After working for Gaddafi’s propaganda radio, Najat Al-Hajjaji chaired UNHRC, headed UN’s Durban II racism conf & was UNHRC mercenaries expert

GENEVA, October 21 — While the UN human rights office today called for an investigation into Gaddafi’s death, an international coalition of 45 human rights groups today urged Ban Ki-moon and UN rights chief Navi Pillay to investigate two UN Human Rights Council officials for their alleged actions over three decades to shield Libyan dictator Col. Qaddafi from scrutiny of his regime’s gross violations of human rights. (See full text below.)

The appeal names Jean Ziegler, a member of the UNHRC Advisory Committee, who in 1989 announced the creation of the “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” While Libya’s rights record was being reviewed last year by the UNHRC, a Libyan-funded group tied to Ziegler distributed within the UN a Ziegler-edited book comparing Qaddafi to French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The 45 NGOs, mostly from Africa, also urged the council to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, Qaddafi’s long-time representative to UN human rights bodies, from the council’s expert working group on mercenaries and human rights.

A Swiss TV report this year confirmed Ziegler’s key role in creating the Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, which it described as “an instrument of propaganda for the dictator.” As a result, citing his Qaddafi connections, the famed Salzburg Festival decided to cancel Ziegler’s keynote address at its event this summer, sparking a heated controversy in Austria.

“If a leading music festival was ashamed enough to distance itself from Gaddafi apologists,” asked Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch, “why is the United Nations not doing the same? We call on UN rights chief Navi Pillay to conduct a full investigation into how Gaddafi apologists like Ziegler and Al-Hajjaji were given key posts at the UN Human Rights Council.”

The 45 NGOs also urged the Swiss government to apologize for nominating Ziegler to the UN council in 2008 and lobbying on his behalf, despite objections voiced at the time by NGOs and international MPs over Ziegler’s advocacy for the Gaddafi regime.

The appeal follows below.

########

• French version — en francais
• German version — Deutsch

NGO APPEAL TO END IMPUNITY FOR
ENABLERS OF THE QADDAFI REGIME
WITHIN THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

 The undersigned Human Rights and Non-Governmental Organizations,

 Guided by the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

 Reaffirm UN Human Rights Council Resolution S-15/1, which expressed deep concern at the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Libya, rejected unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan Government, and strongly condemned the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in that country, including the indiscriminate armed attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators, some of which may also amount to crimes against humanity;

 Recall that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly emphasized the importance of accountability and the need to fight against impunity and, in this regard, stressed the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks on civilians in Libya;

 Welcome the assurances of High Commissioner Pillay that combating impunity and strengthening accountability both in situations of peace and conflict will remain an important priority for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and that the Human Rights Council should be prepared to confront violations wherever and whenever they take place;

 Recognize that the UN Human Rights Council, under Resolution 5/2, requires its independent experts to uphold the highest standards of integrity, probity, and good faith;

Reaffirm the declaration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the clear responsibility of all independent experts to uphold the high standards of the United Nations and the Council;

Endorse the finding by High Commissioner Pillay that “today’s shocking and brutal situation in Libya is the direct outcome of a callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that has marked the almost four-decade long grip on power by the current ruler, and that Justice for ongoing as well as past abuses must be attained in order to be meaningful for all the victims”;

 Express grave concern at the numerous credible reports that the Qaddafi regime has used foreign mercenaries to assault and kill many hundreds of its own citizens;

 Accountability for Najat Al-Hajjaji

 Strongly condemn the continued tenure of Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, as an independent expert of the Human Rights Council since 2005, sitting on the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights—and this without objection, then or now, by any official of the UN Human Rights Council, or of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;

 Recognize that for over three decades, Ms. Al-Hajjaji committed acts with the intent and effect of securing impunity for the crimes of Col. Qaddafi and his regime, including serving as Director of External Relations and Training for the regime-controlled Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA), a position she held from 1978 to 1991—during which time, for example, the agency broadcast, on April 28, 1980, a threat to Libyan dissidents by Col. Qaddafi that “they are doomed” unless they return home, causing scores of Libyans living in London to go into hiding following what JANA quoted Col. Qaddafi as calling his “final warning”;

 Recall that Col. Qaddafi then appointed Ms. Al-Hajjaji to represent the regime at the United Nations in Geneva as Minister Plenipotentiary from 1992 to 1998, deputy ambassador from 1998 to 2000, and then, from 3 October 2000, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative, positions she used to ensure that the human rights abuses of Libya were never addressed by any resolution or watch-list of the UN Commission on Human Rights, thereby granting impunity to the Qaddafi regime;

 Recognize that, in 2003, human rights groups universally condemned Ms. Al-Hajjaji’s election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which provided monumental propaganda value to the Qaddafi regime, and that her tenure was seen as the last straw in the decline of that body’s credibility, prompting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to state shortly afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse;

 Recall that, in April 2009, when Ms. Al-Hajjaji chaired the two-year Preparatory Committee of the UN’s 2009 World Conference on Racism, and the conference’s Main Committee, she silenced testimony by a Palestinian victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV;

 Condemn Ms. Al-Hajjaji for abusing her UN positions—at a time when the regime was violently suppressing its population and torturing dissidents—in order to shield the Qaddafi regime from any accountability whatsoever;

 Accountability for Jean Ziegler

 Express grave concern that Mr. Jean Ziegler, a long-time apologist and propagandist for Col. Qaddafi and his regime, continues to serve on the the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee, which last year elected him as Vice-President;

 Recall that, as documented in the 2006 report by United Nations Watch, Mr. Ziegler co-founded, co-managed, and eventually won the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was launched in  April 1989—a few months after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up by Libyan intelligence agents, killing all 259 people on board—in a transparent attempt to change Libya’s damaged international image as a terrorist state;

 Recall also that it was Mr. Ziegler who announced to the world the prize’s creation, with British newspaper The Independent writing that, “according to Jean Ziegler, the $250,000 prize will bear the name of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who has provided a $10 million fund for it”;

 Recall also that Switzerland’s L’Hebdo magazine dedicated a feature-length story to the prize under the heading “The Nobel of Qaddafi: Libyan authorities create a new human rights prize—Jean Ziegler gets involved,” in which it was reported that, “Jean Ziegler and ten ‘intellectuals and progressive fighters’ thus found themselves in Tripoli to set the project on track”;

 Condemn the statements of Jean Ziegler made at that time, as quoted in Journal de Genève, on April 25, 1989, in which he described Libya as being in a “democratization” process, and denied that the Qaddafi regime sponsored terrorism;

 Recognize that the frequent and diverse propaganda uses of the Qaddafi Prize have included the regime citing its existence to the UN as evidence of Col. Qaddafi’s commitment to human rights; allocating the substantial prize money to fund supportive European organizations, such as Centre Europe Tiers Monde (CETIM) in Geneva, whose Consultative Committee includes Mr. Ziegler; and, most ignominiously, giving the prize to an assortment of racists and heads of state that support the Qaddafi regime;

Recall that in 2006 and 2008, an international coalition of human rights organizations—including Libyan victims of human rights violations—as well as European Union, Norwegian, and Canadian members of parliament, appealed to the Swiss government to withdraw its nomination of Mr. Ziegler to his current UN position, citing his founding of the Qaddafi Prize;

Recognize that Mr. Ziegler played a significant role in North-South 21, the Geneva group created by the Libyan regime to manage the Qaddafi Prize and spread propaganda for the Qaddafi regime, in which capacity, among other things, Mr. Ziegler helped edit a 2010 book that effusively praised Col. Qaddafi by comparing him to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a publication which was distributed by that organization at the UN Human Rights Council in November 2010, while the human rights record of Libya was being discussed;

Express regret that the Swiss government, under the direction of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, rejected the urgent appeals of human rights groups, and proceeded to nominate Mr. Ziegler to his current UN post, despite receiving detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s extensive propagandizing for the Qaddafi regime;

And do therefore

1.          Urge the UN Human Rights Council, in its current session, to

(a)        Adopt a resolution expelling Mr. Jean Ziegler and Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji from the Council; and

(b)        Apologize to the victims of the Libyan regime for having ever elected them in the first place.

