UN Watch was quoted in multiple media outlets during March 2022 on topics including: Countries oppose Russian resolution condemning Nazism; Iran joins UN Women’s Commission; U.S. failing to reform UNRWA.
UN Watch Campaigns for Russia’s Explusion from the UNHRC
Quoted on CNS News, “Senators to US Ambassador: Initiate Vote to Expel Russia From UN Human Rights Council,” March 30, 2022:
Calls to have Russia expelled from the U.N. Human Rights Council over its invasion of Ukraine received a boost Tuesday when a dozen members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged the Biden administration to introduce a resolution to have the U.N. General Assembly vote on the matter.
“It’s rare, but once every decade the international community becomes so ashamed of a U.N. Human Rights Council member state slaughtering innocent people that they act to remove them,” tweeted Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch.
“We got Gaddafi expelled in 2011,” he said. “I fear they’ll only expel Russia after a terrible new atrocity.”
During the HRC’s recent urgent debate on the war in Ukraine, Neuer called on the council to remove Russia immediately.
U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental group, spearheaded a campaign to have Libya suspended in 2011. It has also led advocacy to have the Maduro regime removed.
Quoted on CNS News, “Blinken: Should Russia Be Allowed to Remain a Member of UN Human Rights Council?” March 2, 2022:
“Even FIFA, the second most corrupt international organization in Switzerland, has expelled Russia for invading and attacking Ukraine,” U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer tweeted this week. “When will @UN_HRC, the #1 most corrupt international organization in Switzerland, do the same and expel Russia from the human rights council?”
The Geneva-based U.N. Watch, which has campaigned to deny HRC seats to rights-violating regimes, urged U.N. member-states in 2020 not to elect Russia back onto the council.
Quoted in the Jewish Journal, “UN Passes Resolution Condemning Russia,” March 2, 2022:
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer tweeted that it was a “missed opportunity” that the UNGA didn’t take any action to remove Russia from the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC). “In 2010-11, we led the successful campaign to expel Qaddafi’s Libya from the UNHRC,” Neuer wrote. “I won’t give up until we do the same to Vladimir Putin.”
Missed opportunity today: the UN General Assembly resolution failed to include a provision removing Russia from the Human Rights Council.
In 2010-11, we led the successful campaign to expel Qaddafi’s Libya from the UNHRC.
I won’t give up until we do the same to Vladimir Putin. https://t.co/ijk1Wl41jQ
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 2, 2022
Countries Oppose Russian Resolution Condemning Nazism
Quoted in Le Monde, “Why Ukraine and the United States did not vote for the UN resolution condemning Nazism,” March 17, 2022:
In an analysis of the reasons for the Canadian “no”, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO responsible for monitoring compliance with the UN mission, explained thus, in 2015, that Russia’s resolution was to be interpreted as part of a “rhetorical war”, in which “anything that deviates from Russian nationalism is discredited under the label of fascism or equated with collaboration with the Nazis during the second world War “.
Iran Joins UN Women’s Commission
Quoted on Fox News, “Haley says Iranian regime joining UN’s commission on women’s rights is a ‘complete joke’,” March 15, 2022:
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday described the Iranian regime’s upcoming participation in a U.N. commission on women’s rights and empowerment as a “complete joke” and a “slap in the face” to Iranian women, given the limited rights that women are given under the hard line regime.
Watchdog group U.N. Watch has also criticized the election of Iran to the commission, with executive director Hillel Neuer comparing it to “make an arsonist into the town fire chief.”
Quoted on JNS and Israel Hayom, “The United Nations doesn’t care about women’s rights,” April 5, 2022:
Hillel Neuer and his team at UN Watch recently reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran is set to join the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. This is only the latest in the world body’s unmatched record of hot takes and patently incorrect decisions. Allowing Iran onto the commission is proof positive that the United Nations is not serious about protecting women’s rights. In fact, the United Nations shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone anymore.
U.S. Failing to Reform UNRWA
Cited in The Bulwark, “Biden Administration Failing to Reform U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency,” March 31, 2022:
Beyond teaching materials, UNRWA personnel are also part of the problem. In August 2021, another watchdog group, UN Watch, issued a report detailing 113 UNRWA staffers who promoted terrorism, violence, and anti-Semitism, mainly on social media. For example, multiple teachers praised Hitler, espoused conspiracy theories of global Jewish domination, and shared Hamas propaganda videos. Following the report, UNRWA suspended at least six employees. What happened to the other 107 remains unclear.
