UN
Watch Details Rights Council's Regressive Turn
by IPT News • May 20, 2016 at
1:30 pm
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The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has a reputation for
maintaining a blatant anti-Israel bias. Gross violators of human rights often
serve on the Council, devoting a disproportionate amount of attention to
alleged Israeli human rights abuses without substantive discussion
dedicated towards other nations with far worse records.
Marking the Council's 70th anniversary on May 17, Hillel
Neuer – executive director of United Nations Watch – outlined the shocking
hypocrisy characterizing the UNHRC in testimony before
the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
While the Council's founders intended for the body to uphold the
principle of human dignity for all, Neuer describes how brutal dictators
like Libya's ruthless leader Muammar Qaddafi hijacked the UNHRC over the
years.
Countries like China and Russia, which frequently stifle dissent and
freedom of speech, have been exempt from a single resolution or special
session. Instead, both countries sit on the Council.
"In Saudi Arabia, women are subjugated, Christians are arrested for
practicing their religion, democracy blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to
10 years in prison and a thousand lashes, and beheadings are at an all time
high," Neuer said. "The Council's response? Silence. A recent
attempt to investigate Saudi Arabia's carpet bombing of Yemeni civilians
was quashed. On the contrary: Saudi Arabia, too, was elected a
member."
Neuer continued to outline blatant human rights abuses associated with
countries such as Algeria, Congo, Cuba, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and
Venezuela – all of which were elected as Council members. In fact, 62
percent of current UNHRC member states fail to meet the minimum standards
to be considered free societies. There are fewer democracies on the
committee than ever.
Instead of focusing on real human rights abuses, the Commission's rights
violators devote much of their time to praising each other. Neuer recalled
being present when China commended Saudi Arabia for respecting religious
freedom and the following day Saudi Arabia praised China for upholding
minority rights.
Beyond self-praise, the UNHRC focuses a disproportionate amount of
attention on condemning the world's sole Jewish state.
"Despite the promise of ending selectivity, the Council's
pathological obsession with demonizing Israelis, and denying their human
rights, has never been worse. Since its creation, the Council has adopted
67 resolutions condemning Israel—and only 61 on the rest of the world
combined," confirmed Heuer.
Now, the Council instituted a U.N. black-list of Israeli businesses,
adopting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign
to punish Israel's economy and its citizens.
While Neuer applauded U.S. officials and ambassadors for calling out
UNHRC hypocrisy, real reform of this U.N. body is unlikely to be realized
in the foreseeable future.
Read Neuer's remarks here.
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