Will Syria Join the UNHRC?

United Nations Watch has put together a coalition of human rights groups to oppose the election of Syria to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council.' Elections are scheduled for May 20. Syria is running unopposed.

Led by UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva, the coalition of rights groups from Africa, Asia, the U.S. and Europe, (see list of members below) also urged action from the UN Security Council and other international bodies to protect Syria's civilian population from government actions that it said may amount to "war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The election of 15 new council members is scheduled for May 20 at the UN General Assembly in New York. However, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that "if the council this week declares President Bashar al-Assad unwelcome as a member, it would sound the death knell for Syria's cynical candidacy to be elected a global judge of human rights."

The coalition called for leadership from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, Ban Ki-moon, and UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that leadership. On the other hand, you all know that I believe Syria would fit right in at the 'Human Rights Council' anyway.

What's perhaps more intriguing in Neuer's efforts is this.

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey was asked to convene the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to address the Syrian army's grave assault on thousands of civilians who are protected as non-combatants under the treaties.

That's a nice idea but there are two small problems with it. First, Calmy-Rey is a loon who's enamored with Bashar al-Assad's friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The odds of her convening this type of meeting to condemn Assad are not good.

Second, if such a meeting were to be convened, I would bet on the agenda being hijacked to discuss Israel - and more specifically the Goldstone Report.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Geneva Convention, Goldstone Report, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Operation Cast Lead, Syria, Syrian uprising, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Watch

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 AM

Syhrian Tanks to Deraa Govt Joins UNHRC

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Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 10:48 Beirut Subscribe to NOW Lebanon RSS feeds

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Assad under pressure as hundreds of Baathists quit
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[Assad under pressure as hundreds of Baathists quit]
An image grab taken from footage uploaded on April 14 by Sham SNN, a Syrian opposition web channel, shows a Syrian security officer kicking an anti-government protester in the face while he is handcuffed with other demonstrators following a crackdown in the northwestern village of Bayda. (AFP/SHAMSNN)

Foreign pressure mounted on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, and hundreds of members resigned from his party, as troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

Syria's opposition warned Assad that he would be toppled unless he ushered in democratic reforms, although the UN Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation of the violence.

And in a fresh blow to the regime, 233 members of Syria's ruling Baath party announced their resignation in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, according to lists seen by AFP.

"The security services have demolished the values with which we grew up. We denounce and condemn everything that has taken place and announce with regret our resignation from the party," they said in a signed statement.

Baath party signatories from the Banias region, which covers Daraa, condemned "the house raids and the indiscriminate use of live fire against people, homes, mosques and churches."

On the international scene, influential US Senator John McCain said Assad has "lost his legitimacy" and called for UN sanctions to force him to halt attacks on his people.

"I obviously think he has lost his legitimacy. He has ordered his army to fire on his own people, and yes I think he should leave," the senator told AFP in Paris.

The Security Council, however, failed to agree on a statement condemning the killing of Syrian protesters, diplomats in New York said. After talks ended in deadlock, Western nations called for an immediate open meeting.

A stormy meeting on Syria, coming only days after the 15-nation body failed to agree a statement on Yemen, highlighted a growing divide on how to handle the uprisings in the Middle East and Arab world, with Russia warning the West that "outside interference" could spark civil war.

France called for "strong measures" if Assad rejects appeals to end violence in which hundreds have died. The United States said Assad must "change course now" and end the use of tanks and guns.

Russia and China blocked the statement proposed by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal that would have condemned the violence and backed calls for an independent investigation.

The European Union, meanwhile, is mulling sanctions and the UN human rights body has called for a special session in the wake of the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Five EU countries were also summoning Syria's ambassadors over the violent crushing of dissent, France said, adding it was joined by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

According to human rights activists, the military assault on Daraa, 100 kilometers south of Damascus, has left more than 30 people dead since Monday, with at least 453 civilians killed across Syria since protests first erupted in mid-March.

A military source, meanwhile, said soldiers on Wednesday confronted "terrorist armed groups" who had cut off roads and opened fire on passers-by in a Daraa drive-by shooting.

"One member of the armed forces was martyred and five others were wounded," said the source, quoted by the official media, adding that several of the gunmen were also killed.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon

GOP Obstructs UNHRC

House Republicans have found a great place to cut funding to save money: The United Nations 'Human Rights Council'.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill that oversight would be a key function of the panel, particularly funding to the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) that is "a waste of taxpayer dollars."

"I'd like to make sure that we once and for all kill all U.S. funding for that beast," she said last month. "Because I don't think that it advances U.S. interests, I don't think that that's a pro-democracy group, it's a rogue's gallery, pariah states, they belong there because they don't want to be sanctioned."

