Trending UN Watch tweets from April 2020: China mishandles the coronavirus crisis and joins a U.N. Human Rights Council panel that selects human rights monitors; Amnesty International’s former researcher Hind Khoudary reports Gaza peace activist Rami Aman to Hamas for organizing a Zoom video call with Israelis, leading to his arrest and disappearance; rogue regimes serve as members of the Human Rights Council and other U.N. bodies; Iran executes child offender Shayan Saeedpour.
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UN Watch’s tweets below broke the news on China’s appointment to a U.N. Human Rights Council panel that vets and nominates human rights monitors on 17 different global areas of concern including freedom of speech and arbitrary detention. The story was covered by Le Figaro, the Irish Times, Radio Free Asia and featured in numerous other news reports and op-eds.
BREAKING: #China joins U.N. Human Rights Council panel, where it will help select next world monitors on freedom of speech, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention—and on health. @hillelneuer: "It's like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief."https://t.co/E2vYfYcNcD pic.twitter.com/1UkF5T4MHU
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) April 3, 2020
UN Watch’s tweets opposing the outrageous move were liked and shared by thousands around the world, including by opinion leaders and celebrities such as former NBA player Andrew Bogut; former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley; former U.S. diplomat and current CEO of PEN America Suzanne Nossel; Canadian MPs Peter Kent and Candice Bergen; prominent Indian jurist Karuna Nund; British MP Alicia Kearns; SwissInfo editor Patrick Bohler; Canadian Senator Denise Batters; Physicians for Human Rights director of research and investigations at Phelim Kine; Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai; Hong Kong barrister Wilson Leung;Tasmanian Green Party MP Cassy O’Connor; hedge fund manager Kyle Bass; President of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Clifford May; former Australian MP Michael Danby; Pakistani author and former Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani; former German MP Volker Beck.
Many journalists also like or shared UN Watch’s tweets on China’s absurd appointment, including New York Times reporter Sui-Lee Wee; Washington Post columnist and CNN political analyst Josh Rogin; Reuters journalist Pak Yiu; Der Spiegel’s Jan Fleischhauer; Bloomberg editorial board member Bobby Ghosh; Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui; Ottawa Citizen columnist Terry Glavin; Irish Times columnist Laura Kennedy and parliamentary correspondent Michael O’Regan; Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake; Mumbai-based Foreign Policy columnist and economist Rupa Subramanya; Bloomberg opinion Asia managing editor Matthew Brooker; and Commentary Magazine associate editor Noah Rothman.
China was appointed on Wed to a UN Human Rights Council panel where it will play a key role in picking the world body’s human rights investigators — including global monitors on freedom of speech, health, enforced disappearances, & arbitrary detention.
🤦🏽♀️You can’t make this up! https://t.co/fULmWtfFSZ— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 4, 2020
🇨🇳 China imposes draconian censorship
✅ China to select UN monitor on free speech🇨🇳 China arbitrarily detains human rights activists
✅ China to pick UN monitor on arbitrary detention🇨🇳 China disappears dissidents
✅ China to select UN monitor on enforced disappearances https://t.co/zEy4VRMYwk— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 4, 2020
🇨🇳China arrests 15 pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong, may use "hard-core repression to achieve total control over the city."
🇨🇳China just joined a U.N. panel that will select world human rights monitors. https://t.co/yywUheC09i
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) April 28, 2020
When I spoke out at the U.N. Human Rights Council for 1 million Muslims arbitrarily detained by China in camps, regime reps furiously banged on the table trying to shut me down. Now they've been named to the UNHRC panel that picks UN monitors on free speech & arbitrary detention. pic.twitter.com/uvaA5ZNUrR
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 5, 2020
U.S. Senators Rick Scott, Marsha Blackburn and Cory Gardner shared UN Watch’s tweets, and then lawmakers took action, calling on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to suspend China from the panel.
GOOD: U.S. Senators call on U.N. chief to suspend 🇨🇳 #China from the U.N. Human Rights Council panel that will choose the world monitors on free speech, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances & health. We sounded the alarm, now things are moving.https://t.co/FOEaPQHKhm pic.twitter.com/PhmIIvqDyf
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 7, 2020
UN Watch continued to press Beijing on its mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and control over U.N. specialized agencies.
