“Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Algeria: Where are your Jews?” Viral Video: Hillel Neuer tells U.N. where real apartheid is — room goes silent

GENEVA, March 22, 2017 — When the U.N. human rights council met on Monday under its permanent targeting Israel, Arab states echoed the now-deleted U.N. report by Richard Falk accusing Israel of “apartheid.”

After the PLO, Qatar, Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab regimes hurled epithets at at the Jewish state, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer took the floor, asking, “Algeria, where are your Jews?” Click here for video.
Since it was posted last night on Facebook, the video has gone viral, receiving 630,000 views and counting. Click here to share on Facebook.

__________

U.N Human Rights Council
Agenda Item Targeting Israel

March 20, 2017 

PLO: “Israel has used the worst kinds of abuse, ethnic cleansing and imposing a regime of apartheid.”

Qatar: “Israel continues to exercise apartheid in Palestine, which constitutes a crime against humanity.”

Sudan: “Violence and terrorism are being exercised against the Palestinian people.”

Syria: “Violations including building of apartheid walls… to legitimize theft of land and to Judaize Jerusalem.”

Bahrain: “The separation wall is an example of the apartheid policy practiced by Israel.”

Saudi Arabia: “Israel’s practices of discrimination and extremism…”

 

UN Watch (Executive Director Hillel Neuer): Mr. President, let me begin by putting the following on the record: Everything we just heard — from the world’s worst abusers of human rights, of women’s rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech — is absolutely false; and, indeed, Orwellian.

Today’s report does not consider Israelis to be deserving of human rights — consistent with the approach of this council, where today’s notorious agenda item against Israel completely ignores their human rights.

Over the weekend, President Abbas announced he was giving his highest medal to Rima Khalaf, who resigned from the Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia, a Beirut-based UN agency of 18 Arab states, after Secretary General Guterres rightly instructed her to remove an absurd report which accused Israel of “apartheid.”

Mr. President, why is Mr. Abbas celebrating a report written by the notorious Richard Falk, after his own Palestinian Mission here, tried in 2010, to remove Mr. Falk on the basis that he was “a partisan of Hamas,” as we know from WikiLeaks?

The accusation against Israel is absurd. Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs…

[Interruption with objections by Palestinians, Egypt, and Pakistan.]

President gives UN Watch back the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court.

Now I’d like to ask the members of that commission, that commissioned that report, the Arab states from which we just heard. Egypt, Iraq, and the others:

How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews lived in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco?

Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews.

Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where are your Jews?

Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?

Syria, you had tens of thousands of Jews. Where are your Jews?

Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?

Mr. President, where is the apartheid?

Why is there a U.N. commission on the Middle East that does not include Israel? From the 1960s and the ‘70s they refuse to include Israel. Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?

Mr. President, why are we meeting today on an agenda item singling out only one state, the Jewish state, for targeting.

Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?

UNHRC chamber goes silent.

Richard Falk compares UN Watch to Goebbels, says he was subjected to "defamatory attacks"

Former UN special rapporteur Richard Falk lashes out at UN Watch, for, "with incredible persistence," getting Ban Ki-moon to denounce his 9/11 conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic remarks. At 9:40 he compares UN Watch to Goebbels. Falk says that US ambassadors to the UN like Susan Rice and Samantha Power "swallowed" what UN Watch "fed" them, repeating the organization's condemnations of Falk. Washington, April 10, 2015.

University of Michigan Law School on Hillel Neuer’s Lecture * UNHRC is "Too Welcoming to Rights Abusers"

UN Watch Director Lectures at University of Michigan Law School, Says U.N. Rights Council is "Too Welcoming to Rights Abusers"

By Katie Vloet
Oct. 2, 2014

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The UN Human Rights Council has been too welcoming to countries that abuse human rights, yet the inter-governmental body still “has the power to shame abusers of human rights,” Hillel C. Neuer​, executive director of UN Watch, said in a talk at the University of Michigan Law School.

