Joint Statement by

UN Watch, International Humanist and Ethical Union

and Association for World Education

Agenda Item 4, UNHRC 15th Session

Delivered by Robert Monetti

Mr. President,

As a representative of the victims of the Pan Am flight 103, I am shocked and saddened to see Libya as a new member of this council.

In 1988, my son Rick was a 20-year-old Syracuse University student, studying abroad for a semester in London. Sadly, he was a passenger on Pan Am Flight 103 when it blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December of that year. He and 269 other innocents perished at Libya’s hand. Many of the passengers, like my Rick, were college students.

In 2001, a high-ranking Libyan intelligence agent, Megrahi, was convicted by a Scottish court on 270 counts of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was long and detailed. The verdict was correct. We all understood that Megrahi didn’t act alone, and he didn’t act on his own. In 2003, in a letter to the UN, Libya finally accepted responsibility for the bombing. This provided some closure.

Yet the wounds were suddenly reopened last year by Megrahi’s early release, and by the circus that followed.

Mr. President, how could Libya give a mass murderer a hero’s welcome?

How is it that a country which systematically violates the rights of its own citizens, and which abducts or murders citizens of other countries, is given a seat on a human rights council?

Why has Libya been granted the power to judge other countries on matters of human rights?

Mr. President, is it because oil is respected more than human rights?

In 2003, Libya was elected as Chair of the Human Rights Commission. Soon after, Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded that the Commission cast a shadow upon the reputation of the UN as a whole.

Why would this new council, designed as an improvement, repeat the same mistake?

Mr. President, I know that Libya received 155 votes in its favor. Yet if the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 could have a voice, there would be 270 votes opposed.

Thank you, Mr. President.