Hillel Neuer, director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, said that President Michele Bachelet of Chile should be "ashamed" that her country joined the consensus vote, as should India, despite repeated appeals by UN Watch. Both democracies sit on the 24-nation committee, to vote against the Assad regime's candidate.
UN Watch Campaign Warned Ban Ki-moon & Others
For several weeks UN Watch
warned Ban Ki-moon and others of the expected election of Syria, and urged him to speak out, but to no avail.
UN Chief's Moral Obligation to Speak Out
“It is incomprehensible for the UN on one day to lament the regime's killing and wounding of hundreds of thousands of Syrians—to declare the regime guilty of "
extermination" of its own people—and to then hand this gift of false legitimacy to the mass murderer Bashar al-Assad,” said Neuer.
“Today's UN vote only helps the Assad regime portray itself a UN human rights arbiter. That’s indefensible, and an insult to Syria’s victims,” said Neuer. “Morally, Mr. Ban should do the right thing and at least condemn the decision."
Precedent: UNESCO Chief Criticized Syria's Election in 2013
Although Ban Ki-moon and his spokespersons often insist that he cannot speak on elections conducted by member states, actions taken by other high UN officials prove otherwise.
For example, when Syria was elected to a UNESCO human rights committee in 2013, Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, went on record to say that the election was wrong. Her spokesperson
said: "Given the developments in Syria, the director-general does not see how this country can contribute to the work of the committees."
"This demonstrates that UN officials can act as the world's moral voice when a UN committee makes obscene decisions —electing a regime committing mass murder—which only cast a shadow on the reputation of the UN as a whole."
Syria can now trumpet a
propaganda victory as it did when a similar miscarriage of justice occurred in 2013:
"The re-election of Dr. Al-Jafari, according to many analysts and observers, is yet another recognition by members of the Committee of the Syrian important and key role."
UN Chief's Moral Obligation to Speak Out
“It is incomprehensible for the UN on one day to lament the regime's killing and wounding of hundreds of thousands of Syrians—to declare the regime guilty of "
extermination" of its own people—and to then hand this gift of false legitimacy to the mass murderer Bashar al-Assad,” said Neuer.
“Today's UN vote will only help the Assad regime portray itself a UN human rights arbiter. That’s indefensible, and an insult to Syria’s victims,” said Neuer. “Morally, Mr. Ban should do the right thing and speak out."
Precedent: UNESCO Chief Criticized Syria's Election in 2013
Although Ban Ki-moon and his spokespersons often insist that he cannot speak on elections conducted by member states, actions taken by other high UN officials prove otherwise.
For example, when Syria was elected to a UNESCO human rights committee in 2013, Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, went on record to say that the election was wrong. Her spokesperson
said: "Given the developments in Syria, the director-general does not see how this country can contribute to the work of the committees."
"This demonstrates that UN officials can act as the world's moral voice when a UN committee makes obscene decisions —electing a regime committing mass murder—which only cast a shadow on the reputation of the UN as a whole."
Decolonization Committee
Committee sessions debate the future of places such as Gibraltar, the Falklands, Bermuda, French Polynesia and New Caledonia.
It is mandated to uphold fundamental human rights in opposing the “subjugation, domination and exploitation” of peoples.
There are 17 territories still before the committee, and most do not want independence — which is only one of the reasons the committee, dominated by third-world nations, is often criticized as a costly irrelevance.
The 17 territories still listed as colonies by the committee are American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, East Timor, the Falklands, Gibraltar, Guam, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos, St. Helena, the United States Virgin Islands and Western Sahara.
Corruption, Exotic Travel
The committee is notorious for its habit of holding
regional seminars in tropical islands—"alternately in the Caribbean and the Pacific"—at considerable expense. Madeleine K. Albright, as U.S. representative at the United Nations in the late 1990s, called these expenditures ''frivolous and unneeded.''
At the time, activities of the committee were investigated by the United Nations inspector general, Karl T. Paschke, who concluded that money was being squandered.
UN Watch is urging current U.S. ambassador Samantha Power to follow her predecessor and finally speak out against the travesties of justice worked by this anachronistic and corrupt committee.