“I've witnessed some of the most vicious tyrannies using every arrow in their quiver, every tool in their toolbox, to prevent their countries from being named in a resolution, from being targeted in an investigation, even to be so much as named on a watch list—these countries will pull out all the stops, using all their political, economic, military influence, to ensure that they’re never named at all,” Neuer said in the talk on Oct. 1.

“Countries do not want to be shamed on the international stage—even powerful countries like China. … It harms their international prestige, it erodes their international standing, it can have economic and political consequences.”

Neuer is an outspoken critic of the UN in his position with UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights NGO. He appears regularly before the 47-nation Council and has intervened on behalf of the victims of Darfur, the rights of women, political prisoners in China, Russia, and Zimbabwe, and the cause of Middle East peace.

In his talk, Neuer discussed the history of the UN Human Rights Commission, which began in 1946 with Eleanor Roosevelt as its first chairperson. The organization drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights​—which, Neuer said, continues to be a “beacon of hope.”

But the legacy of the Commission, which later evolved into the Council, has been tarnished in recent decades, Neuer said.

A particular low point: Jean Ziegler, who previously helped create a human rights prize in the name of Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, was named to a UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee in 2008 and reelected last year, Neuer said.

Ziegler also has been named a winner of the prize, along with Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, and others.

On a larger scale, countries Neuer referred to as “tyrannies”—specifically China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia—have sought and won membership on the Council. Still, he is optimistic that some improvements can occur.

“We need our countries to step up to the plate. … I couldn*t get any democracies to join me when we did a campaign to fight against China’s election” to the Council, Neuer said.

“We need democracies to find their backbone, to risk at time trade ties with China, because it’s the right thing to do.”

Based on original article at https://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/features/Pages/hillelneuer100114.aspx

Israel Matzav: Video: Hillel Neuer destroys PLO's Diana Buttu and 'human rights watch's Bill van Eswald

Al Jazeera tries to silence UN Watch's Hillel Neuer, but even a bit of truth managed to throw ex-PLO lawyer Diana Buttu & Human Rights Watch's Bill van Esveld on the defensive. July 24, 2014. 

Israel Matzav: Video: Hillel Neuer speaks out at the 'human rights council's emergency session on Gaza

Published on Jul 23, 2014

TRANSCRIPT: http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlne...
Dictatorships attempt to silence UN Watch's Hillel Neuer at the July 23, 2014 UNHRC emergency session on Gaza. Interruptions came from Iran, Syria, Egypt, the "State of Palestine," Cuba and Venezuela. The U.S. and Canada defended Neuer's right to speak.
Lear more: http://www.unwatch.org/isignup

UN emergency session on Gaza: Hillel Neuer speaks out

GENEVA, July 23, 2014 - The Palestinian ambassador to the UNHRC, together with Iran, Syria, Egypt, Cuba and Venezuela tried but failed to silence UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer during today's UN Emergency Session on Gaza, as he defended Israel's right to resist Hamas aggression, and called out the hypocrisy of those who initiated the biased proceeding. As expected, the council voted 29 to 1 (USA), with 17 abstaining (EU & others), to condemn Israel for "gross violations of international human rights," and it created a new commission of inquiry to produce a second Goldstone Report. Click here to see the grossly one-sided resolution—and a list of the nations who ignominiously voted for it.

Testimony delivered today, 23 July 2014, by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, at the UN Human Rights Council Emergency Session on Gaza 

Mr. President, I have just returned here from visiting Israel to tell this assembly, and the world, about the grave situation that I witnessed and experienced.

An entire nation—towns, villages and cities, from the Negev Desert up to the Galilee, from the Judean hills of Jerusalem to the Tel Aviv seashore—has been under brutal and relentless attack, from more than two thousand mortars, rockets and long-range missiles, fired from Gaza toward civilians in every part of the Holy Land.

Never before, in the history of Israel’s seven decades of existence, has its men, women and children come under such a massive aerial assault, forcing them, at the sound of air raid sirens day and night, to run for shelter.

