Signs of success in campaign to cancel UNESCO’s election of Syria to human rights committee

Dear Baruch C.,

     I want to share with you some good news.

     As you may recall, on Dec. 15, after UN Watch learned that UNESCO unanimously elected Syria to a committee dealing with human rights—incomprehensibly elevating the murderous regime’s international status and awarding Bashar al-Assad an undeserved badge of international legitimacy—we launched an international appeal with 55 parliamentarians, religious groups and human rights activists to demand that this shameful decision be canceled.

     I’ve just now received a reply.

     A representative of Alastair Burt, a minister in the British Foreign Office, has informed me that the United Kingdom has joined with other countries in putting forward an item for the first meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board at which they will seek to “explicitly address Syria’s membership of the body.”

     The British government further stated unequivocally that it “deplores the continuing membership of Syria on this committee”—a situation it regards as “abhorrent” and “anomalous”—and “does not believe that Syria’s presence is conducive to the work of the body or UNESCO’s reputation.”

     The story has already been picked up by Al Arabiya and Fox News, with the latter reporting that the U.S. government initiated the request to review Syria’s membership on Dec. 16—one day after UN Watch published its appeal.

     To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time in UNESCO history that a dictatorship faces expulsion from one of its committees.

     It’s a bit of good news for the innocent citizens of Syria, victims of a bloodthirsty regime that has shown it will kill thousands of its own people to stay in power. Every vestige of phony legitimacy that is removed from Assad’s regime hastens its downfall.

     The episode underscores the need for an outside body to monitor the UN—which, left to its own devices, will too often embrace the world’s worst dictators—and the global impact of UN Watch, which continues to achieve concrete results through strong, swift and effective action, building on our international partnerships with pro-democracy friends and allies.

     Thank you as always for your support of UN Watch, which makes our vital work possible.

Yours truly,
 
Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director

UNESCO executive board unanimously elects Syria to human rights committee

The executive board of UNESCO - which includes western countries like the United States, France and Britain - has unanimously elected Bashar al-Assad's Syria to two committees, one of which deals with human rights.

The Arab group at UNESCO nominated Syria for the spots, and though the 58-member board approved the pick by consensus on Nov. 11, the agency has not yet posted the results on its website.

Syria’s election came just a day before the League of Arab States moved to suspend Syrian membership of that body.

“The Arab League’s suspension of Syria is stripped of any meaning when its member states elevate Syria to UN human rights committes,” says Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.

“It’s shameful for the UN's prime agency on science, culture and education to take a country that is shooting its own people and empower it to decide human rights issues on a global scale. Regrettably, the pressure to bow to consensus – part of the go-along-to-get-along tradition at the UN – can drag everyone down to the will of the lowest common denominator.”

Neuer highlights that the executive board’s decision should not be all that surprising, given the body “recently welcomed serial human rights abusers as new members, like Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Pakistan and Russia.” Syria was already on the executive board, noted Neuer, "as were other countries with poor human rights records, including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, China, Vietnam and Algeria."

...

Syria will serve a second two-year term on the 30-member Committee on Conventions and Recommendations, which examines “communications … relating to the exercise of human rights,” according to UNESCO’s Web site. Syria also joins the 23-member Committee on International Non-Governmental Organizations, which is mandated to encourage approved activist groups to help further UNESCO’s overall goals.

In a bid to insulate UNESCO’s administration from criticism, the agency’s executive director, Irina Bokova, insists her hands were tied. She has even broken with protocol in commenting that the executive board’s choice was not a good one.

“The director-general and secretariat are bound by the decisions of member states and are not supposed to comment on them,” said Sue Williams, UNESCO chief spokesperson.

“Yet given the developments in Syria, the director-general does not see how this country can contribute to the work of the committees.”

...

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, comments on the developments at UNESCO by saying the agency “continues to outdo itself with stunning and dangerous behavior.”

While the United States and some key allies, including Britain and France, are members of the UNESCO board, Western democracies are in a minority on the body. Canada, which joined the United States in opposing Palestinian membership of UNESCO, but is not a member of the executive board, told UN Watch it regrets the move to elevate Syria.

“While Canada was not involved in this decision, we find it deeply
 disturbing that Syria was designated by the Arab regional group at 
UNESCO as a member of the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations, given the Assad regime's continual and repeated violation of human
rights,” said Joe Lavoie , a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. “Canada strongly and firmly continues to call on Assad to step aside.”

UN Watch pointed out Tuesday that a resolution supported by an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly’s “third” committee – which deals with human rights – defers to Syrian demands for respect of its “territorial integrity” and “political independence” – even as it strongly condemed Syria for its violent crackdown.

Aren't you glad that your taxes are going to support an important organization like UNESCO?