click here for video

• Asked by French journalist Caroline Fourest why certain Arab countries imprisoned homosexuals, contrary to human rights, Jazairy said that gay rights was a “Western-centric” attitude, having no basis in universal human rights.

• Jazairy headed a major effort to change international law to prohibit criticism of Islam, under the “Defamation of religion” banner. Jazairy’s non-paper wrote: “Requisite complementary standards shall include the prohibition of publication of material that direct seriously offensive attacks on matters regarded by followers of any religion or belief as sacred or inherent to their dignity as human beings.”

• Jazairy repeatedly sought to distort the meaning of the word anti-Semitism, saying that it targets Arabs and Muslims.

At an April 22, 2008 U.N. meeting on racism, he declared that “Antisemitism targets Arabs, who are also Semites, and by extension, the whole Muslim community.”
In 2011, he elaborated:

Already in the 19th century, Arabs and Jews, who equally belong to the Semitic race, were the target of the same anti-Semitic stereotyping… Since the holocaust, fortunately anti-Semitism targeting the Jews has been eschewed from public speech.
However, it continues to be accepted in the name of freedom of expression when it takes the form of Arabophobia, or by extension, of Islamophobia.

• Jazairy received $50,000 from the Russian Federation for his UN mandate. (UN 2017 report, A/HRC/34/34/Add.1, p.37)  Coincidentally, his application clarified his vision of the anti-American mandate—which included shilling for Vladimir Putin’s aggression:

I regard UCMs [unilateral coercive measures] as an issue which principally affects North-South relations and see this mandate as an opportunity to put to use my experience of half a century in multilateralism as a bridge-builder between North and South. Pre-Helsinki UCMs were an expression of East-West rivalry. Alas! increased tension over Crimea and Ukraine has all but revived this situation. The impact of UCMs on human rights being conversely related to the level of development of the targeted countries, the people of the South are the most vulnerable to Northern “sanctions.”

The post UN’s Idriss Jazairy thinks genocidal Sudan is the human rights victim appeared first on UN Watch.

Human Rights as a Political Tool

As the UNHRC heard damning reports from its experts on human rights abuses in Syria, Belarus and Eritrea, dictators cried foul and defended their partners in crime.
While Assad bombs helpless civilians in his own cities, North Korea said “all issues related to Syria should be resolved by the Syrian government and the people themselves.”
Likewise, Cuba said “the Syrian people is capable of resolving its differences itself and we would ask that foreign efforts come to an end. We object to any attempts to encroach on territorial integrity and sovereignty.” The problem is not with “the legitimate government” but rather with “foreign forces which, in one way or another, have helped train armed groups.”
Venezuela took the floor to “warn about the dangers of foreign powers’ continuous warmongering,” reiterating their “support for the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad.”
Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe, and due to face scrutiny later in the day, said “the Human Rights Council must renounce politicized accusations against the government of the country.”

When Belarus was addressed, Syria reciprocated, saying Minsk showed “a real desire to discharge its international obligations,” and denounced a UN expert’s critical report on Belarus as “an instrument of interference in another country’s affairs.”
Venezuela slammed “the biased report” on Belarus, which “ignores the leaps forward that Belarus has taken in human rights.” Echoing their earlier defense of Syria, the Maduro regime said foreign meddling was liable to “force a change of political system which has been democratically chosen by its people.”

Propaganda at the UN

A Sudanese Government-sponsored NGO, the Eastern Sudan Women Development Organization and Society Studies Center, hosted a side event, “honored by Mr. Idris Jazairy,” the UN expert on sanctions and apologist for Sudan’s genocidal regime. This is the second occasion on which Sudan has used the UN for propaganda purposes at this session, after organizing a discussion on the empowerment of Sudanese women last week.

Additional resources:
Hillel Neuer testifies at United States Congress
Previous blog posts from the Human Rights Council

The post June 21: Politics Trumps Human Rights at UN Human Rights Council appeared first on UN Watch.

###

(Source: “The Palestinian Information Center”, June 3, 2015)

Haneyya hails PRC’s pro-Palestine activism in London
LONDON, (PIC)– Deputy head of Hamas, Ismail Haneyya, on Tuesday congratulated the head of the Palestine Return Center (PRC), Majed al-Zeir, for having been granted observer status by the UN, hailing the PRC for its activism across the U.K.
Haneyya’s congratulations to al-Zeir were passed on in a telephone call in which he stressed the vital role played by the PRC on the legal and political arena.