And never before, in the modern history of nations, has a free and democratic society come under such sustained bombardment from a terrorist organization, one that openly strives for and celebrates the murder of civilians, and that, as its general worldview, glorifies death.

Did the world ever imagine that the ancient city of Jerusalem—sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and replete with holy places that are recognized by the United Nations as protected world heritage sites—would be deliberately targeted by indiscriminate rockets?

And yet it is.

During one air raid in Jerusalem, I ran down to the basement of a building with little children crying and traumatized. During an air raid in Tel Aviv, the neighbors of an apartment building showed great strength of spirit in defiance of terrorism, by reaching out to strangers in the shelters, as we heard the booms of the rockets above.

And as  I was seated in my airplane, about to depart and return back here to Geneva, the air raid siren went off around the airport. We all had to rush off the plane and seek shelter. You’ve heard the news today: that international airlines are now ceasing to fly to Israel because of this danger.

I believe that the world should salute this terrorized, besieged and embattled nation, which has refused to surrender to demoralization, instead showing such courage, resolve and strength of spirit in surviving—and resisting—this massive aggression.

And people should consider: Is there any precedent in world history for a nation passively to suffer a three-week bombardment of its civilian population, by more than 2,000 deadly rockets?

The attempt by Hamas to shut down Israel’s sole international airport, in a country already besieged by land from hostile forces from north to south, would constitute the strangulation of an artery vital to the life of Israel’s people and economy.

These acts of aggression also target the sovereign rights of the nations under whose flags these airplanes fly.

I ask each ambassador in this chamber to take a moment and imagine terrorists deliberately firing deadly rockets at the airports of Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, or Frankfurt; Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, or Tokyo.

How would your government react?

How long would your nation wait before doing everything in its power to exercise its right, under international law and morality, to resist such aggression?

Mr. President,

I turn now to the resolution upon which this Council will soon vote. The text before us denounces Israel, denies its right to self-defence, and disregards Hamas war crimes.

We ask: why does this Council refuse to say that which was said only two weeks ago by the Palestinian ambassador himself?

In an extraordinary moment of candor, Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi admitted, on Palestinian TV, that “each and every” Palestinian missile launched against Israeli civilians constitutes “a crime against humanity.”

And that, by contrast, Israel’s own response actions in Gaza “followed the legal procedures” because, as Hamas spokespersons admitted on TV, “the Israelis warned them to evacuate their homes before the bombardment; but, “as for the missiles launched from our side, we never warn anyone about where these missiles are about to fall or about the operations we carry out.”

Can any UN entity, or any individual, be truly for human rights when they refuse to say that which was said by the Palestinian ambassador himself?

Is it possible that the true purpose of this session is to silence the true victims and voices of human rights around the world by deflecting attention from the world’s worst abuses?

We ask all those who embrace hypocrisy and double standards: if in the past year you didn’t cry out whethousands of protesters were killed and injured by Turkey, Egypt and Libya; when more victims than ever were hanged by Iran; women and children in Afghanistan were bombed; whole communities were massacred in South Sudan; hundreds in Pakistan were killed by jihadist terror attacks; 10,000 Iraqis were killed by terrorists—

[Egypt interrupts with an objection.]

President of UNHRC Session: We have a point of order. Egypt, you have the floor.

Egypt: Mr. President, I think we are meeting today for the special session to discuss the current crisis in Gaza and the violations committed within this crisis. So I don’t see why we have a reason to discuss other issues relating to human rights situations on other countries.

United States of America: We think it is relevant to the subject under debate, and therefore you should allow the NGO to continue to speak.

Iran: We fully support the point of order made by Egypt.

Canada: We urge you to allow the NGO to complete their intervention, which is relevant to the discussions at hand.

Israel: It is important that civil society participate in this debate, and we request that you allow this NGO to continue.

Venezuela: We support the point of order made by Egypt.

Palestine: This is not a point of order, but more a clarification. The speaker will continue along the same lines if the speaker is not stopped. I would ask you not to waste any time on this so we can conclude this meeting in good time.

