The post Ramsey Clark to defend Syria at U.N. with Assad front groups appeared first on UN Watch.

The post Tripoli Trifecta: Hugo Chavez, Qaddafi & Jean Ziegler appeared first on UN Watch.

The post Tripoli Trifecta: Hugo Chavez, Qaddafi & Jean Ziegler appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Watch urges Clinton, EU’s Ashton, France and UK to speak out

GENEVA, Dec. 5 – On the same day as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton speaks tomorrow at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, the world body’s human rights agency will be co-hosting an event, in a room next door, with the Libyan front group for the “Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights,” a long-time propaganda vehicle for the ousted regime that celebrated Holocaust deniers and anti-Western figures from around the globe.

According to her website, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, along with Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamel Amr, will headline an international conference tomorrow on the right to development—co-sponsored by Nord-Sud XXI, a group that, according a March 25 exposé by Swiss TV, received $10 million from Col. Gaddafi’s regime to organize the annual prize.

UN Watch, an independent Geneva monitoring group, today called on Secretary Clinton, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton and the UK and French governments to urge Pillay to remove the Libyan front group from the event.

In 1996, the Gaddafi Human Rights Prize was given to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, famous for his anti-Semitic speeches, and in 2002 to convicted French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. The founding spokesman of the prize in 1989 was Jean Ziegler, a senior member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee. The prize has also been given to Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamed and “the children of Iraq and victims of hegemony and embargoes.”

“We trust that Secretary Clinton will make clear to High Commissioner Pillay that her office should not be making common cause with organizations that openly celebrate Holocaust deniers, war criminals and promoters of anti-American and anti-Western hatred,” said Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch, an independent monitoring group in Geneva.

“And Ms. Pillay clearly knew the true identity of North South 21 from our prior complaints and, most recently, from the outcry in the international media and from members of US Congress after the Gaddafi group was admitted into the UN’s Durban III process.”

Documents on Nord Sud XXI:

– In March 2011, Swiss TV documented how North South 21 organizes the Gaddafi Prize; that the Libyan dictator funded the group with $10 million; and the central role played by UN human rights official Jean Ziegler. Click for video.

– Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung reported in 2006: “North-South 21 had been mandated to manage the Gaddafi Prize for years, as confirmed by Ahmad Soueissi, North-South’s managing director.”

– UN Watch first documented all of these facts in a major report here. Supplemental material documenting the Libyans’ open acknowledgment of North South 21 as a part of the Gaddafi Prize organization can be found here.

– According to the Libyan press agency, “the organization in Geneva that awards the Gaddafi Prize is an entity called North-South XXI (or Nord-Sud XXI).” See “President Chavez of Venezuela wins International Gaddafi Award for Human Rights,” Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, December 10, 2004 (see Attachment 7 here); “Oxymoron,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 Oktober 2004 (citing Libyan press agency Jana as saying the Prize is awarded by an International People’s Committee and Nord-Sud XXI) (see Attachment 8 here).

– The British press has reported North-South XXI’s role in awarding the Prize. See “Gaddafi human rights prize for two dock strike wives,” The Daily Mail, September 4, 1997 (stating that Prize “[r]ecipients are chosen annually by a Geneva-based organisation called Nord-Sud 21.”) (see Attachment 9 here).

– Geneva daily Le Temps, in an August 30, 2002 article, reported: “The Kadhafi Prize [for Human Rights] is managed in Geneva by North-South 21, which claims to be an organization for the defense of human rights. . . . It is worth noting that North-South 21 does not want to mention the financial investment of Tripoli in the Geneva center. The organization issues many periodicals and other publications but none mentions the name of the provider of funds.”  (“Le Prix Kadhafi est géré à Genève par Nord-Sud 21 qui se veut une organisation de défense des droits de l’homme… Force est de constater que Nord-Sud 21 ne veut pas évoquer l’investissement financier de Tripoli dans le centre genevois. L’organisation dispose de plusieurs périodiques et autre publications à thème mais aucun ne mentionne le nom du bailleur de fonds.”) See “Un deuxième spectacle autour du Prix Kadhafi,” Le Temps, 30 août 2000 (see Attachment 10 here).  See also “Les Noirs demandent réparation pour l’esclavage,” Le Temps, 7 août 2001 (describing North-South XXI as “an NGO installed in Geneva and tied to Libya” and discussing a symposium “ordered and financed by Libya through North-South XXI.”) (see Attachment 11 here).

For more details click here.