He acclaimed the harmony between Palestinians’ commitment to their legitimate rights and the pro-Palestine activism carried out overseas.
For his part, al-Zeir voiced his gratitude for Haneyya’s heartfelt wishes, reiterating the group’s serious devotion to Palestinians’ inalienable rights.
Earlier, on Sunday, the UK-based Palestinian Return Center has been granted observer status by the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), allowing for the group to advance its legitimacy and access funding.
The group easily gained its UN recognition, with some twelve countries voting in favor, including Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Venezuela, China, and Cuba.

The post Hamas congratulates 'Palestinian Return Centre' for winning UN status appeared first on UN Watch.

Above: Antisemitic image posted on Facebook by Majed Al-Zeer,
Director-General of the Hamas-linked Palestinian Return Centre

GENEVA, May 28, 2015 – A UN committee dominated by Iran and its allies will decide today whether to grant official observer status to an antisemitic front group of the Hamas terrorist organization, warned UN Watch. The Geneva-based independent monitoring group called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to speak out against a “an alarming development that would negate the very principles of the United Nations.”
According to a UN timetable, the world body’s 19-member Committee on NGOs — which is is stacked with non-democracies including Iran, Sudan, China, Cuba, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Venezuela — is scheduled to decide on the application of the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) to receive official UN accreditation as a non-governmental observer organization.
Iran, the main backer of Hamas, along with Sudan, also a Hamas ally, have spoken out in support of the group, most recently during a February meeting of the UN committee.
NGO status would allow representatives of the Hamas-linked PRC  to acquire official UN badges, full access to UN facilities and participation in debates in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and, perhaps most significantly, global legitimacy.

Above: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, center, with (on his left)
Majed Al-Zeer, director-general of the Palestinian Return Centre

Despite its pose as pro-Palestinian human rights group, the PRC is one of the few Palestinian advocacy groups to have been banned by Israel, on account of its deep entanglement with top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization based in Gaza and abroad.
According to a report in The Telegraph, the PRC “has regularly hosted Palestinian leaders, including [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh, at its annual conferences.”
According to an intelligence digest monitoring worldwide activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, PRC leaders include Ghassan Faour, who is part of Interpal, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist entity, for being one of several front groups that “provide support to Hamas and form part of its funding network in Europe”; and Zaher Birawi, head of programming for Al-Hiwar TV, which frequently features Hamas individuals and organizations, and which was founded by Azzam Al-Tamimi, a U.K Muslim Brotherhood leader who is “close to Hamas.”
PRC’s deep ties to senior Hamas officials was further documented in a detailed, 80-page report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. The study, replete with photos of PRC leaders with Hamas officials, concludes that the PRC “is affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and “some of its senior figures are Hamas activists who found refuge in Britain.”

The post UN status for antisemitic Hamas front group to be decided today appeared first on UN Watch.

The post Front groups set tone for tomorrow's UN review of China's rights record appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, Oct. 21, 2013 – On the eve of the UN Human Rights Council’s review of China’s human rights record, a panel was held today at UNHRC headquarters by Chinese “non-governmental” organizations, who showered China with praise for its supposed civil society progress.

It has become commonplace at the United Nations for authoritarian governments to accredit front groups as NGOs, who then take the floor or organize side to influence UN debates on the country concerned. They are known as phony NGOs, or “GONGOs” — government-run NGOs.

Today’s phony NGO panel  was organized by “China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CNIE),” a UN-accredited NGO.

They were joined by the “China Association for NPO (non-profit organizations),” the “Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Hebei Province,” and the “China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture and China Ethnic Minorities Association for External Exchanges.”

Panelists spoke of the “booming and changing” development of NGOs in China, claiming there are 506,000 social organizations and one to three million grass-roots NGOs active in China today. These promote economic development by focusing on education, social service, agriculture, ecological environment, law and religion, it was said. These organizations exercise autonomy as long as they work in accordance with the law and that the functions of the government are separated from those of social organizations.

At the end of the presentation, as if on cue, diplomats from Cuba, Venezuela and Sri Lanka — major allies of the Chinese regime — took the floor to praised the Chinese GONGOs for their active civil society. Cuba reaffirmed the importance of having such a genuine dialogue about civil society in China, and commended the government and people of China for all that has been done in the field of human rights.

The post Front groups set tone for tomorrow’s UN review of China’s rights record appeared first on UN Watch.

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Though it claims in its official UN filings to be a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting universal human rights, EAFORD appears instead to be a front group for one of the world’s worst human rights violators: the Libyan regime of Moammar Kaddafi. Its raison d’etre is demonizing Israel as a racist state. The GONGO also foments hatred against America and the West, in the past by publishing the works of various fringe figures.