2.         Call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—as part of her commitment to uphold the principle of accountability and the fight against impunity, and her commitment to seek justice for ongoing as well as past abuses by the Libyan regime—to condemn all actions of Mr. Ziegler and Ms. Al-Hajjaji that enabled, in the words of Ms. Pillay, the callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that marked Col. Qaddafi’s four-decade long grip on power.

3.         Call on the Swiss authorities to

(a) Urgently investigate the legality, under Swiss and international law—including in connection with the Asset Freeze required by the recently-adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1970—of all bank accounts associated with the Libyan-funded North South 21 group, located in Geneva, including the $10 million of Libyan funds reported in 1989 by Jean Ziegler as being deposited in Geneva for the management of the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize; and

(b) Establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the decision-making process behind the Swiss government’s nomination of Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council, in opposition to the appeals of human rights groups, members of parliament from the EU, Norway, and Canada, and Libyan victims, and despite having received detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s substantial propaganda actions, past and ongoing, in support of the Qaddafi regime.

(c) Apologize to the victims of the Qaddafi regime for having nominated Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council and for having conducted an overt and energetic lobbying campaign around the world on his behalf.

1. Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Switzerland

2. Yang Jianli, Initiatives for China, USA — Former prisoner of conscience, survivor of Tinanmen Square massacre

3. Amina Bouayach, Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights, Morocco

4. María José Zamora Solórzano, Movimiento por Nicaragua (MpN),
Nicaragua

5. Marcel Claude Kabongo, Good Govenance and Human Rights, DRC

6. Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples, Germany

7. Bhawani Shanker Kusum, Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS), India

8. Jaime Vintimilla, CIDES, Ecuador

9. Sylvia G. Iriondo, M.A.R. Por Cuba, Mothers and Women against Repression, USA

10. Daniel Ozoukou, International Conference for Nonviolence and Democracy (CINOD), Cote d’Ivoire

11. Rajesh Tandon, Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), India

12. Yang Kuanxing, Yibao, USA

13. Obinna Egbuka, Youth Enhancement Organization, Nigeria

14. Francois Ullmann, Ingénieurs du Monde, France

15. Léonie de Picciotto, International Council of Jewish Women, Switzerland

16. Ted Brooks, Committee for Peace and Development Advocacy, Liberia

17. Valnora Edwin, Campaign for Good Governance, Sierra Leone

18. Sr Catherine Waters, Catholic International Education Office (OIEC), Belgium

19. Dickson Ntwiga, Solidarity House International, Kenya

20. Dieudonné Zognong, Fondation Humanus, Cameroon

21. Sajni M. Thadhani, Mulchand & Parpati Thadhani Foundation, USA

22. Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), Nigeria

23. Phil ya Nangoloh, NamRights, Namibia

24. Bose Iro-nsi, Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP), Nigeria

25. Arthur LAROK, Uganda National NGO Forum, Uganda

26. Klaus Netter, Bnai Brith International, Switzerland

27. Edward Ladu Terso, Multi Media Training Center, Sudan

28. Priscilla M Achakpa, Women Environmental Programme, Nigeria

29. Shomik Chaudhuri, Institute of International Social Development, India

30. Angel De Fana, Plantados Until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba, USA

31. Kim Nichols, African Services Committee, USA

32. C. Gautam, Nepal International Consumers Union, Nepal

33. Intigam Aliyev, Legal Education Society, Azerbaijan

34. Anne Shay, Presentation Congregation Lismore, Australia

35. Lois J. Shapiro Canter, Women WorldWide, USA

36. Gabriel Mugaruka, Human Rights Defenders Solidarity, Uganda

37. Yael Danieli, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, USA

38. Olanrewaju Suraju, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Nigeria

39. Malcolm W. Joseph, Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP), Liberia

40. Nzoyitazira Violette, Crisis Management Center, Burundi

41. Nyamiye Hermenegilde, Human Health Aid, Burundi

42. Heritiers de la Justice, DR Congo

43. Delly Mawazo Sesete, Research Center on Environment, Democracy, and Human Rights (CREDDHO), DR Congo

44. Abdurashid Abdulle Abiikar, Center for Youth and Democracy (CYD), Somalia

45. Raphael Wakenge Ngimbi, Initiative Congolaise pour la Justice et la Paix (ICJP), DR Congo

The post 45 rights groups urge UN Rights Council to investigate its Gaddafi-linked officials Jean Ziegler & Najat Al-Hajjaji appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, April 5 — An international coalition of 45 human rights groups today urged Ban Ki-moon and UN rights chief Navi Pillay to call on the UN Human Rights Council to fire two officials for their alleged actions over three decades to shield Libyan dictator Col. Qaddafi from scrutiny of his regime’s gross violations of human rights. (See full text below.)

The appeal names Jean Ziegler, a member of the UNHRC Advisory Committee, who in 1989 announced the creation of the “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” When Libya’s rights record was reviewed in November, a Libyan-funded group tied to Ziegler distributed a 2010 book, edited by Ziegler, which likens Qaddafi to the philosopher Rousseau.

The 45 NGOs, mostly from Africa, also urged the council to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, Qaddafi’s long-time representative to UN human rights bodies, from the council’s expert working group on mercenaries and human rights — which is now holding a week-long session in Geneva.

As the NGO petition circulated, a Swiss TV report last week confirmed Ziegler’s key role in creating theQaddafi prize, which it described as “an instrument of propaganda for the dictator.” As a result, citing his Qaddafi connections, the famed Salzburg Festival decided last week to cancel Ziegler’s keynote address at its 2011 event this summer, sparking a heated controversy in Austria.

“If a leading music festival is ashamed and now distances itself from Qaddafi apologists,” asked Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch, “why is the United Nations not doing the same? Ziegler and Al-Hajjaji must be fired now if the UN wishes to retain any credibility on human rights.”

The 45 NGOs also urged the Swiss government to apologize for nominating Ziegler to the UN council in 2008 and lobbying on his behalf, despite objections voiced at the time over his advocacy for the Qaddafi regime.

The appeal follows below.

########

• French version — en francais
• German version — Deutsch

NGO APPEAL TO END IMPUNITY FOR
ENABLERS OF THE QADDAFI REGIME
WITHIN THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The undersigned Human Rights and Non-Governmental Organizations,

Guided by the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Reaffirm UN Human Rights Council Resolution S-15/1, which expressed deep concern at the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Libya, rejected unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan Government, and strongly condemned the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in that country, including the indiscriminate armed attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators, some of which may also amount to crimes against humanity;

Recall that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly emphasized the importance of accountability and the need to fight against impunity and, in this regard, stressed the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks on civilians in Libya;

Welcome the assurances of High Commissioner Pillay that combating impunity and strengthening accountability both in situations of peace and conflict will remain an important priority for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and that the Human Rights Council should be prepared to confront violations wherever and whenever they take place;

Recognize that the UN Human Rights Council, under Resolution 5/2, requires its independent experts to uphold the highest standards of integrity, probity, and good faith;

Reaffirm the declaration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the clear responsibility of all independent experts to uphold the high standards of the United Nations and the Council;

Endorse the finding by High Commissioner Pillay that “today’s shocking and brutal situation in Libya is the direct outcome of a callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that has marked the almost four-decade long grip on power by the current ruler, and that Justice for ongoing as well as past abuses must be attained in order to be meaningful for all the victims”;

Express grave concern at the numerous credible reports that the Qaddafi regime has used foreign mercenaries to assault and kill many hundreds of its own citizens;

Accountability for Najat Al-Hajjaji

Strongly condemn the continued tenure of Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, as an independent expert of the Human Rights Council since 2005, sitting on the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights—and this without objection, then or now, by any official of the UN Human Rights Council, or of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;

Recognize that for over three decades, Ms. Al-Hajjaji committed acts with the intent and effect ofsecuring impunity for the crimes of Col. Qaddafi and his regime, including serving as Director of External Relations and Training for the regime-controlled Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA), a position she held from 1978 to 1991—during which time, for example, the agency broadcast, on April 28, 1980, a threat to Libyan dissidents by Col. Qaddafi that “they are doomed” unless they return home, causing scores of Libyans living in London to go into hiding following what JANA quoted Col. Qaddafi as calling his “final warning”;