Cuba: It is inconceivable that a NGO should be able to come to this Council to distract us with the little time we have to debate an issue which is of such crucial importance as the genocide being committed currently against the Palestinian people.

President: I give the floor back to UN Watch, with the request that he adhere to the subject matter under discussion today.

UN Watch: Thank you, Mr. President. I’ll just note that there had been some questions whether the videotape interview of the Palestinian ambassador on Palestinian TV was genuine or not, but we see that the Palestinian ambassador has just intervened—and has failed to deny those remarks. Let the record show that.

Finally, we ask: If those who refuse to speak out for Palestinians—1800 Palestinians, if not more—who were starved to death, murdered, by Assad in Syria, but you only cry out when Israel can be blamed, then you are not pro human rights, you are only anti-Israel.

Syria: We’re used to hearing this NGO creating divisions among the speakers, and speaking out of turn. It is strange to hear an NGO defending the killing of women and children, and the destruction of infrastructure in Palestine. I would hope that the speaker is no longer allowed to continue his statement.

President: I give the floor back to UN Watch.

Hillel: Thank you, Mr. President. Let the world note: that in a session purportedly on Palestinian human rights, the government of Syria objected to us mentioning the 1800 Palestinians that they starved and murdered. 

UN Watch Brings Mothers of Kidnapped Teens Before World Media

GENEVA, June 24, 2014 – Invited by Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, Rachel Frankel, the mother of 16-year-old Israeli-American kidnap victim Naftali Frankel, who was one of three boys abducted on June 12th, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council this morning to appeal for international support of the boys' safe return. (Click here for video of her speech).

Mrs. Frankel, together with Iris Yifrach and Bat-Galim Shaar, the mothers of the two other kidnapped teenagers, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar, met this morning with UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri.

All three mothers flew from Israel to Geneva to urge the 47-nation Council and the international community to do everything it can to help find the boys and bring them home safely. So far, the Council has been silent on the plight of the abducted teens.

Mother of Kidnapped Israeli-American Teenager Naftali Frankel Appeals to UN

Rachel Frankel, mother of 16-year-old kidnap victim Naftali Frankel -- accompanied behind her by Iris Yifrach and Bat-Galim Shaar, mothers of the two other teenaged kidnap victims, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar -- today addressed the United Nations for the first time, on behalf of the human rights group UN Watch.

Text of Rachel Frankel's speech at the UN Human Rights Council 

On behalf of UN Watch, my name is Rachel Frankel, and I live in Israel. I’ve come here today as a mother. Twelve days ago, my son Naftali, and two other teenage students, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Shaer — whose mothers are sitting behind me — were kidnapped on their way home from school. Since then, we’ve heard nothing — no news, no sign of life.

UN Watch, which has been the most active NGO voice at this Council session on critical human rights issues, invited Mrs. Frankel to come to Geneva to use the NGO's slot to address the Council.

“UN Watch condemns the kidnapping of the three boys, which the ICRC rightly described as a war crime, and calls for their immediate, unconditional and safe return,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
“This heinous act violates international humanitarian law, which prohibits targeting civilians and the taking of hostages. Today we stand in awe of the three mothers' strength of spirit, and are grateful for the opportunity to offer her an international platform, together with the other two mothers, to appeal for the safe release of her son and the other two boys. We hope the international community will urgently heed their call."

Mother of Kidnapped Israeli Teen, Invited by UN Watch, Addresses UN Human Rights Council, Appeals for Help

With your permission, I’d like to tell you about the boys. My son Naftali is 16. He loves to play guitar and basketball. He’s a good student and a good boy — a combination of serious and fun. Eyal loves to play sports and cook. Gilad is an amateur pastry chef, and loves movies.

My son texted me — said he’s on his way home — and then he’s gone. Every mother’s nightmare is waiting and waiting endlessly for her child to come home.

We wish to express our profound gratitude for the waves of prayers, support and positive energy, pouring in from around the world.