The post Hilary Clinton to speak at UN tomorrow while human rights agency gives podium to “Gaddafi Human Rights Prize” front group appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA – In a show of support for the Geneva-based UN Watch group, the White House stated it was “deeply disappointed” that United Nations rules for credentialing non-governmental organizations to yesterday’s world racism summit were used “to silence voices critical of the Durban process.”

“We are very grateful to President Obama’s Administration for speaking out against this dangerous attempt to chill free speech in the UN debate on human rights,” said UN Watch director Hillel Neuer, who was in New York to organize a summit of prominent exiles and dissidents that met this week in parallel with the General Assembly. (www.ngosummit.org)

‘At the same time, we’re surprised and, frankly, disappointed that UN rights chief Navi Pillay, the leading UN figure in the Durban process, has declined to speak out against this injustice, which stains the reputation of her anti-racism office.”

Also speaking out for UN Watch was U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She said the Durban conference “benefitted extremists” in “welcoming the participation of a Qaddafi-funded front group” while “banning the UN Watch group.”

UN Watch was barred from participating today in yesterday’s summit of world leaders to commemorate the 2001 Durban racism conference, but admitted the group North South 21, which gives out the Moammar al-Gaddafi Human Rights Prize. Details here.  See UN Watch letter below.

The Geneva-based UN Watch, an accredited non-governmental observer with the world body, urged UN rights chief Navi Pillay, who oversees the UN’s anti-racism campaign, to condemn UN Watch’s unprecedented exclusion from a UN meeting — for which it was given no reasons, notice, or opportunity to object.

In a letter to UN Watch (click here), the office of High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay pledged to pass on UN Watch’s appeal to the General Assembly, but has so far refused to speak out against the discriminatory decision.

UN Watch and 20 human rights NGOs are today organizing a major parallel summit of dissidents next to the UN, featuring famous victims of the regimes that promote the Durban meeting.

The UN may have admitted the Qaddafi Prize group thanks to its close ties to Jean Ziegler, a long-time official of the UN Human Rights Council, said UN Watch.

According to a recent Swiss TV report, 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. Most recently, Ziegler helped edit a 2010 book that effusively praised Col. Qaddafi by comparing him to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The publication was distributed by North South 21 at the Council in November while the human rights record of Libya was being examined, and effusively praised by most countries.

______________________

Ms. Navanethem Pillay
UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva 10

September 15, 2011

Dear Madam High Commissioner,

We write to strongly protest the UN’s unprecedented decision to exclude UN Watch, an ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organization, from next Thursday’s high-level meeting to commemorate the Durban Declaration. The rejection of our application was carried out without any notice or semblance of due process, and is an act of discrimination. We appeal to you, as the leading figure of the UN’s anti-racism effort, to speak out against this deplorable decision and to demand that it be immediately reversed.

As you know, on July 7th your office wrote to UN Watch and invited us to apply to participate at the Durban commemoration, saying that non-governmental organizations are essential in combating racism. We immediately applied, providing detailed documentation on our extensive activities, at the UN and elsewhere, to combat racism and discrimination. We attended the first two Durban conferences in 2001 and 2009.

Suddenly, from a posting on a UN website—only one week prior to the event—we now learn that UN Watch is one of four groups to be rejected from next week’s meeting. We were given no notice, no reasons, and no chance to contest the decision. This flouts the basic principles—which you have so articulately advocated on the world stage—of accountability, transparency, and due process. As the only watchdog group mandated to monitor the UN according to the principles of its charter, our voice is essential. We urge you to speak out against this injustice, which undermines the UN’s credibility in combating discrimination.

Sincerely,

Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director
UN Watch

The post White House Slams UN Racism Summit for “Silencing” Rights Group appeared first on UN Watch.

______________

U.N. Watchdog Group Barred From ‘Racism’ Meeting

But a group with close ties to Gaddafi is cleared to attend

By Patrick Goodenough
Sept. 15, 2011

(CNSNews.com) – A watchdog group that has frequently angered human rights-violating regimes at the United Nations has been blocked from attending next week’s controversial “Durban III” racism meeting in New York.

U.N. Watch, based in Geneva and accredited by the U.N., has been excluded from a list of 88 approved non-governmental organizations, but a group with close ties to Libya’s former Gaddafi regime was approved to attend next Thursday’s event.

The high-level meeting marks the tenth anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA), first adopted in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. and at least 10 other Western democracies have announced they will not attend, because both the 2001 “Durban I” and a 2009 review conference, “Durban II,” picked out Israel for condemnation.