EAFORD was established in Libya in 1976:

“EAFORD” is the abbreviated name of the International Organization for the Elimination of Ali Forms of Racial Discrimination, established by an International Symposium held in Tripoli (Libya) during 24-28, 1976. It was attended by close to 500 participants from eighty countries representing ali continents. Papers, by invitation, were presented. A selection of those papers was published in book form, entitled Zionism and Racism…See https://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/44/684/8706.pdf

The group’s additional ties to the murderous Libyan regime of Col. Moammar Kaddafi abound:

• The late Mansour al-Kikhya, Libya’s former Foreign Minister and ambassador to the UN, was a member of EAFORD’s Executive Council (see preface at https://www.eaford.org/publications/1/9-11.pdf). The EAFORD website still lists him as a member.
• EAFORD’s President is Abdullah Sharfelddin, former President of the state-controlled Libyan Bar (see preface at https://www.eaford.org/publications/1/9-11.pdf). In 2003, he defended the regimes of Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• The executive director of EAFORD is Hanan Sharfelddin, presumably the daughter of Abdullah Sharfelddin. In 2001, she delivered a UN speech for EAFORD objecting to sanctions against the Libyan regime.
• Libya’s former Oil Minister Fuad Kabazi is another member of EAFORD’s Executive Council.
• EAFORD’s Secretary-General, Anis Al Qasem, is also honorary counsel to the Libyan British Business Council.
• Certain EAFORD documents in the past listed the head office as Tripoli, Libya. See p. 24 here. However, current filings with the UN list a Geneva address.
• Another long-time EAFORD Executive Council member is Yvon Charbonneau, who as a Quebec militant in the 1970s was accused of close ties with the Libyan regime. In 1983, while Charbonneau headed a major Quebec union, a demonstration was held in Montreal to protest his Libyan ties. In a Montreal Gazette article, Charbonneau denied that a group he founded, the Mouvement Quebecois pour Combattre le Racisme, had ties to EAFORD.

For a list of EAFORD statements equating Israel with ultimate evil, see their website here, or see the list compiled by NGO Monitor here.

Libya’s primary front group at the UN, however, remains “North-South 21,” which manages the “Moammar Kaddafi Human Rights Prize,” co-founded by Jean Ziegler, Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights  Council’s  Advisory Committee. For more on this GONGO, click here.

The post Sponsor of UN-hosted blood libel tied to Libyan regime appeared first on UN Watch.

Geneva, March 24, 2010 – UN Watch, the Geneva-based watchdog organization, today called on the president of the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to stop circulating an “anti-Semitic” text that accuses Israeli doctors of scheming to steal Palestinian organs. The statement by the Libyan-linked group EAFORD was posted by the UNHRC on its Agenda for debate on the Goldstone Report. The UN Watch protest letter follows below.

_________________________________

Amb. Alex Van Meeuwen, President of the Human Rights Council
Ms. Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations European Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland

March 24, 2010

Dear Mr. President,
Dear Madam High Commissioner,

As a human rights NGO dedicated to combating racism, UN Watch is alarmed to discover that the UN Human Rights Council, together with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has, however unwittingly, helped to propagate an anti-Semitic blood libel by publishing it as an official United Nations document (A/HRC/13/NGO/23), which is now being distributed to country delegates — under the same Agenda Item in which they will soon vote on the Goldstone Report.

We call upon you to immediately cease circulating this racist, hateful and inflammatory text to the ambassadors and other delegates of the Human Rights Council; to gather up and destroy all existing copies; and to remove it from the Human Rights Council website.

The document in question is A/HRC/13/NGO/23, entitled “Israeli Illegal Trafficking in Organs of Dead and Kidnapped Palestinian Victims.” It was submitted by the “International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination,” also known as EAFORD. As shown on its website (https://www.eaford.org/), the raison d’etre of this UN-accredited organization is to accuse Israel of being a racist state. (The website also links to a video on U.S. action in Iraq, which it describes as a “Holocaust.”)

The statement begins by accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing and massacres,” creating the “largest open-air prison in the world,” perpetrating “economic genocide,” and having “let loose hordes of marauding gangs of Israeli illegal settlers” in order to “launch pogroms against Palestinians.”

It then proceeds to the principal charge: “Now it is the turn of the dead, kidnapped and killed Palestinians. Their human organs, as reported in the press, can be a source of immense wealth through illegal trafficking in the world market. Israeli physicians, medical centers, rabbis and the Israeli army may be involved, according to reports published in the Swedish press and criminal investigations in the United States.”

It goes on: “After Israeli physicians remove organs they think marketable, the soldiers bury the bodies in graves that carry only numbers and no names, or place them in sealed caskets and deliver them under curfew conditions to the families and supervise the digging of the graves and burial.”