Being in this assembly, I wish to thank the UN Secretary-General for condemning the abduction of our boys, expressing his solidarity with the families, and calling for their immediate release.

And I thank the International Red Cross for stating clearly that international humanitarian law prohibits the taking of hostages, and for demanding the immediate and unconditional release of our boys.

At the same time, I believe much more can be done — and should be done — by so many. That is why we three mothers have come here today — before the United Nations, and before the world —  to askeveryone, to do whatever they can, to bring back our boys.

Mr. President, it is wrong to take children, innocent boys or girls, and use them as instruments of any struggle. It is cruel. This council is charged with protecting human rights. I wish to ask: Doesn’t every child have the right to come home safely from school?

We just want them back in our homes, in their beds. We just want to hug them again.  Thank you, Mr. President.

As Ban Ki-moon visits Auschwitz today, it's time for the UN to get serious on anti-Semitism UN promotes a new human rights culture that sees racism everywhere, and antisemitism nowhere

By Hillel Neuer
November 18, 2013

As Ban Ki-moon today makes the first official visit of a UN secretary-general to the Auschwitz death camp, it is a time for the world body to recall its promise to meaningfully address anti-Semitism.

In 2004, former secretary-general Kofi Annan held a historic UN gathering on anti-Semitism where he called on the Geneva-based human rights machinery of the United Nations to become “mobilized in the battle against anti-Semitism.” This appeal has largely gone ignored.

Few if any of the UN human rights mechanisms—including those experts specifically charged with addressing racism and discrimination—have addressed anti-Semitism in any meaningful way.

While there are constructive events through a relatively new UN Holocaust educational program based out of New York, these have not found an echo in the substantive reporting of the UN's vast international human rights apparatus.

In 2007, UN Watch published a comprehensive report card on the UN’s record in combating anti-Semitism. The study revealed inaction—and, worse, the aiding and abetting of anti-Semitism through an infrastructure of manifestly one-sided and irrational UN measures designed to demonize the Jewish state.

When the UN General Assembly's 4th Committee last Thursday adopted nine resolutions on Israel, and none on the rest of the world, the ambassador of Syria, co-sponsor of the resolution on the Golan, used the occasion to accuse Israel of being a Nazi state and acting like Hitler. The chair thanked him with not a word of rebuke.

The same occurs repeatedly at the UN Human Rights Council. When UN Watch's updated report card comes out, the world body's grades will sadly be no better.

That said, in principle the secretary-general's visit today is a welcome development for the leader of an organization founded in 1945 on the ashes of the Holocaust, with the aim to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person.

It was the Holocaust they had in mind when, under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and René Cassin, the UN in 1948 adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose second sentence speaks of the “disregard and contempt for human rights” that “have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.”

The deafening silence and moral indifference that allowed Auschwitz to happen must serve as remembrance and reminder of the moral imperative for the United Nations—founded as the anti-Hitler alliance—to speak out and take action in the face of all acts of genocide and atrocity, as well the incitement to hatred that over history have been the warrant to crimes against humanity.

When discussing the Holocaust, however, the UN too often makes sure to draw only abstract and universal lessons, overlooking what the Nazi crime was all about.

Many welcomed the UN’s 2005 decision to hold an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. Disappointingly, however, UN statements on this day refuse to draw the obvious lessons about the need to confront the genocidal antisemitism of our own time, be it the poisonous words of the Hamas charter, weekly sermons across the Middle East, or statements by regime leaders in Tehran—let alone the terrorism and catastrophic nuclear weapons program that are justified and fueled by those words of hate.

A typical example was the annual message published this year by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. She carefully omitted mention of even the word antisemitism.

UN officials such as Pillay appear to be comfortable discussing the Holocaust—so long as it can be invoked to support the organization’s own politicized and highly problematic agenda on racism, all of which is carried out under the rubric of texts and mechanisms that emerged from its infamous 2001 Durban conference, a notorious spectacle of anti-Israel vitriol that included mass street rallies shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

Eleanor Roosevelt would be ashamed to find that the UN she helped create has today become the leading global force behind a new human rights culture that tends to see racism everywhere—and anti-Semitism nowhere.