Queries sent to the U.N.’s NGO Branch on Wednesday about the process of NGO accreditation received no reply, but according to a U.N. Web site, the final list of civil society groups permitted to attend was “approved by Member States.”

Among those on the list is the Geneva-based group, North-South 21 (“Nord-Sud 21” in French), a group funded by Muammar Gaddafi in the late 1980s to administer something called the “Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.”

Past recipients of the award include former Cuban president Fidel Castro – described in the citation as a “freedom fighter” (1998), the “children of Iraq, victims of hegemony and embargo” (1999), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (2004), and Roger Garaudy (2002), a French communist-turned-Muslim who was convicted in 1998 on charges of denying the Holocaust.

Another recipient of the Gaddafi Prize was Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won the award last year and early this year was criticized at home for not repudiating it.

Nord-Sud 21 was a participant in an NGO Forum that was held on the sidelines of Durban I in 2001.  Attendees recall that the event was characterized by pro-Israel speakers being shouted down while pro-Palestinian groups circulated anti-Semitic caricatures and posters equating Israel with Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa.

Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrate in Geneva on the eve of the “Durban II” conference in Geneva. (Photo: ICARE)

The forum’s final document declared Israel to be “a racist, apartheid state” and called for the establishment of a tribunal to bring Israelis to justice for “war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

Nord-Sud 21 also took part in the April 20-24, 2009 event Durban II in Geneva, where it hosted a side-meeting to complain about the fact that a final text being considered by participating governments did not include language directly referring to Palestinian occupation and Israeli “apartheid,” according to a European anti-racist monitoring group that monitored the week’s events.

(In the end the Durban II text reaffirmed the DDPA, which singled out Israel alone for criticism, by identifying “Palestinian people under foreign occupation” as victims of racism. Durban III is similarly set to “reaffirm … the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration.”)

‘Ominous sign’

While U.N. member states have decided to allow Nord-Sud 21 to participate in Durban III, they have ruled out attendance by U.N. Watch, which monitors the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said late Wednesday that the U.N. had given no reasons for turning down its application.

It was the first time ever that U.N. Watch had been “barred” from a U.N. meeting, he told CNSNews.com, calling it an “ominous sign that the only U.N. watchdog group is being kept out.”

It was “telling,” Neuer added, that a Gaddafi “front group” was being welcomed.

“It is an embarrassment for the U.N.” he said, adding that U.N. high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay should speak out.

U.N. Watch has become a thorn in the side of countries on the Human Rights Council that have poor human rights records.

Its representatives have used their brief speaking slots to accuse governments of abuses and hypocrisy – using direct language seldom heard in U.N. chambers – and frequently are interrupted by complaints from delegates of such countries as Cuba and China.

In an unusual but effective tactic, U.N. Watch has at times used its time slot to feature a guest – such as the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan who defended the conduct of Israel’s 2008-9 offensive against Hamas in Gaza; and a Syrian opposition supporter who last month challenged countries like China, Russia and Pakistan by name, asking them how they could justify their “support for a regime that slaughters its own people.”

The post Issue 307: U.N. Bars UN Watch From Monitoring Durban III “Anti-Racism” Meeting appeared first on UN Watch.

• Speakers at the high-level meeting will include UN chief Ban Ki-moon and top rights official Navi Pillay, who recently admitted to being “naive” in having downplayed fears in 2009 that the Durban II conference would be manipulated for political ends by Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Also speaking will be South African President Jacob Zuma.
• The date has changed. The event was previously set for Sept. 21, a day after the opening of the UNGA General Debate. But the latter was moved a day later, and so Durban III followed.
• The two round-table sessions, co-chaired by two heads of state, will be webcast. This was inserted by the G-77 bloc of developing states to boost the status of the event.
• Selected NGOs will be invited. One hopes that GONGOs will this time be excluded. The Gadhafi-created group “North-South 21” — a Libyan-funded propaganda vehicle that masquerades as a NGO but which in fact manages the Moammar Gadhafi Human Rights Prize — was a leading player in politicizing Durban I and Durban II.

Six months after Canada announced its non-participation, the U.S. recently said it would also keep away from the September event.

The post UN adopts resolution to organize Durban III conference appeared first on UN Watch.

The signatories include North South 21 — the Qaddafi-funded organization in Geneva that manages the Qaddafi prize, and which has been closely linked with Ziegler. As the Swiss newspaper NZZ reported in 2006, “North-South 21 had been mandated to manage the Qaddafi Prize for years, as confirmed by Ahmad Soueissi, North-South’s managing director.”

