GENEVA, -- UN Watch today urged member states of the UN General Assembly to oppose the re-election on Wednesday of egregious human rights abusers Venezuela, Pakistan and UAE to the UN Human Rights Council, as well as Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Lao, and Togo, due to widespread criticism of these governments' violations of fundamental freedoms.
(UN Watch will appear the UN with other NGOs to fight their candidcies on Tuesday, Oct. 27th. The election will take place at the UNGA on the following day. See details below.)
"The expected election of these rights abusing regimes would deal a severe blow to the credibility and efficacy of a body that was supposed to improve on its discredited predecessor. It will be a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group.
“The likely election of oppressive regimes will only send the message that politics trumps human rights, and will let down millions of victims worldwide who look to the world body for protection.”
According to a comprehensive report by UN Watch, to be released next week at the UN, these Council member states perpetrate gross and systematic human rights abuses, including massive violations of the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly. They were also found to oppose UN resolutions speaking out for victims of human rights abuses in various countries.
MEDIA EVENT IN NEW YORK ON TUESDAY, OCT. 27th
UN Watch, together with Human Rights Foundtion and the Lantos Foundation, will organize a media luncheon briefing at UN headquarters in Tuesday, Oct. 27th, one day before the elections, with experts on Pakistan, Venezuela and UAE, featuring former Venezuelan UN ambassador Diego Arria, Dr. Qanta Ahmed and others. Journalists can request to attend by email to events@unwatch.org.
WHAT THIS WILL MEAN FOR THE COUNCIL
The election of rights abuses will not only cast a dark shadow on the future of the Human Rights Council but also recall its recent past. In 2006, the Council was created to replace its morally corrupt predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, which was criticized by former Secretary General Kofi Annan for its politicization and “declining credibility.”
Neuer said: “Despite the much-vaunted 2006 reform – which scrapped the discredited human rights commission and created a new and supposedly improved council — next week's likely election of major human rights abusers means that we are back to square one. Instead of reform, we have regression.”
Neuer expects the following negative impacts:
The Council will continue to turn a blind eye to egregious abuses by violators like China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, which have never been addressed in any UN resolution.
Mechanisms meant to help victims will be hijacked by politicization and selectivity.
The core principles of individual human rights will be subverted by concepts that increase power for governments.
UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