The secretary-general and other UN officials should recognize, in addition to all the perfectly legitimate universal lessons, that Auschwitz was the product of anti-Semitism, a cancer that continues to metastasize. The death camp Mr. Ban is seeing today was the most deadly instrument in the Nazis’ deliberate murder of six million Jews, part of Hitler's publicly stated goal to achieve the “annihilation of the Jewish race.”

Mr. Ban's visit also comes ten days after the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released a major poll showing an alarming rise in anti-Semitism. A survey of nearly 6,000 self-identified Jews in eight European Union countries showed that two-thirds of respondents found anti-Semitism to be a major problem in their countries, while more than 75% said the situation had become more acute over the last five years. Jews in Europe cannot even pray in synagogue without the protection of intense security.

Let us hope that today's visit will cause the United Nations to reflect on its history and founding purposes, and to reaffirm its solemn commitment to fight atrocity and racial discrimination—and anti-Semitism.

Hillel Neuer is the executive director of UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Published in The Times of Israel, Nov. 18, 2013.

UN Watch Briefing Latest from the United Nations: Saudi Human Rights Record Praised in UN Review

PR GONE WRONG? At today's UN review of Saudi Arabia's human rights record, the fundamentalist Wahabi regime deliberately sent women to testify — but with their faces hidden. To share on Facebook, click here.

GENEVA, Oct. 21 - As the UN Human Rights Council scrutinized Saudi Arabia's domestic rights record this morning, a minority of democracies such as Canada, UK, and the Czech Republic raised concerns, while the vast majority of countries lined up to defend and praise one of the world's most repressive theocratic regimes.

TODAY'S UNHRC PRAISE FOR SAUDI ARABIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD Turkey: "We commend Saudi Arabia for the significant rise of women in civil service” Tunisia: "We commend Saudi Arabia for efforts to adapt its laws with international human rights conventions…" Palestine: "We take notice of Saudi Arabia's efforts to protect and promote human rights..." Somalia: "Saudi Arabia maintains a high priority for protection and promotion of human rights…" Pakistan: Commended "laudable steps taken by Saudi Arabia to promote and protect the rights of children and women..." Nicaragua: "We note Saudi Arabia's progress in rights of the child, trafficking of persons, and legislative change for women's rights..." Mauritania, VP of the UNHRC (and a country that practices slavery): "We commend Saudi Arabia for always seeking to strengthen human rights…We commend Saudi Arabia in terms of the progress on guaranteeing fundamental rights and freedoms, socioeconomic progress, participation of women at all levels and participation in society. We hope to see greater prosperity and progress for Saudi Arabia." Maldives: "We commend Saudi Arabia's improvement on the situation of women." Libya: "Saudi Arabia continues to strengthen human rights and promote them and this deserves our appreciation..." Egypt: "We commend Saudi Arabia's progress to protect and promote human rights, and welcome work done to strengthen role of women..." France: "We commend Saudi Arabia with its progress in the role of women in society..." Denmark: "We commend #SaudiArabia's progress in the promotion of rights for women in recent years…" Cuba: "We commend Saudi Arabia for the implementation of recommendations made in the first cycle. Many areas of positive results: education, health..." China: "We appreciate efforts made to protect the rights of children and to have dialogues of religious tolerance..." Cambodia: "We take note of progress in human employment, education, and social security..." Afghanistan: "We commend Saudia Arabia as they continue to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights..." Vietnam: "Commend Saudi Arabia's efforts in combating human trafficking and discrimination; these are encouraging..." Venezuela: "Enrollment in primary education has reached 96.6%. We congratulate Saudi Arabia..."

Out of the 102 countries taking the floor today, over 80 of them praised Saudi Arabia.

It was another meeting of what has sadly turned into a mutual praise society, with anti-democratic regimes like Communist China heaping praise on fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, in the knowledge that tomorrow morning, when China gets reviewed, the Saudis will return the favor.

