GENEVA, December 12, 2019 — Former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini was appointed to co-chair the U.N.’s High Level-Panel on Internal Displacement, prompting questions from human rights activists over her qualifications.
“Ironic to appoint a person to a panel on Internally Displaced Persons when she did zero to stop Iran from aiding and abetting Assad to produce the biggest internally displaced population in the world,” said Hillel Neuer, the Executive Director of UN Watch—a Geneva-based human rights non-governmental organization.
Ironic to appoint a person to a panel on Internally Displaced Persons when she did zero to stop Iran from aiding and abetting Assad to produce the biggest internally displaced population in the world: 6.2 million people, including 2.5 million children, displaced within Syria.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 5, 2019
The High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement is tasked with finding “concrete long-term solutions” to resolve internal displacement and raise global awareness of the issue. Mogherini will serve with seven other members who are to convene four times before submitting final recommendations in early 2020.
UN Watch has previously called out the former EU foreign policy chief for her silence on critical human rights issues.
Mogherini failed to condemn the recent election of dictatorships to the U.N.’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which regulates human rights groups, oversees the U.N. women’s rights commission, and adopts resolutions on a vast array of global issues ranging from internet freedom to the treatment of prisoners.
Mogherini also remained silent in the lead-up to Venezuela’s election to the U.N. Human Rights Council, despite calls for her to speak out against the brutal Maduro’s regime bid for a spot on the world’s top human rights body.