Another signatory, it is no accident, is CETIM, a partner organization of North-South 21 that proudly received the Qaddafi prize, which comes with a reported $250,000 in Libyan funding (see announcement below, from the CETIM website).

In the end, therefore, while the petition claims that Ziegler’s Qaddafi connections are “lies” and a “slanderous smear campaign,” it only ends up substantiating those very connections.

The post Qaddafi-funded groups rally for UN’s Jean Ziegler appeared first on UN Watch.

The signatories include North South 21 — the Qaddafi-funded organization in Geneva that manages the Qaddafi prize, and which has been closely linked with Ziegler. As the Swiss newspaper NZZ reported in 2006, “North-South 21 had been mandated to manage the Qaddafi Prize for years, as confirmed by Ahmad Soueissi, North-South’s managing director.”

Another signatory, it is no accident, is CETIM, a partner organization of North-South 21 that proudly received the Qaddafi prize, which comes with a reported $250,000 in Libyan funding (see announcement below, from the CETIM website).

In the end, therefore, while the petition claims that Ziegler’s Qaddafi connections are “lies” and a “slanderous smear campaign,” it only ends up substantiating those very connections.

The post Qaddafi-funded groups rally for UN’s Jean Ziegler appeared first on UN Watch.

 A series of publicly-available documents show how the Qaddafi regime created the organization in 1989, as part of the Geneva-based committee to award an annual “Moammar Qaddafi Prize for Human Rights.” Radical anti-Western activist Jean Ziegler played a founding role in the inter-linked organizations.

UN Watch detailed all of this in a major 2006 report here, as cooroborated by a front page story by Switzerland’s leading newspaper,  the Neue Zurcher Zeitung. Further details about the Libyans’ open acknowledgment of North South 21 being a part of the Qaddafi Prize organization can be found here. (Supplement to UN Watch’s June 20, 2006 Report, “Switzerland’s Nominee to the UN Human Rights Council and the Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize”, containing excerpts from https://www.gaddafiprize.org/ that document Jean Ziegler’s role as a 1989 co-founder of the Khaddafi Prize and its 2002 winner, and confirming the Khaddafi Prize organization’s control over North-South XXI and the North-South Institute, of which Jean Ziegler is vice-president.According to the Libyan press agency, the organization in Geneva that awards the Khaddafi Prize is an entity called North-South XXI (or Nord-Sud XXI). See “President Chavez of Venezuela wins International Gaddafi Award for Human Rights,” Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, December 10, 2004, at https://en.ljbc.net/online/news_details.php?id=475 (see Attachment 7 here); “Oxymoron,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 Oktober 2004 (citing Libyan press agency Jana as saying the Prize is awarded by an International People’s Committee and Nord-Sud XXI) (see Attachment 8 here).  

The British press has also reported North-South XXI’s role in awarding the Prize. See “Gaddafi human rights prize for two dock strike wives,” The Daily Mail (London), September 4, 1997 (stating that Prize “[r]ecipients are chosen annually by a Geneva-based organisation called Nord-Sud 21.”) (see Attachment 9 here).

Even Geneva’s left-wing daily Le Temps, which is generally avoids criticizing Geneva’s UN industry, said this about North South 21, in an August 30, 2002 article:

The Kadhafi Prize [for Human Rights] is managed in Geneva by North-South 21, which claims to be an organization for the defense of human rights. . . . It is worth noting that North-South 21 does not want to mention the financial investment of Tripoli in the Geneva center. The organization issues many periodicals and other publications but none mentions the name of the provider of funds.  (Le Prix Kadhafi est géré à Genève par Nord-Sud 21 qui se veut une organisation de défense des droits de l’homme… Force est de constater que Nord-Sud 21 ne veut pas évoquer l’investissement financier de Tripoli dans le centre genevois. L’organisation dispose de plusieurs périodiques et autre publications à thème mais aucun ne mentionne le nom du bailleur de fonds.)

See “Un deuxième spectacle autour du Prix Kadhafi,” Le Temps, 30 août 2000 (see Attachment 10 here).  See also “Les Noirs demandent réparation pour l’esclavage,” Le Temps, 7 août 2001 (describing North-South XXI as “an NGO installed in Geneva and tied to Libya” and discussing a symposium “ordered and financed by Libya through North-South XXI.”) (see Attachment 11 here).