Despite widespread recognition of Saudi Arabia's abysmal record on the rights of women, religious freedom, and political liberties, the country is poised to win a seat on the Human Rights Council inelections to be held on November 12th by the UN General Assembly.

UN Watch and a coalition of human rights groups are urging U.S. ambassador Samantha Power and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton to take the lead in opposing the Saudi bid for a UNHRC seat, the height of hypocrisy. Over the coming weeks, UN Watch will be bringing famous dissidents inside the UN to mobilize opposition to the Saudi and other absurd candidacies.

After Saudi Arabia presented the HRC with a 30-page report its human rights record, the council today held a three-hour "interactive dialogue," with over 100 states making statements and Saudi delegates nominally responding. The exercise is known as the “universal periodic review” (UPR), which examines every UN member state once every four years. Tomorrow is China's turn.

Saudi Arabia is a country whose legal system routinely lashes women rape victims rather than punish the perpetrators; it should not have been praised effusively by members of the UN's top human rights body.

Instead, the world should have used the opportunity to address the Saudi regime's cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, such as flogging, amputations and eye-gouging. These and other abuses were amply documented in written submissions to the UN by Amnesty International and other NGOs.

No one challenged the Saudi regime on the 53 Christians who were arrested this year by religious police for the crime of praying in a private home, nor did anyone ask the Saudis why homosexuality is a crime punishable by public beheadings.

Saudi Arabian delegates to UN: "We have ratified five human rights instruments and are considering more, due to our commitment to human rights..."

UN Watch commends the small minority of countries who posed some kind of challenge to the Saudis.

Canada slammed Saudi Arabia's violations on child marriage, religious freedom, criminal justice, corporal punishment and the rights of women, calling for an end to the prohibition on women driving.

Ireland called for abolishing the male guardianship system. Germany spoke against child marriages. Britaincriticized Saudi criminal law. The Czech Republic spoke for the freedoms of speech, expression, and association. 

(Riyadh stunned the world on Friday by announcing it would reject the UN Security Council seat it just won -- the first time this has ever happened in history. Experts agreed this was a high-level Saudi rebuke to the Obama Administration over its perceived preference for Geneva talks instead of meaningfully confronting Syria and the nuclear program of its Shiite patron Iran. But with Secretary John Kerry's Paris meeting today with the Saudi foreign minister, the Sunni kingdom may yet change its mind. UN Watch will analyze this bizarre episode in our next briefing.)

ISRAEL MATZAV: UN 'human rights council' ignores Syria poison gas attack, slams Israel

"Let us state the truth: if the UN allocated just one-hundredth of the moral outrage it uses against the only democracy in the Middle East, murderous dictators like Assad might have been shamed, isolated and weakened, instead of elevated, celebrated and strengthened as champions of human rights." - UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, addressing UN Human Rights Council, Sept. 10, 2013.

Let's go to the videotape.



Hillel Neuer is right, of course. But does anyone expect otherwise anymore?

UN Watch Confronts Richard Falk

How the UN Gave False Legitimacy to Assad - Hillel Neuer responds to Syria

The Syrian army has been responsible for the murder of more than 70,000 Syrians over the past two years. Yet, the United Nations 'human rights council' has decided that Israel should turn the Golan Heights over to the Syrian army so that thousands more can be murdered.

'Human rights watch' fires Richard Falk

* Fired: U.N.'s Worst Israel Hater Richard Falk Expelled from Human Rights Watch. Amazing but true. Falk was exposed and taken down by his nemesis, U.N. Watch. Said Falk: "HRW wanted to acquiesce in response to the U.N. Watch attack but hoped I would not notice, and miscalculated because UN Watch claimed credit quite reasonably for my 'dismissal.'"

We took down Richard Falk

“You’re fired” are two words the U.N.’s chief Israel-hater, Richard Falk, never thought he’d hear.

But that is exactly what he was told last week, thanks to our group's effective action. Click here to see the video.