Finally, the statement concludes by calling on “physicians, medical centers and associations everywhere to condemn and boycott Israeli physicians and medical centers.”

Your Excellencies, the accusation that the Jewish state and its doctors are engaged in a racist campaign to steal Palestinian organs has no basis in fact or reality, and is nothing less than the repackaging of the medieval blood libel that was used over centuries to incite anti-Semitic hatred, violence and pogroms against Jews.

The United Nations cannot allow itself to aid or abet such blatant incitement to racism. Given that the Office of the High Commissioner carefully screens all submissions before deciding to publish them-indeed, our own submissions to this session were edited to remove certain words referring to regimes such as Iran and Libya-we are deeply disappointed that this hateful text was accepted for publication as an official UN document, and that it is now being distributed as such within the Human Rights Council chamber.

We urge you to take immediate action in accordance with the principles of human rights, equality and anti-racism upon which the United Nations was founded.

Respectfully,

Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director
UN Watch
Geneva, Switzerland

The post NGO Urges UN to Stop Circulating ‘Israeli Organ Blood Libel’ appeared first on UN Watch.

Geneva, March 24, 2010 – UN Watch, the Geneva-based watchdog organization, today called on the president of the UN Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to stop circulating an “anti-Semitic” text that accuses Israeli doctors of scheming to steal Palestinian organs. The statement by the Libyan-linked group EAFORD was posted by the UNHRC on its Agenda for debate on the Goldstone Report. The UN Watch protest letter follows below.

_________________________________

Amb. Alex Van Meeuwen, President of the Human Rights Council
Ms. Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations European Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland

March 24, 2010

Dear Mr. President,
Dear Madam High Commissioner,

As a human rights NGO dedicated to combating racism, UN Watch is alarmed to discover that the UN Human Rights Council, together with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has, however unwittingly, helped to propagate an anti-Semitic blood libel by publishing it as an official United Nations document (A/HRC/13/NGO/23), which is now being distributed to country delegates — under the same Agenda Item in which they will soon vote on the Goldstone Report.

We call upon you to immediately cease circulating this racist, hateful and inflammatory text to the ambassadors and other delegates of the Human Rights Council; to gather up and destroy all existing copies; and to remove it from the Human Rights Council website.

The document in question is A/HRC/13/NGO/23, entitled “Israeli Illegal Trafficking in Organs of Dead and Kidnapped Palestinian Victims.” It was submitted by the “International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination,” also known as EAFORD. As shown on its website (https://www.eaford.org/), the raison d’etre of this UN-accredited organization is to accuse Israel of being a racist state. (The website also links to a video on U.S. action in Iraq, which it describes as a “Holocaust.”)

The statement begins by accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing and massacres,” creating the “largest open-air prison in the world,” perpetrating “economic genocide,” and having “let loose hordes of marauding gangs of Israeli illegal settlers” in order to “launch pogroms against Palestinians.”

It then proceeds to the principal charge: “Now it is the turn of the dead, kidnapped and killed Palestinians. Their human organs, as reported in the press, can be a source of immense wealth through illegal trafficking in the world market. Israeli physicians, medical centers, rabbis and the Israeli army may be involved, according to reports published in the Swedish press and criminal investigations in the United States.”

It goes on: “After Israeli physicians remove organs they think marketable, the soldiers bury the bodies in graves that carry only numbers and no names, or place them in sealed caskets and deliver them under curfew conditions to the families and supervise the digging of the graves and burial.”

Finally, the statement concludes by calling on “physicians, medical centers and associations everywhere to condemn and boycott Israeli physicians and medical centers.”

Your Excellencies, the accusation that the Jewish state and its doctors are engaged in a racist campaign to steal Palestinian organs has no basis in fact or reality, and is nothing less than the repackaging of the medieval blood libel that was used over centuries to incite anti-Semitic hatred, violence and pogroms against Jews.

The United Nations cannot allow itself to aid or abet such blatant incitement to racism. Given that the Office of the High Commissioner carefully screens all submissions before deciding to publish them-indeed, our own submissions to this session were edited to remove certain words referring to regimes such as Iran and Libya-we are deeply disappointed that this hateful text was accepted for publication as an official UN document, and that it is now being distributed as such within the Human Rights Council chamber.

We urge you to take immediate action in accordance with the principles of human rights, equality and anti-racism upon which the United Nations was founded.

Respectfully,

Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director
UN Watch
Geneva, Switzerland

The post NGO Urges UN to Stop Circulating ‘Israeli Organ Blood Libel’ appeared first on UN Watch.