Recall that Col. Qaddafi then appointed Ms. Al-Hajjaji to represent the regime at the United Nations in Geneva as Minister Plenipotentiary from 1992 to 1998, deputy ambassador from 1998 to 2000, and then, from 3 October 2000, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative, positions she used to ensure that the human rights abuses of Libya were never addressed by any resolution or watch-list of the UN Commission on Human Rights, thereby granting impunity to the Qaddafi regime;

Recognize that, in 2003, human rights groups universally condemned Ms. Al-Hajjaji’s election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which provided monumental propaganda value to the Qaddafi regime, and that her tenure was seen as the last straw in the decline of that body’s credibility, prompting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to state shortly afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse;

Recall that, in April 2009, when Ms. Al-Hajjaji chaired the two-year Preparatory Committee of the UN’s 2009 World Conference on Racism, and the conference’s Main Committee, she silenced testimony by a Palestinian victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV;

Condemn Ms. Al-Hajjaji for abusing her UN positions—at a time when the regime was violently suppressing its population and torturing dissidents—in order to shield the Qaddafi regime from any accountability whatsoever;

Accountability for Jean Ziegler

Express grave concern that Mr. Jean Ziegler, a long-time apologist and propagandist for Col. Qaddafi and his regime, continues to serve on the the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee, which last year elected him as Vice-President;

Recall that, as documented in the 2006 report by United Nations Watch, Mr. Ziegler co-founded, co-managed, and eventually won the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was launched in  April 1989—a few months after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up by Libyan intelligence agents, killing all 259 people on board—in a transparent attempt to change Libya’s damaged international image as a terrorist state;

Recall also that it was Mr. Ziegler who announced to the world the prize’s creation, with British newspaper The Independent writing that, “according to Jean Ziegler, the $250,000 prize will bear the name of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who has provided a $10 million fund for it”;

Recall also that Switzerland’s L’Hebdo magazine dedicated a feature-length story to the prize under the heading “The Nobel of Qaddafi: Libyan authorities create a new human rights prize—Jean Ziegler gets involved,” in which it was reported that, “Jean Ziegler and ten ‘intellectuals and progressive fighters’ thus found themselves in Tripoli to set the project on track”;

Condemn the statements of Jean Ziegler made at that time, as quoted in Journal de Genève, on April 25, 1989, in which he described Libya as being in a “democratization” process, and denied that the Qaddafi regime sponsored terrorism;

Recognize that the frequent and diverse propaganda uses of the Qaddafi Prize have included the regime citing its existence to the UN as evidence of Col. Qaddafi’s commitment to human rights; allocating the substantial prize money to fund supportive European organizations, such as Centre Europe Tiers Monde (CETIM) in Geneva, whose Consultative Committee includes Mr. Ziegler; and, most ignominiously, giving the prize to an assortment of racists and heads of state that support the Qaddafi regime;

Recall that in 2006 and 2008, an international coalition of human rights organizations—including Libyan victims of human rights violations—as well as European Union, Norwegian, and Canadian members of parliament, appealed to the Swiss government to withdraw its nomination of Mr. Ziegler to his current UN position, citing his founding of the Qaddafi Prize;

Recognize that Mr. Ziegler played a significant role in North-South 21, the Geneva group created by the Libyan regime to manage the Qaddafi Prize and spread propaganda for the Qaddafi regime, in which capacity, among other things, Mr. Ziegler helped edit a 2010 book that effusively praised Col. Qaddafi by comparing him to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a publication which was distributed by that organization at the UN Human Rights Council in November 2010, while the human rights record of Libya was being discussed;

Express regret that the Swiss government, under the direction of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, rejected the urgent appeals of human rights groups, and proceeded to nominate Mr. Ziegler to his current UN post, despite receiving detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s extensive propagandizing for the Qaddafi regime;

And do therefore

1. Urge the UN Human Rights Council, in its current session, to

(a)        Adopt a resolution expelling Mr. Jean Ziegler and Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji from the Council; and

(b)        Apologize to the victims of the Libyan regime for having ever elected them in the first place.

2. Call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—as part of her commitment to uphold the principle of accountability and the fight against impunity, and her commitment to seek justice for ongoing as well as past abuses by the Libyan regime—to condemn all actions of Mr. Ziegler and Ms. Al-Hajjaji that enabled, in the words of Ms. Pillay, the callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that marked Col. Qaddafi’s four-decade long grip on power.

3. Call on the Swiss authorities to

(a) Urgently investigate the legality, under Swiss and international law—including in connection with the Asset Freeze required by the recently-adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1970—of all bank accounts associated with the Libyan-funded North South 21 group, located in Geneva, including the $10 million of Libyan funds reported in 1989 by Jean Ziegler as being deposited in Geneva for the management of the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize; and

(b) Establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the decision-making process behind the Swiss government’s nomination of Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council, in opposition to the appeals of human rights groups, members of parliament from the EU, Norway, and Canada, and Libyan victims, and despite having received detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s substantial propaganda actions, past and ongoing, in support of the Qaddafi regime.

(c) Apologize to the victims of the Qaddafi regime for having nominated Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council and for having conducted an overt and energetic lobbying campaign around the world on his behalf.

1. Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Switzerland

3. Amina Bouayach, Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights, Morocco

45. Raphael Wakenge Ngimbi, Initiative Congolaise pour la Justice et la Paix (ICJP), DR Congo

The post 45 rights groups urge UN Human Rights Council to fire Qaddafi-linked officials Ziegler & Al-Hajjaji appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, April 5 — An international coalition of 45 human rights groups today urged Ban Ki-moon and UN rights chief Navi Pillay to call on the UN Human Rights Council to fire two officials for their alleged actions over three decades to shield Libyan dictator Col. Qaddafi from scrutiny of his regime’s gross violations of human rights. (See full text below.)

The appeal names Jean Ziegler, a member of the UNHRC Advisory Committee, who in 1989 announced the creation of the “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” When Libya’s rights record was reviewed in November, a Libyan-funded group tied to Ziegler distributed a 2010 book, edited by Ziegler, which likens Qaddafi to the philosopher Rousseau.

The 45 NGOs, mostly from Africa, also urged the council to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, Qaddafi’s long-time representative to UN human rights bodies, from the council’s expert working group on mercenaries and human rights — which is now holding a week-long session in Geneva.

As the NGO petition circulated, a Swiss TV report last week confirmed Ziegler’s key role in creating theQaddafi prize, which it described as “an instrument of propaganda for the dictator.” As a result, citing his Qaddafi connections, the famed Salzburg Festival decided last week to cancel Ziegler’s keynote address at its 2011 event this summer, sparking a heated controversy in Austria.

“If a leading music festival is ashamed and now distances itself from Qaddafi apologists,” asked Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch, “why is the United Nations not doing the same? Ziegler and Al-Hajjaji must be fired now if the UN wishes to retain any credibility on human rights.”

The 45 NGOs also urged the Swiss government to apologize for nominating Ziegler to the UN council in 2008 and lobbying on his behalf, despite objections voiced at the time over his advocacy for the Qaddafi regime.

The appeal follows below.