Let me tell you why I now need your help to continue our battle.

As the U.N. investigator on “Israel’s violations of the bases and principles of international law,” Falk has openly supported the Hamas terrorist organization, vilified the Jewish state, promoted the 9/11 conspiracy theory, and endorsed an antisemitic book. Falk is truly the worst of the worst.

Yet thanks to U.N. Watch's massive pressure campaign -- as reported in the Jersualem Post and numerous other newspapers -- Falk has just been forced out.

In response to our protest, this bigot was just expelled from the board of Human Rights Watch, the influential international organization -- and his name deleted from their website.

“U.N. Watch claimed credit quite reasonably for my dismissal,” admitted Falk. “This is a capitulation to U.N. Watch and all that it stands for,” lamented a writer on Falk's blog.
The story of Falk’s unprecedented removal is now spreading worldwide. Finally, thanks to our advocacy, this virulent anti-Israel and pro-Hamas official—a wolf in sheep's clothing—has been shamed, exposed, and discredited. Finally, his phony halo has been shattered.
Baruch C., building on this important new momentum, it's time for us now to get Falk fired from the U.N. itself.

But I can’t fight Falk and all the other scoundrels by myself. I really need your help and support to continue U.N. Watch's vital campaigning and truth-telling accomplishments. Please click here to make a secure and U.S. tax-deductible gift to sponsor the incredible work of U.N. Watch. Any donation — $500, $1000, or whatever you can give — will directly support our successful work fighting the U.N.'s worst antisemites and enemies of human rights.

UN Watch slams secretary-general for sending 'wrong signal at wrong time'

GENEVA, Aug. 22 –  Human rights activists are slamming U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for announcing his attendance at next week’s Tehran summit of the 120-member Non Aligned Movement “on the same day that the Security Council heard a top-level U.N. report on Iranian complicity in the Syrian regime’s murder of its own people, in violation of resolution 1747 passed under the organization’s highest Chapter 7 authority.”

“By going to Tehran’s propaganda summit, the U.N. Secretary-General is abdicating his moral voice at a crucial time, and sending absolutely the wrong signal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent human rights organization which has brought Ahmad Batebi, Mohammed Mostafaei, Naznanin Afshin-Jam and other top Iranian dissidents to testify before the UN.

“Mr. Ban's spokesman today invoked so-called diplomatic responsibilities. But diplomacy cannot trump decency. The fact is that Mr. Ban is under no obligation to go to Tehran now – and certainly not when the mullahs are pumping weapons, funds and intelligence into the hands of Assad forces who are bombarding innocent women and children in Hama, Aleppo and Damascus, harming millions of lives.”

“Iran practices international terrorism, subjugates women, persecutes minorities, rapes dissidents, rigs elections, denies the Holocaust, and disregards UN resolutions to halt its illegal nuclear weapons program. Mr. Ban’s visit wrongy hands legitimacy and propaganda points to the forces of repression in Tehran, and their chief ally in Damascus.”

Moreover, UN Watch also revealed how Iran’s hosting of the conference carries other significant consequences for UN bodies.

According to the group's practice, as host of the latest NAM summit, its 16th in 50 years, Iran becomes the group’s chair and will represent it at the UN over the next three years.

“We will now see Iran take the floor at the Human Rights Council and other top UN forums, speaking on behalf of 120 member states. It’s revolting: a regime that tramples the human rights of women, religious minorities and gays will become a leading voice in debates on how to protect these and other victims,” said Neuer.

“Now that he’s already going to Tehran, however, we urge Mr. Ban to, at the very least, bring with him the latest UN General Assembly resolution detailing Iran’s massive human rights violations, the report by the Human Rights Council’s Iran monitor documenting the country’s ‘striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed under international law,’ and the six Security Council resolutions on Iran’s illegal nuclear program.”

“Mr. Ban’s office today said he would make clear to the Iranian leadership what the world expects from Tehran. If so, then we call on him to officially present these critical UN positions to Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and to quote them in his summit address.”