While all of the facts are out there, Geneva UN circles tend to pretend that North South 21 is a legitimate group instead of a Libyan GONGO.

FURTHER DETAILS CONNECTING LIBYA, NORTH SOUTH 21, AND JEAN ZIEGLER

A past winner also has attributed the Prize to North-South XXI.  See Website of Union interafricaine des Droits de l’Homme (UIDH), at https://www.iuhr.org/article.php3?&id_article=105 (noting that it won the Khaddafi Prize at the “proposal of the NGO North-South XXI.”).  Indeed, in a posting on the Human Rights Internet website, UIDH used the fact that the Khaddafi Prize is granted by a northern NGO, based in Geneva with ECOSOC status, to argue against those who criticized it for accepting Libyan money.  See https://www.hri.ca/partners/uidh/persp/budget.html (describing how, after UIDH won the Prize, many of its partner institutions stopped funding it because of the Libya affiliation, and arguing that this was incorrect in light of the Prize being awarded by a Northern, Geneva-based, UN-accredited NGO).

Like the Khaddafi Prize, North-South XXI was founded in 1989. In addition to awarding the Prize, North-South XXI organizes seminars and colloquia (many of which have been held in Tripoli) and issues a periodic journal of the same name. North-South XXI has special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which allows it to participate at UN sessions. It has argued before UN bodies against the international sanctions on Libya, without ever disclosing its connections to the Khaddafi regime. See Written Statement of North-South XXI to the Commission on Human Rights, 55th Session (E/CN.4/1999/NGO/40) (arguing against sanctions in general and against the sanctions on Libya in particular); Written Statement of North-South XXI to the Commission on Human Rights, 54th Session (E/CN.4/1998/NGO/83) (arguing that sanctions against Libya violate children’s rights).

North-South XXI is located in Geneva at rue Ferdinand-Hodler, number 17. Its director is Ahmad Soueissi, and its chairman is Ahmed Ben Bella. Mr. Ben Bella and Mr. Soueissi are also chairman and secretary, respectively, of a similarly-named organization at the same address: the Institut Nord-Sud pour le dialogue intercultural. The vice-chairman of the Institut Nord-Sud, according to official records of the canton of Geneva, is Jean Ziegler.  See Entry for Institut Nord-Sud pour le dialogue interculturel, Registre du commerce de Genève, at https://rc.geneve.ch/rc/consultation/consultationcomplete.asp?no_dossier_fed=CH-660-1684998-3 (see Attachment 14 here).

Several websites identify the Institut as the source of the North-South XXI journal, and one describes it as “presided over by Jean Ziegler.” See “Le Monde Diplomatique, Revues,” at https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/revues/nordsud; Philippe Corcuff, Liste des publications, at https://www.cerlis.fr/pagesperso/permanents/corcuffphilippepubli.htm (listing one article as follows: “Avec Éric Doidy et Domar Idrissi, “S’émanciper des langues de bois : originalité du langage zapatiste”, dans Club Merleau-Ponty, La pensée confisquée – Quinze idées reçues qui bloquent le débat public, 1997, Paris : La Découverte; réédité en 2001, Nord-Sud XXI (Institut Nord-Sud pour le dialogue interculturel, Genève), n°16 (4)”).

The Institut Nord-Sud is managed and financed by the Fondation Nord-Sud pour le dialogue interculturel. See Entry for Fondation Nord Sud pour le dialogue interculturel, Registre du commerce de Genève, at https://rc.geneve.ch/rc/consultation/consultationcomplete.asp?no_dossier_fed=CH-660-1881999-1 (see Attachment 15 here).

The Fondation have the same street address as North-South XXI and the Institut. The Fondation’s address in the Geneva registry of commerce is in care of a Geneva fiduciary society.  However, an entity called the Nord-Sud Fondation, https://www.nordsud-dialogue.org/, is also found at rue Ferdinand-Hodler 17, and has the same phone number, fax number, email address, and director as North-South XXI (see Attachment 16 here).

The officers of the Fondation are the same as of the Institute: Mr. Ben Bella, chairman; Mr. Ziegler, vice-chairman; and Mr. Soueissi, secretary. See also Entry for Fondation Nord Sud pour le dialogue interculturel, Registre du commerce de Genève, at at https://rc.geneve.ch/rc/consultation/consultationcomplete.asp?no_dossier_fed=CH-660-1881999-1 (see Attachment 15 here)

The post Qaddafi and his UN-accredited “NGO” North-South 21 appeared first on UN Watch.