########

• French version — en francais
• German version — Deutsch

NGO APPEAL TO END IMPUNITY FOR
ENABLERS OF THE QADDAFI REGIME
WITHIN THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The undersigned Human Rights and Non-Governmental Organizations,

Guided by the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Reaffirm UN Human Rights Council Resolution S-15/1, which expressed deep concern at the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Libya, rejected unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan Government, and strongly condemned the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in that country, including the indiscriminate armed attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators, some of which may also amount to crimes against humanity;

Recall that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly emphasized the importance of accountability and the need to fight against impunity and, in this regard, stressed the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks on civilians in Libya;

Welcome the assurances of High Commissioner Pillay that combating impunity and strengthening accountability both in situations of peace and conflict will remain an important priority for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and that the Human Rights Council should be prepared to confront violations wherever and whenever they take place;

Recognize that the UN Human Rights Council, under Resolution 5/2, requires its independent experts to uphold the highest standards of integrity, probity, and good faith;

Reaffirm the declaration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the clear responsibility of all independent experts to uphold the high standards of the United Nations and the Council;

Endorse the finding by High Commissioner Pillay that “today’s shocking and brutal situation in Libya is the direct outcome of a callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that has marked the almost four-decade long grip on power by the current ruler, and that Justice for ongoing as well as past abuses must be attained in order to be meaningful for all the victims”;

Express grave concern at the numerous credible reports that the Qaddafi regime has used foreign mercenaries to assault and kill many hundreds of its own citizens;

Accountability for Najat Al-Hajjaji

Strongly condemn the continued tenure of Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, as an independent expert of the Human Rights Council since 2005, sitting on the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights—and this without objection, then or now, by any official of the UN Human Rights Council, or of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;

Recognize that for over three decades, Ms. Al-Hajjaji committed acts with the intent and effect ofsecuring impunity for the crimes of Col. Qaddafi and his regime, including serving as Director of External Relations and Training for the regime-controlled Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA), a position she held from 1978 to 1991—during which time, for example, the agency broadcast, on April 28, 1980, a threat to Libyan dissidents by Col. Qaddafi that “they are doomed” unless they return home, causing scores of Libyans living in London to go into hiding following what JANA quoted Col. Qaddafi as calling his “final warning”;

Recall that Col. Qaddafi then appointed Ms. Al-Hajjaji to represent the regime at the United Nations in Geneva as Minister Plenipotentiary from 1992 to 1998, deputy ambassador from 1998 to 2000, and then, from 3 October 2000, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative, positions she used to ensure that the human rights abuses of Libya were never addressed by any resolution or watch-list of the UN Commission on Human Rights, thereby granting impunity to the Qaddafi regime;

Recognize that, in 2003, human rights groups universally condemned Ms. Al-Hajjaji’s election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which provided monumental propaganda value to the Qaddafi regime, and that her tenure was seen as the last straw in the decline of that body’s credibility, prompting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to state shortly afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse;

Recall that, in April 2009, when Ms. Al-Hajjaji chaired the two-year Preparatory Committee of the UN’s 2009 World Conference on Racism, and the conference’s Main Committee, she silenced testimony by a Palestinian victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV;

Condemn Ms. Al-Hajjaji for abusing her UN positions—at a time when the regime was violently suppressing its population and torturing dissidents—in order to shield the Qaddafi regime from any accountability whatsoever;

Accountability for Jean Ziegler

Express grave concern that Mr. Jean Ziegler, a long-time apologist and propagandist for Col. Qaddafi and his regime, continues to serve on the the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee, which last year elected him as Vice-President;

Recall that, as documented in the 2006 report by United Nations Watch, Mr. Ziegler co-founded, co-managed, and eventually won the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was launched in  April 1989—a few months after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up by Libyan intelligence agents, killing all 259 people on board—in a transparent attempt to change Libya’s damaged international image as a terrorist state;

Recall also that it was Mr. Ziegler who announced to the world the prize’s creation, with British newspaper The Independent writing that, “according to Jean Ziegler, the $250,000 prize will bear the name of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who has provided a $10 million fund for it”;

Recall also that Switzerland’s L’Hebdo magazine dedicated a feature-length story to the prize under the heading “The Nobel of Qaddafi: Libyan authorities create a new human rights prize—Jean Ziegler gets involved,” in which it was reported that, “Jean Ziegler and ten ‘intellectuals and progressive fighters’ thus found themselves in Tripoli to set the project on track”;

Condemn the statements of Jean Ziegler made at that time, as quoted in Journal de Genève, on April 25, 1989, in which he described Libya as being in a “democratization” process, and denied that the Qaddafi regime sponsored terrorism;

Recognize that the frequent and diverse propaganda uses of the Qaddafi Prize have included the regime citing its existence to the UN as evidence of Col. Qaddafi’s commitment to human rights; allocating the substantial prize money to fund supportive European organizations, such as Centre Europe Tiers Monde (CETIM) in Geneva, whose Consultative Committee includes Mr. Ziegler; and, most ignominiously, giving the prize to an assortment of racists and heads of state that support the Qaddafi regime;

Recall that in 2006 and 2008, an international coalition of human rights organizations—including Libyan victims of human rights violations—as well as European Union, Norwegian, and Canadian members of parliament, appealed to the Swiss government to withdraw its nomination of Mr. Ziegler to his current UN position, citing his founding of the Qaddafi Prize;

Recognize that Mr. Ziegler played a significant role in North-South 21, the Geneva group created by the Libyan regime to manage the Qaddafi Prize and spread propaganda for the Qaddafi regime, in which capacity, among other things, Mr. Ziegler helped edit a 2010 book that effusively praised Col. Qaddafi by comparing him to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a publication which was distributed by that organization at the UN Human Rights Council in November 2010, while the human rights record of Libya was being discussed;

Express regret that the Swiss government, under the direction of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, rejected the urgent appeals of human rights groups, and proceeded to nominate Mr. Ziegler to his current UN post, despite receiving detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s extensive propagandizing for the Qaddafi regime;

And do therefore

1. Urge the UN Human Rights Council, in its current session, to

(a)        Adopt a resolution expelling Mr. Jean Ziegler and Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji from the Council; and

(b)        Apologize to the victims of the Libyan regime for having ever elected them in the first place.

2. Call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—as part of her commitment to uphold the principle of accountability and the fight against impunity, and her commitment to seek justice for ongoing as well as past abuses by the Libyan regime—to condemn all actions of Mr. Ziegler and Ms. Al-Hajjaji that enabled, in the words of Ms. Pillay, the callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that marked Col. Qaddafi’s four-decade long grip on power.

3. Call on the Swiss authorities to

(a) Urgently investigate the legality, under Swiss and international law—including in connection with the Asset Freeze required by the recently-adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1970—of all bank accounts associated with the Libyan-funded North South 21 group, located in Geneva, including the $10 million of Libyan funds reported in 1989 by Jean Ziegler as being deposited in Geneva for the management of the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize; and

(b) Establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the decision-making process behind the Swiss government’s nomination of Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council, in opposition to the appeals of human rights groups, members of parliament from the EU, Norway, and Canada, and Libyan victims, and despite having received detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s substantial propaganda actions, past and ongoing, in support of the Qaddafi regime.

(c) Apologize to the victims of the Qaddafi regime for having nominated Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council and for having conducted an overt and energetic lobbying campaign around the world on his behalf.

1. Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Switzerland

3. Amina Bouayach, Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights, Morocco

4. María José Zamora Solórzano, Movimiento por Nicaragua (MpN),
Nicaragua

5. Marcel Claude Kabongo, Good Govenance and Human Rights, DRC

6. Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples, Germany

7. Bhawani Shanker Kusum, Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS), India

8. Jaime Vintimilla, CIDES, Ecuador

9. Sylvia G. Iriondo, M.A.R. Por Cuba, Mothers and Women against Repression, USA

10. Daniel Ozoukou, International Conference for Nonviolence and Democracy (CINOD), Cote d’Ivoire

11. Rajesh Tandon, Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), India

12. Yang Kuanxing, Yibao, USA

13. Obinna Egbuka, Youth Enhancement Organization, Nigeria

14. Francois Ullmann, Ingénieurs du Monde, France

15. Léonie de Picciotto, International Council of Jewish Women, Switzerland

16. Ted Brooks, Committee for Peace and Development Advocacy, Liberia

17. Valnora Edwin, Campaign for Good Governance, Sierra Leone

18. Sr Catherine Waters, Catholic International Education Office (OIEC), Belgium

19. Dickson Ntwiga, Solidarity House International, Kenya

20. Raphael Wakenge Ngimbi, Initiative Congolaise pour la Justice et la Paix (ICJP), DR Congo

21. Sajni M. Thadhani, Mulchand & Parpati Thadhani Foundation, USA

22. Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), Nigeria

23. Phil ya Nangoloh, NamRights, Namibia

24. Bose Iro-nsi, Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP), Nigeria

25. Arthur LAROK, Uganda National NGO Forum, Uganda

26. Klaus Netter, Bnai Brith International, Switzerland

27. Edward Ladu Terso, Multi Media Training Center, Sudan

28. Priscilla M Achakpa, Women Environmental Programme, Nigeria

29. Shomik Chaudhuri, Institute of International Social Development, India

30. Angel De Fana, Plantados Until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba, USA

31. Kim Nichols, African Services Committee, USA

32. C. Gautam, Nepal International Consumers Union, Nepal

33. Intigam Aliyev, Legal Education Society, Azerbaijan

34. Anne Shay, Presentation Congregation Lismore, Australia

35. Lois J. Shapiro Canter, Women WorldWide, USA

36. Gabriel Mugaruka, Human Rights Defenders Solidarity, Uganda

37. Yael Danieli, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, USA

38. Olanrewaju Suraju, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Nigeria

39. Malcolm W. Joseph, Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP), Liberia

40. Nzoyitazira Violette, Crisis Management Center, Burundi

41. Nyamiye Hermenegilde, Human Health Aid, Burundi

42. Heritiers de la Justice, DR Congo

43. Delly Mawazo Sesete, Research Center on Environment, Democracy, and Human Rights (CREDDHO), DR Congo

44. Abdurashid Abdulle Abiikar, Center for Youth and Democracy (CYD), Somalia

The post 45 rights groups urge UN Human Rights Council to fire Qaddafi-linked officials Ziegler & Al-Hajjaji appeared first on UN Watch.

Veteran Qaddafi rep sits on mercenaries expert group meeting today

GENEVA, April 5 — An international coalition of 45 human rights groups today urged Ban Ki-moon and UN rights chief Navi Pillay to call on the UN Human Rights Council to fire two officials for their alleged actions over three decades to shield Libyan dictator Col. Qaddafi from scrutiny of his regime’s gross violations of human rights. (See full text below.)

The appeal names Jean Ziegler, a member of the UNHRC Advisory Committee, who in 1989 announced the creation of the “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” When Libya’s rights record was reviewed in November, a Libyan-funded group tied to Ziegler distributed a 2010 book, edited by Ziegler, which likens Qaddafi to the philosopher Rousseau.

The 45 NGOs, mostly from Africa, also urged the council to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, Qaddafi’s long-time representative to UN human rights bodies, from the council’s expert working group on mercenaries and human rights — which is now holding a week-long session in Geneva.

As the NGO petition circulated, a Swiss TV report last week confirmed Ziegler’s key role in creating the Qaddafi prize, which it described as “an instrument of propaganda for the dictator.” As a result, citing his Qaddafi connections, the famed Salzburg Festival decided last week to cancel Ziegler’s keynote address at its 2011 event this summer, sparking a heated controversy in Austria.

“If a leading music festival is ashamed and now distances itself from Qaddafi apologists,” asked Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch, “why is the United Nations not doing the same? Ziegler and Al-Hajjaji must be fired now if the UN wishes to retain any credibility on human rights.”

The 45 NGOs also urged the Swiss government to apologize for nominating Ziegler to the UN council in 2008 and lobbying on his behalf, despite objections voiced at the time over his advocacy for the Qaddafi regime.

The appeal follows below.

NGO APPEAL TO END IMPUNITY FOR
ENABLERS OF THE QADDAFI REGIME
WITHIN THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

 The undersigned Human Rights and Non-Governmental Organizations,

 Guided by the principles and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

 Reaffirm UN Human Rights Council Resolution S-15/1, which expressed deep concern at the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Libya, rejected unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan Government, and strongly condemned the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in that country, including the indiscriminate armed attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators, some of which may also amount to crimes against humanity;

 Recall that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly emphasized the importance of accountability and the need to fight against impunity and, in this regard, stressed the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks on civilians in Libya;

 Welcome the assurances of High Commissioner Pillay that combating impunity and strengthening accountability both in situations of peace and conflict will remain an important priority for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and that the Human Rights Council should be prepared to confront violations wherever and whenever they take place;

 Recognize that the UN Human Rights Council, under Resolution 5/2, requires its independent experts to uphold the highest standards of integrity, probity, and good faith;

Reaffirm the declaration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the clear responsibility of all independent experts to uphold the high standards of the United Nations and the Council;

Endorse the finding by High Commissioner Pillay that “today’s shocking and brutal situation in Libya is the direct outcome of a callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that has marked the almost four-decade long grip on power by the current ruler, and that Justice for ongoing as well as past abuses must be attained in order to be meaningful for all the victims”;

 Express grave concern at the numerous credible reports that the Qaddafi regime has used foreign mercenaries to assault and kill many hundreds of its own citizens;

 Accountability for Najat Al-Hajjaji

 Strongly condemn the continued tenure of Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, as an independent expert of the Human Rights Council since 2005, sitting on the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights—and this without objection, then or now, by any official of the UN Human Rights Council, or of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;

 Recognize that for over three decades, Ms. Al-Hajjaji committed acts with the intent and effect of securing impunity for the crimes of Col. Qaddafi and his regime, including serving as Director of External Relations and Training for the regime-controlled Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA), a position she held from 1978 to 1991—during which time, for example, the agency broadcast, on April 28, 1980, a threat to Libyan dissidents by Col. Qaddafi that “they are doomed” unless they return home, causing scores of Libyans living in London to go into hiding following what JANA quoted Col. Qaddafi as calling his “final warning”;

 Recall that Col. Qaddafi then appointed Ms. Al-Hajjaji to represent the regime at the United Nations in Geneva as Minister Plenipotentiary from 1992 to 1998, deputy ambassador from 1998 to 2000, and then, from 3 October 2000, as Ambassador and Permanent Representative, positions she used to ensure that the human rights abuses of Libya were never addressed by any resolution or watch-list of the UN Commission on Human Rights, thereby granting impunity to the Qaddafi regime;

 Recognize that, in 2003, human rights groups universally condemned Ms. Al-Hajjaji’s election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which provided monumental propaganda value to the Qaddafi regime, and that her tenure was seen as the last straw in the decline of that body’s credibility, prompting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to state shortly afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse;

 Recall that, in April 2009, when Ms. Al-Hajjaji chaired the two-year Preparatory Committee of the UN’s 2009 World Conference on Racism, and the conference’s Main Committee, she silenced testimony by a Palestinian victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV;

 Condemn Ms. Al-Hajjaji for abusing her UN positions—at a time when the regime was violently suppressing its population and torturing dissidents—in order to shield the Qaddafi regime from any accountability whatsoever;

 Accountability for Jean Ziegler

 Express grave concern that Mr. Jean Ziegler, a long-time apologist and propagandist for Col. Qaddafi and his regime, continues to serve on the the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee, which last year elected him as Vice-President;

 Recall that, as documented in the 2006 report by United Nations Watch, Mr. Ziegler co-founded, co-managed, and eventually won the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was launched in  April 1989—a few months after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up by Libyan intelligence agents, killing all 259 people on board—in a transparent attempt to change Libya’s damaged international image as a terrorist state;

 Recall also that it was Mr. Ziegler who announced to the world the prize’s creation, with British newspaper The Independent writing that, “according to Jean Ziegler, the $250,000 prize will bear the name of Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who has provided a $10 million fund for it”;

 Recall also that Switzerland’s L’Hebdo magazine dedicated a feature-length story to the prize under the heading “The Nobel of Qaddafi: Libyan authorities create a new human rights prize—Jean Ziegler gets involved,” in which it was reported that, “Jean Ziegler and ten ‘intellectuals and progressive fighters’ thus found themselves in Tripoli to set the project on track”;

 Condemn the statements of Jean Ziegler made at that time, as quoted in Journal de Genève, on April 25, 1989, in which he described Libya as being in a “democratization” process, and denied that the Qaddafi regime sponsored terrorism;

 Recognize that the frequent and diverse propaganda uses of the Qaddafi Prize have included the regime citing its existence to the UN as evidence of Col. Qaddafi’s commitment to human rights; allocating the substantial prize money to fund supportive European organizations, such as Centre Europe Tiers Monde (CETIM) in Geneva, whose Consultative Committee includes Mr. Ziegler; and, most ignominiously, giving the prize to an assortment of racists and heads of state that support the Qaddafi regime;

