UN Watch

Outrage as Venezuela, Pakistan, UAE, Ethiopia, Slated to Win UN Rights Council Seats at Wednesday Vote

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.

Report: UN Officials Incite Murder of Jews, Call to “Stab Zionist Dogs”

GENEVA, – UN staffers are using the imprimatur of their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews, with one UN-identified employee calling on Facebook to “stab Zionist dogs,” according to a new report issued today by UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization that is accredited by the United Nations with the mandate to monitor the world body’s compliance with its charter.

21-year-old North Korean Survivor Addresses UN Debate

GENEVA, - Speaking today in Geneva on behalf of the non-governmental human rights group UN Watch, North Korean survivor and human rights activist Yeonmi Park addressed a United Nations Human Rights Council debate on the country from which she escaped, one week before the publication of her memoir, In Order to Live (Penguin).

Again: Saudis to Behead of UN Human Rights Council Panel

GENEVA, - U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and EU foreign minister Federica Mogherini should condemn and work to reverse the appointment of Saudi Arabia as chair of a key UN Human Rights Council panel that selects top officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide, said UN Watch, a non-governmental watchdog organization based in Geneva.

Today: UNRWA to legitimize Hamas front group at UNHRC panel

GENEVA, – UN Watch urged UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinians, not to legitimize a Hamas front group known as the “Palestinian Return Center” (PRC) and to stop its Brussels-based representative Elena Mancusi-Materi from addressing a panel event organized today at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Bid to Suspend Venezuela from UN Rights Council After Sentencing of Opposition Leader

GENEVA, September 11, 2015 - The United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom were asked today to take action at a UN session that opens on Monday to suspend Venezuela from its membership on the world body’s 47-nation Human Rights Council, in reaction to the controversial Caracas verdict of 13 years in jail issued yesterday against opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, and over other “gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

Will our democracy put up with the secrecy behind Iran deal?

Touro Institute Professor Anne Bayefsky explains the White House’s dealings with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, and its side deal with Tehran

Iran Sanctions: The Forgotten History

Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust Director Anne Bayefsky on the significance of the U.N. vote to lift international sanctions on Iran.

Accused Hamas front group locks Twitter account, deletes pro-terror posts, ahead of today's UN vote for official NGO status

Despite its pose as pro-Palestinian human rights group, the PRC is one of the few Palestinian advocacy groups to have been banned by Israel, on account of its deep entanglement with top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization based in Gaza and abroad.

EU should reject UN Gaza report in tomorrow's vote

GENEVA, July 1 - The EU should adopt a principled position and oppose a PLO-drafted resolution that, when passed on Thursday or Friday, will endorse the UNHRC's new Gaza report, which American and British military experts told the UN this week was seriously flawed. Thousands have already signed an online petition urging the leaders of the UK, France and Germany to oppose the Islamic-sponsored initiative.

Wife of Jailed Venezuelan Opposition Leader Addresses U.N.

GENEVA, - UN Watch invited Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo Lopez, to testify this week before the UN Human Rights Council. See her full speech below.

UN Debate: World Military Experts to Contradict Gaza Report in Geneva Session Tomorrow

GENEVA, - The UN's new Gaza report will be contradicted in the plenary of the Human Rights Council when high level military officers representing two parallel fact-finding task forces of American, British, NATO and Australian war-fighting commanders will present their findings that Israel took extraordinary efforts to avoid civilian casualties during last summer's Hamas-Israel war.

Report: In 9 Years' Existence, UNHRC Condemned Israel More Times Than Rest of World Combined

GENEVA, - In the nine years of its existence, the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more times than the rest of the world combined, revealed UN Watch today, ahead of a new report to be released by the Geneva-based NGO that documents endemic selectivity and politicization at the world body.

Ahead of UN Report on 2014 Gaza War, Multinational Mission of Generals Finds

GENEVA, - The report of the UN commission of inquiry on the 2014 Gaza war is to be released imminently, and will be debated on Monday, June 29th, before the Human Rights Council. William Schabas was forced to resign after six months as chair of the probe over his undisclosed paid legal work for the PLO, and was replaced by Mary McGowan Davis.

Outrage: Venezuela wins UN award for combating hunger as its people scrounge for food

As Venezuela’s citizens scrounge for food, with hundreds desperately waiting in long lines only to reach empty store shelves, the Maduro government was recognized yesterday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for “meeting the UN millennium goal of halving malnutrition,” according to Venezuelan news reports.

Farce: Saudi Arabia Hosting UN Human Rights Conference on Religious Freedom

GENEVA, – Despite its reputation as one the world’s worst violators of religious freedom, Saudi Arabia is now hosting in Jeddah a UN human rights conference on combating intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, attended by the president of the UN Human Rights Council and other top international representatives.

UN status for antisemitic Hamas front group to be decided today

GENEVA, – A UN committee dominated by Iran and its allies will decide today whether to grant official observer status to an antisemitic front group of the Hamas terrorist organization, warned UN Watch. The Geneva-based independent monitoring group called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to speak out against a “an alarming development that would negate the very principles of the United Nations.”

UN casts Israel as worst violator of health rights in the world

Exclusive Report and comment by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer: GENEVA, - As Israeli hospitals continue their life-saving treatment for escalating numbers of wounded Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime’s barbaric attacks, the U.N. reached new heights of absurdity today by adopting a draft resolution portraying Israel as violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan.

UN Watch Condemns Saudi Bid to Head UN Rights Council

GENEVA, – The fundamentalist Saudi monarchy is seeking to head the world’s top human rights body, a move liable to be “the final nail in the coffin for the credibility of a body that already counts dictatorships like China, Cuba, and Russia as members, and whose top advisor is co-founder of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group.

UN announces “review” of bookstore after protest over books targeting Jews and Israel

GENEVA, - The head of the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva has initiated a review of its concession arrangement with the bookstore operating next to the Human Rights Council in response to allegations over book displays that deliberately target Jews and Israel.