🇨🇳 China hid Coronavirus spread by arresting bloggers, shutting down news sites & dragging Wuhan Dr. Li Wenliang to midnight interrogation for sounding the alarm.
🇺🇳 U.N. Human Rights Council reaction:
0 resolutions
0 urgent sessions
0 commissions of inquiryWhy, @mbachelet? pic.twitter.com/laGGrHbfxa
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 20, 2020
Wow: even China's close ally Iran says Beijing's coronavirus statistics are “a bitter joke.”https://t.co/wfGib5RcO7
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 6, 2020
🇺🇳 China now controls 4 UN specialized agencies, more than any other country:
🇨🇳 Fang Liu heads the Int'l Civil Aviation Org.
🇨🇳 Qu Dongyu heads the Food & Agriculture Org.
🇨🇳 Li Yong heads the UN Industrial Development Org.
🇨🇳 Houlin Zhao heads the Int'l Telecommunication Union— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 1, 2020
Meet the new @UN chiefs:
🇺🇳 Fang Liu – Int'l Civil Aviation Org.
🇺🇳 Qu Dongyu – Food & Agriculture Org.
🇺🇳 Li Yong – UN Industrial Development Org.
🇺🇳 Houlin Zhao – Int'l Telecommunication Union🇨🇳 China now heads more UN specialized agencies than any other country in the world. pic.twitter.com/nRVNzvMpWd
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 24, 2020
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Neuer called out former Amnesty International researcher Hind Khoudary for reporting Gaza peace activist Rami Aman to Hamas, who arrested him on April 9th and has since disappeared. Thousands reacted, including Dov Hikind, former New York politician, and Rita Panahi, columnist for Australia’s The Herald and Weekly Times and host on Sky News.
December 6: Gaza peace activist Rami Aman travels to Dharamsala, India, to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
April 6: Rami holds Zoom call with Israeli peace activists
April 8: @Amnesty researcher Hind Khoudary reports him to Hamas
April 9: Rami is arrested, disappears pic.twitter.com/dlbgd8yhQD
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 13, 2020
After Neuer revealed rogue regimes that are members of the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N. bodies, thousands responded by sharing his tweets, including thought leaders such as Brian Lilley, political columnist for the Toronto Sun; Betty Unger, former Canadian Senator from Alberta; Marc Thiessen, columnist for The Washington Post; and Adam Housley, award-winning journalist and former senior correspondent for Fox News.
This is is not April Fools. These are members of the U.N. Human Rights Council:
🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of Congo
🇧🇩 Bangladesh
🇲🇷 Mauritania
🇻🇪 Venezuela
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇸🇴 Somalia
🇪🇷 Eritrea
🇸🇩 Sudan
🇶🇦 Qatar
🇱🇾 LibyaExpected to rejoin next year:
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇨🇺 Cuba
🇨🇳 China— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 1, 2020
"Madam Chair, I wish to list 5 of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom:
🇨🇳 China
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea"I now list 5 members who sit here on this U.N. Human Rights Council:
🇨🇳 China
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea.." pic.twitter.com/NGXaBmRskA
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 5, 2020
Top 5 executioners of 2019 & what UN body they sat on:
🇪🇬 Egypt, UN Human Rights Council – killed 32
🇮🇶 Iraq, UN Human Rights Council – 100
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia, UN Human Rights Council – 184
🇮🇷 Iran, UN Commission on Crime Prevention – 251
🇨🇳 China, UN Human Rights Council – 1000s— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 24, 2020
Worst abusers listed in today's 2020 International Religious Freedom Report include:
🇦🇫 Afghanistan
🇮🇩 Indonesia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea
🇸🇩 SudanMembers of 2020 U.N. Human Rights Council include:
🇦🇫 Afghanistan
🇮🇩 Indonesia
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇳🇬 Nigeria
🇪🇷 Eritrea
🇸🇩 Sudan pic.twitter.com/VHIuXEQFc4— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 28, 2020
Thousands also reacted to Neuer calling out Iran—a member of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention—for executing a child offender and persecuting dissidents in contravention of international human rights law.
🇮🇷 Iran today executed by hanging a child offender, Shayan Saeedpour, and sentenced dissident Mary Mohammadi to 3 months in prison & 10 lashes for protesting the regime's downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January.
🇮🇷 Iran sits on the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention. pic.twitter.com/l9cGsVj3jG
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 22, 2020