Recall that in 2006 and 2008, an international coalition of human rights organizations—including Libyan victims of human rights violations—as well as European Union, Norwegian, and Canadian members of parliament, appealed to the Swiss government to withdraw its nomination of Mr. Ziegler to his current UN position, citing his founding of the Qaddafi Prize;

Recognize that Mr. Ziegler played a significant role in North-South 21, the Geneva group created by the Libyan regime to manage the Qaddafi Prize and spread propaganda for the Qaddafi regime, in which capacity, among other things, Mr. Ziegler helped edit a 2010 book that effusively praised Col. Qaddafi by comparing him to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a publication which was distributed by that organization at the UN Human Rights Council in November 2010, while the human rights record of Libya was being discussed;

Express regret that the Swiss government, under the direction of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, rejected the urgent appeals of human rights groups, and proceeded to nominate Mr. Ziegler to his current UN post, despite receiving detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s extensive propagandizing for the Qaddafi regime;

And do therefore

1.          Urge the UN Human Rights Council, in its current session, to

(a)        Adopt a resolution expelling Mr. Jean Ziegler and Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji from the Council; and

(b)        Apologize to the victims of the Libyan regime for having ever elected them in the first place.

2.         Call on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay—as part of her commitment to uphold the principle of accountability and the fight against impunity, and her commitment to seek justice for ongoing as well as past abuses by the Libyan regime—to condemn all actions of Mr. Ziegler and Ms. Al-Hajjaji that enabled, in the words of Ms. Pillay, the callous disregard for the rights and freedom of Libyans that marked Col. Qaddafi’s four-decade long grip on power.

3.         Call on the Swiss authorities to

(a) Urgently investigate the legality, under Swiss and international law—including in connection with the Asset Freeze required by the recently-adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1970—of all bank accounts associated with the Libyan-funded North South 21 group, located in Geneva, including the $10 million of Libyan funds reported in 1989 by Jean Ziegler as being deposited in Geneva for the management of the Muammar al-Qaddafi International Prize; and

(b) Establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the decision-making process behind the Swiss government’s nomination of Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council, in opposition to the appeals of human rights groups, members of parliament from the EU, Norway, and Canada, and Libyan victims, and despite having received detailed documentation of Mr. Ziegler’s substantial propaganda actions, past and ongoing, in support of the Qaddafi regime.

(c) Apologize to the victims of the Qaddafi regime for having nominated Mr. Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council and for having conducted an overt and energetic lobbying campaign around the world on his behalf.

1. Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Switzerland

2. Yang Jianli, Initiatives for China, USA — Former prisoner of conscience, survivor of Tinanmen Square massacre

3. Amina Bouayach, Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights, Morocco

4. María José Zamora Solórzano, Movimiento por Nicaragua (MpN),
Nicaragua

5. Marcel Claude Kabongo, Good Govenance and Human Rights, DRC

6. Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples, Germany

7. Bhawani Shanker Kusum, Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS), India

8. Jaime Vintimilla, CIDES, Ecuador

9. Sylvia G. Iriondo, M.A.R. Por Cuba, Mothers and Women against Repression, USA

10. Daniel Ozoukou, International Conference for Nonviolence and Democracy (CINOD), Cote d’Ivoire

11. Rajesh Tandon, Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), India

12. Yang Kuanxing, Yibao, USA

13. Obinna Egbuka, Youth Enhancement Organization, Nigeria

14. Francois Ullmann, Ingénieurs du Monde, France

15. Léonie de Picciotto, International Council of Jewish Women, Switzerland

16. Ted Brooks, Committee for Peace and Development Advocacy, Liberia

17. Valnora Edwin, Campaign for Good Governance, Sierra Leone

18. Sr Catherine Waters, Catholic International Education Office (OIEC), Belgium

19. Dickson Ntwiga, Solidarity House International, Kenya

20. Dieudonné Zognong, Fondation Humanus, Cameroon

21. Sajni M. Thadhani, Mulchand & Parpati Thadhani Foundation, USA

22. Anyakwee Nsirimovu, Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), Nigeria

23. Phil ya Nangoloh, NamRights, Namibia

24. Bose Iro-nsi, Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP), Nigeria

25. Arthur LAROK, Uganda National NGO Forum, Uganda

26. Klaus Netter, Bnai Brith International, Switzerland

27. Edward Ladu Terso, Multi Media Training Center, Sudan

28. Priscilla M Achakpa, Women Environmental Programme, Nigeria

29. Shomik Chaudhuri, Institute of International Social Development, India

30. Angel De Fana, Plantados Until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba, USA

31. Kim Nichols, African Services Committee, USA

32. C. Gautam, Nepal International Consumers Union, Nepal

33. Intigam Aliyev, Legal Education Society, Azerbaijan

34. Anne Shay, Presentation Congregation Lismore, Australia

35. Lois J. Shapiro Canter, Women WorldWide, USA

36. Gabriel Mugaruka, Human Rights Defenders Solidarity, Uganda

37. Yael Danieli, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, USA

38. Olanrewaju Suraju, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Nigeria

39. Malcolm W. Joseph, Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP), Liberia

40. Nzoyitazira Violette, Crisis Management Center, Burundi

41. Nyamiye Hermenegilde, Human Health Aid, Burundi

42. Heritiers de la Justice, DR Congo

43. Delly Mawazo Sesete, Research Center on Environment, Democracy, and Human Rights (CREDDHO), DR Congo

44. Abdurashid Abdulle Abiikar, Center for Youth and Democracy (CYD), Somalia

45. Raphael Wakenge Ngimbi, Initiative Congolaise pour la Justice et la Paix (ICJP), DR Congo

The post 45 rights groups urge UN Human Rights Council to fire Qaddafi-linked officials Ziegler & Al-Hajjaji appeared first on UN Watch.

Madame High Commissioner, we thank you for your report, and applaud its emphasis on the core principle of accountability. We commend your recent leadership on human rights in Libya. As you stated, “the people of Libya had long been victims of the serious excesses of the Libyan leadership.”

In this regard, given that accountability begins at home, we wish to ask whether your office has begun to reflect upon how, in recent years, the United Nations and its human rights system could have shown greater solidarity with Libya’s victims. We offer five specific questions:

1. Given that your responsibility is to mainstream human rights throughout the U.N. system, we ask: When the Qaddafi regime was chosen to serve on the Security Council for 2008 and 2009; when its representative was chosen as President of the General Assembly in 2009; when Col. Qaddafi’s daughter Ayesha was designated in 2009 a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador — why did you not speak out?

2. According to a study of all your published statements from September 2008 through June 2010, you never once mentioned human rights in Libya. Why?

3. Your report refers to your office’s strong support for the Durban process, for which you served as Secretary-General of its 2009 World Conference on Racism. When a representative of the Libyan regime was chosen to chair that conference’s two-year planning committee, and to chair the main committee, why did you not speak out?

4. When the Qaddafi regime was elected as a member of this council last year, why did you not speak out?

5. Your report refers to the council’s Advisory Committee.  In 2008, ignoring the appeal of UN Watch and 25 human rights groups, the council elected the co-founder of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—a propaganda tool for the regime—to this body. Last year he was made the committee’s vice-president. Why did you not speak out?

And will you now call on the recipients of this prize—former Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1998, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2004, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 2009, and Turkish PM Erdogan in 2010—to renounce this prize, and to apologize to all the human rights victims—past and present—of Col. Muammar Qaddafi?

Thank you.

The post Speech: The UN’s Qaddafi ties appeared first on UN Watch.

Objections to the Libyan’s U.N. position originated last week in Morocco’s Au Fait, and spread to Switzerland, Al-Hajjaji’s adopted home, in the Tribune de Geneve, 20minutes, and the Tages Anzeiger, as well as America’s Fox News and other newspapers and blogs.

However, Pillay, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking about Al-Hajjaji today in a discussion forum held on the sidelines of the council’s current session, said, “It is unfair to single her out.”

Pillay described the objections to Al-Hajjaji’s continued tenure — raised by UN Watch, other human rights groups and Libyan victims — as an “attack” on the former Libyan ambassador, which “should be taken seriously.” The U.N. commissioner said that Al-Hajjaji was reportedly “inside Libya” and that “her life may be at risk.”  Her office declined, however, to provide any concrete information to support the claim, which was contradicted by Libyan human rights defenders, who expressed greater concern for the regime’s victims.

Pillay’s decision to back the high-level Qaddafi confidante surprised Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva-based human rights group which on Monday called for Al-Hajjaji’s ouster, and which led the cross-regional campaign of 80 rights groups that successfully suspended Libya from the 47-nation council last week.

“Every day that Ms. Al-Hajjaji stays on the U.N. Human Rights Council is a cruel insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime, and damages the U.N. and the cause of human rights,” said Neuer.

“At a time when Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is an outrage that one of his chief propagandists wears a U.N. crown as a global judge of human rights, and, even more morally obscene, as a supposed defender of victims of mercenaries,” said Neuer.

Since 2005, Ms. Al-Hajjaji has served on the council’s 5-person “Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights.” Click here for UN website, listing Al-Hajjaji at bottom.

“For over three decades, Al-Hajjaji whitewashed the crimes of the Qaddafi regime as a senior propagandist for the dictator’s news agency, and as his representative to U.N. human rights bodies,” said Neuer. In 2003, human rights groups universally condemned her election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Al-Hajjaji’s tenure was widely seen as the last straw in the decline of its credibility, with Kofi Annan saying soon afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse.

According to this sympathetic biography (in French) by  Abdelaziz Barrouhi from January 2003, Al-Hajjaji began officially championing the Qaddafi regime as the Director of External Relations and Training for the state-controlled Jana news agency, a position she held from 1978 to 1991. Qaddafi, “with whom she has (distant) family ties,” then appointed her to represent Libya at the United Nations in Geneva: as Minister Plenipotentiary (1992-1998), deputy ambassador (1998-2000), and then, from October 2000, as Ambassador and Head of Mission.

In April 2009, when the Al-Hajjaji chaired the planning committee of the UN’s World Conference on Racism, she silenced testimony by a victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV. (Click here for video.)

On Monday, UN Watch sent letters to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Pillay, and UNHRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow, demanding they expel Al-Hajjaji from the Human Rights Council. Letters were also sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton.

The council, which is now in session, has the power to trigger an urgent debate and immediately adopt a resolution removing Al-Hajjaji from her post.

Under their council mandate, Al-Hajjaji and the other monitors are tasked with “facing current and emergent threats posed by mercenaries or mercenary-related activities,” and to monitor their “impact on human rights, particularly on the right of peoples to self-determination.”

##### END #### 

The Campaign to Remove Qaddafi from the UN Human Rights Council

• Nine months after shamefully electing the Qaddafi regime to its Human Rights Council, the UN last week reversed itself and suspended Libya’s membership. Click here for details
• From the moment the Libyan regime declared its candidacy last year, UN Watch initiated the opposition to Qaddafi sitting as a world judge of human rights. Click here for chronology of UN Watch’s tireless campaign.
• In September, when the Libyan regime took its seat, UN Watch launched the campaign for Libya’s suspension from the Geneva-based Council, becoming the first voice to do so. We were supported by 27 human rights groups, a number that surpassed 80 in our renewed NGO appeal of nine days ago.

The post UN rights chief backs Qaddafi rep, refuses to fire Libyan “expert on mercenaries” appeared first on UN Watch.

According to this sympathetic biography (in French) by  Abdelaziz Barrouhi from January 2003, Al-Hajjaji began officially championing the Qaddafi regime as the Director of External Relations and Training for the state-controlled Jana news agency, a position she held from 1978 to 1991. Qaddafi, “with whom she has (distant) family ties,” then appointed her to represent Libya at the United Nations in Geneva: as Minister Plenipotentiary (1992-1998), deputy ambassador (1998-2000), and then, from October 2000, as Ambassador and Head of Mission.

“In the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, but also in New York and UN summits,” reports the biographer, “Najat al-Hajjaji defends, of course, the positions of his government, but at the same time working hard to promote women and protection of children.”

Here’s how Qaddafi thanked her when she won election in 2003 to the UN’s Commission on Human Rights:

January 22, 2003, Wednesday

Al-Qadhafi urges Libyan UN rights envoy to play good role

(Jana news agency, Tripoli, in Arabic 1144 gmt 22 Jan 03; Text of report by Libyan news agency Jana)

Tripoli, 22 January: The brother leader of the revolution Al-Qadhafi held a telephone contact today with sister Najat al-Hajjaji, the Great Jamahiriyah’s envoy at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, during which he stressed to her the need for Libya to play the role entrusted to it to protect human rights in the world and to be at the good opinion the international community, which chose her for this international humanitarian task, had of her.

The brother leader urged the sister envoy of the Great Jamahiriyah, in view of being a Libyan woman assuming this international post, to present the true image of women in Libya to whom the great 1 September revolution had attached great attention.

At her opening speech to the commission, she portrayed Libya’s regime in glowing terms:

Statement of Incoming Chairperson

NAJAT AL-HAJJAJI, new Chairperson of the Commission, said today’s meeting two months before the normal opening of the Commission’s annual session was an important innovation; it would enable the Bureau to get down to work in an efficient and organized manner. Her country was African, and it had an Islamic culture; it had been the site of great historical empires — Egyptian, Phoenician, and Greek, as well as Islamic. Monuments from that past remained. Women played a major role in life and Government in Libya, and the country took its inspiration from the principles of the United Nations. She would make every effort to be open to new ideas and initiatives.

Reporters Without Borders, which in 2003 led the opposition to Al-Hajjaji’s election, described her early tenure:

With Najat Al-Hajjaji, the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s ambassador to the United Nations, as its chairperson, the 59th annual session of the UN commission on human rights could hardly have had a more inauspicious beginning. Contrary to custom, Col. Gaddafi’s protégée had refrained several times from holding a press conference since her appointment two months earlier. She finally met with journalists on the day of the session’s inauguration, on 17 March, but it was primarily to announce that she had proposed to the UN secretariat that Reporters Without Borders should be immediately suspended as a consultative member. This was because, during her opening address, Reporters Without Borders representatives had scattered leaflets in the Palais des Nations assembly hall denouncing Libya’s assumption of the chair.

Hajjaji’s performance at the press conference offered a clear demonstration – if any were needed – that a regime such as Col. Gaddafi’s is an imposter as chair of the commission. She expressed thanks for the questions but each time she said she was unable to reply or was not familiar with the relevant conventions, and passed the buck to the high commissioner. Asked if it would not be appropriate to require a minimum of respect for human rights from commission members, she argued that this would exclude many countries, including her own.  This “would not be democratic,” she added, keeping a straight face.

The post How Libya’s Najat Al-Hajjaji used UN posts to shield Qaddafi’s crimes appeared first on UN Watch.

Alain Jourdan

Elle fait partie des diplomates restés fidèles au régime. En poste à Genève depuis une dizaine d’années, Najat Al- Hajjaji est considérée comme une proche de la famille Kadhafi. Plusieurs ONG viennent de demander sont expulsion de l’ONU. Depuis plusieurs mois, la diplomate siège comme experte au sein du groupe de travail de l’ONU sur l’utilisation des mercenaires.

«Au regard de ce qui se passe, c’est une insulte au peuple libyen»,fulmine Hillel Neuer, directeur de l’ONG UN Watch. Najat Al- Hajjaji a présidé la Commission des droits de l’homme et conduit les travaux préparatoires de la Conférence surle racisme en 2009. A l’époque, elle s’était illustrée en empêchant le médecin palestinien emprisonnéavec les infirmières bulgares en Libye de s’exprimer dans l’enceinte même d’une assemblée dédiée à la défense des droits de l’homme. Une attitude qui avait alors soulevé l’indignation des ONG présentes.

En début de semaine, 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 à la fin de sa session, le 25 mars. La présence d’une fidèle parmi les fidèles du régime libyen est devenue encombrante.

The post L’experte libyenne devenue indésirable appeared first on UN Watch.

Alain Jourdan

Elle fait partie des diplomates restés fidèles au régime. En poste à Genève depuis une dizaine d’années, Najat Al- Hajjaji est considérée comme une proche de la famille Kadhafi. Plusieurs ONG viennent de demander sont expulsion de l’ONU. Depuis plusieurs mois, la diplomate siège comme experte au sein du groupe de travail de l’ONU sur l’utilisation des mercenaires.

«Au regard de ce qui se passe, c’est une insulte au peuple libyen»,fulmine Hillel Neuer, directeur de l’ONG UN Watch. Najat Al- Hajjaji a présidé la Commission des droits de l’homme et conduit les travaux préparatoires de la Conférence surle racisme en 2009. A l’époque, elle s’était illustrée en empêchant le médecin palestinien emprisonnéavec les infirmières bulgares en Libye de s’exprimer dans l’enceinte même d’une assemblée dédiée à la défense des droits de l’homme. Une attitude qui avait alors soulevé l’indignation des ONG présentes.

En début de semaine, 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 à la fin de sa session, le 25 mars. La présence d’une fidèle parmi les fidèles du régime libyen est devenue encombrante.

The post L’experte libyenne devenue indésirable appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, March 10 – U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay today rejected growing calls to fire Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time representative of the Qaddafi regime, from her post as the UN Human Rights Council’s investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries, which many see as a cruel irony.

Objections to the Libyan’s U.N. position originated last week in Morocco’s Au Fait, and spread to Switzerland, Al-Hajjaji’s adopted home, in the Tribune de Geneve, 20minutes, and the Tages Anzeiger, as well as America’s Fox News and other newspapers and blogs.

However, Pillay, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking about Al-Hajjaji today in a discussion forum held on the sidelines of the council’s current session, said, “It is unfair to single her out.”

Pillay described the objections to Al-Hajjaji’s continued tenure — raised by UN Watch, other human rights groups and Libyan victims — as an “attack” on the former Libyan ambassador, which “should be taken seriously.” The U.N. commissioner said that Al-Hajjaji was reportedly “inside Libya” and that “her life may be at risk.”  Her office declined, however, to provide any concrete information to support the claim, which was contradicted by Libyan human rights defenders, who expressed greater concern for the regime’s victims.

Pillay’s decision to back the high-level Qaddafi confidante surprised Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva-based human rights group which on Monday called for Al-Hajjaji’s ouster, and which led the cross-regional campaign of 80 rights groups that successfully suspended Libya from the 47-nation council last week.

“Every day that Ms. Al-Hajjaji stays on the U.N. Human Rights Council is a cruel insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime, and damages the U.N. and the cause of human rights,” said Neuer.

“At a time when Qaddafi is using mercenaries to kill his own people, it is an outrage that one of his chief propagandists wears a U.N. crown as a global judge of human rights, and, even more morally obscene, as a supposed defender of victims of mercenaries,” said Neuer.

Since 2005, Ms. Al-Hajjaji has served on the council’s 5-person “Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights.” Click here for UN website, listing Al-Hajjaji at bottom.

“For over three decades, Al-Hajjaji whitewashed the crimes of the Qaddafi regime as a senior propagandist for the dictator’s news agency, and as his representative to U.N. human rights bodies,” said Neuer. In 2003, human rights groups universally condemned her election as Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Al-Hajjaji’s tenure was widely seen as the last straw in the decline of its credibility, with Kofi Annan saying soon afterward that member states had joined to shield their records of abuse.

According to this sympathetic biography (in French) by  Abdelaziz Barrouhi from January 2003, Al-Hajjaji began officially championing the Qaddafi regime as the Director of External Relations and Training for the state-controlled Jana news agency, a position she held from 1978 to 1991. Qaddafi, “with whom she has (distant) family ties,” then appointed her to represent Libya at the United Nations in Geneva: as Minister Plenipotentiary (1992-1998), deputy ambassador (1998-2000), and then, from October 2000, as Ambassador and Head of Mission.

In April 2009, when the Al-Hajjaji chaired the planning committee of the UN’s World Conference on Racism, she silenced testimony by a victim of the Qaddafi regime, who was brutally tortured together with five Bulgarian nurses under trumped-up charges of infecting Benghazi children with HIV. (Click here for video.)

On Monday, UN Watch sent letters to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Pillay, and UNHRC president Sihasak Phuangketkeow, demanding they expel Al-Hajjaji from the Human Rights Council. Letters were also sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton.

The council, which is now in session, has the power to trigger an urgent debate and immediately adopt a resolution removing Al-Hajjaji from her post.

Under their council mandate, Al-Hajjaji and the other monitors are tasked with “facing current and emergent threats posed by mercenaries or mercenary-related activities,” and to monitor their “impact on human rights, particularly on the right of peoples to self-determination.”

The Campaign to Remove Qaddafi from the UN Human Rights Council

• Nine months after shamefully electing the Qaddafi regime to its Human Rights Council, the UN last week reversed itself and suspended Libya’s membership. Click here for details
  
• From the moment the Libyan regime declared its candidacy last year, UN Watch initiated the opposition to Qaddafi sitting as a world judge of human rights. Click here for chronology of UN Watch’s tireless campaign.
  
• In September, when the Libyan regime took its seat, UN Watch launched the campaign for Libya’s suspension from the Geneva-based Council, becoming the first voice to do so. We were supported by 27 human rights groups, a number that surpassed 80 in our renewed NGO appeal of nine days ago.

___________________

From UNW’s 2010-2011 Campaign to Oust Qaddafi from UNHRC

• May 2010: UN Watch Fights Libyan Bid at UN Headquarters
  UN Watch leads 37 NGOs in a protest on the eve of Libya’s election to the UNHRC, with a widely covered media event at UN Headquarters in New York, and a mass email campaign.
  
• Sept. 2010 UN Watch Appeal to Oust Libya Supported by 27 NGOs
  “The election of the Libyan Arab Jamahariya to the UN Human Rights Council is an outrage to the global human rights community. Given its notorious record as one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, the Qaddafi regime’s membership on the Council flies in the face of the United Nations’ promise, enshrined in Resolution 60/251 (2006), to elect member states that are committed to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Read more

• Sept: 2010: Voice of America Reports on UN Watch Campaign
  “An overwhelming majority of U.N. member states elected Libya to the 47-member Council in May. U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer calls this an outrage. He says it sends the wrong message to what he calls the victims of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.”  Read more

• Sept. 2010: Senator Robert Menendez Issues Statement Supporting UN Watch Campaign
  “I hope the U.N. Human Rights Council listens to witnesses like Robert Monetti, a New Jerseyan who lost his son on that ill-fated flight, and ceases to include representatives in this body that do not have a history and tradition of respect for life and human rights.” Read more

• Sept. 2010: ulgarian Nurse Testifies to Council on Her Brutal Torture by Libya
  “They tried to destroy us physically, mentally and morally. We were hostages for eight and a half years. We have never received an apology or compensation for our suffering. Mr. President, I ask: When will this Council take action to end impunity?”  Read more 

• Sept. 2010 Palestinian Doctor Challenges Council on Including Libya
  “Our trials were seriously flawed. The confessions obtained by torture were used and admitted in court against us. Evidence by experts on HIV was disregarded by the Libyan courts. Mr. President, in the name of universal human rights, how can Libya be elected a member of the Human Rights Council?”  Read more

• Sept. 2010: Pan Am 103 Victim: Bob Monetti, Father of Slain American Student, Outraged at UN Election of Qaddafi
  “As long as Qaddafi sits on all that oil, he can do whatever he pleases and get away with it. There’s no morality in politics. World politics is about business, and in Libya, business is about oil…  Why ever would the U.N. let Qaddafi judge other countries’ human rights records?”  Read more

• November 2010: Victims Urge UN to Remove Qaddafi From UN Rights Council
  When Libya’s abysmal human rights record is addressed under the council’s universal review procedure, UN Watch renews its call for the Qaddafi regime to be removed. The appeal is reported by Germany’s DPA, Swissinfo and elsewhere. Yet the UN council and its member states stay silent.

The post UN rights chief backs Qaddafi rep, refuses to fire Libyan “expert on mercenaries” appeared first on UN Watch.