Supporters of continued U.S. support of and participation on the HRC say that it's essential that Washington have leverage on the panel, renowned for including countries that have their own records of human-rights violations.

They're going to cut a lot more at the UN too. Read the whole thing.

Labels: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, United Nations Human Rights Council

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:36 PM

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1 Comments:

At 8:32 PM, Blogger NormanF said...

I'd like to see her do more and have the Eurotrash, Arabs and the Third World pick up the funding for the UN.

America won't miss that politically correct hatefest and few in America can think of one good reason why American taxpayers should continue to foot the bill for it.



Name: Carl in Jerusalem
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

UN Madness and the Neda Division

UN Lunacy Outdoes Itself: IRAN to Become Member of Women’s Rights Group The Undhimmi (hat tip PV)

… shortly to be joined by Saudi Barbaria. The credibility death knell surely sounds for the already ineffectual, beyond-its-sell-by-date United Nations:

(Video above: the formidable Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, ripping into the UNHRC in a speech they subsequently expunged from their records. Looks like he’s set to be even busier soon. You can support UNW by signing up for newsletters and making a donation here – they do splendid work.)

Iran, where a woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, is poised to become a board member of the new United Nations agency to promote equality for women.

The move has sparked outrage from the US and human rights groups. Some rights groups are also upset that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and are barred from many facilities used by men, is also trying to join the governing body of UN Women.

The General Assembly resolution adopted in July that merged four UN bodies dealing with women’s issues into a single agency with greater clout to represent half the world’s population calls for a 41-member executive board, with 35 members chosen by regional groups and six representing donor nations.

The Asian group has put forward an uncontested 10-nation list that includes Iran, UN diplomats said, and Saudi Arabia has been selected for one of two slots for emerging donor nations.

The 54 nations on the UN Economic and Social Council are expected to elect the UN Women’s board on November 10 and it is possible that other Asian nations or emerging donor nations could become candidates, though diplomats said that is not likely.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the US Mission, said Iran’s membership “would send the wrong signal at the start of this exciting new initiative”.

“UN Women is a vital new agency tasked with promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide,” he said. “We and many other countries are concerned by the negative implications of Iran’s potential board memberships, given its poor record on human rights and the treatment of women.

The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, has raised an international outcry, embarrassing Iran.

A resolution adopted by the General Assembly last year expressed “deep concern” at Iran’s increasing use of executions, death by stoning, torture, flogging and amputations, and its increasing discrimination against religious, ethnic and other minorities.

Philippe Bolopion, UN advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said “it’s puzzling that Iran would have the nerve to be a candidate for the board of UN Women, and even more puzzling if the Asia group lets Iran get away with it”.

He added: “Having on top of it Saudi Arabia, a country with a track record on women’s rights as horrendous as Iran’s, would add insult to injury.”

Just when you thought the United Nations could not be any more of a useless self-parody, another logic-defying episode comes along.

The UN Human Rights Council has already been taken over by the members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and members the Non-Aligned Movement – who together comprise some of the world’s worst human rights abusers – now these sorry bands of despots appear to be positioning their members for leadership of the new Women’s Rights group. Astounding.

The UN Human Rights Council has done absolutely nothing in recent years except issue condemnations of Israel and push resolutions making criticism of Islam illegal. The plight of people in Burma, Sudan, Somalia, Saudia Arabia? Nothing – except endless censure of one tiny Middle East Country that in terms of human development, equality, economic activity and – yes, human rights – puts them all to shame.

The pattern is clear. The OIC and NAM use their disproportionate voting power, the sympathetic credulity of the mainstream media and the inert selfishness of the developed nations to gain power on strategic councils and committees. They then subvert them and turn them to serve their own selfish interests and narratives.

So now what can we expect, as it does the same for women’s rights? Honour killings, FGM, forced and underage marriages, repressive dress codes, discrimination and the chattel status of women in Islam? Fuggedaboudit.

The only things you will be able to hear from the newly Islamised women’s rights group are the sounds of crickets chirping, tumbleweed tumbling; and the self-congratulatory cries of ‘Alahu Akbar’!
Atlas Shrugs

America is Her Own Worst Enemy

Ho Chi Minh relied on a seeming paradox. More troops the westerners sent to Asia hastened their inevitable defeat. Muhammad Ali defined it for non-Muslims as the Rope-a-Dope.

Eventually, the superior force reverses its energies to destroy itself. Overseas, the US war toys have proven ineffective. The Americans have no idea what works against Asians, but they know full well how to suppress their countrymen.

Of course, Asians must raise moral objections to the massive killing projects so favored in the west. The carnage will nevertheless continue thus speeding the demise of the American experiment.

These themes and trends have been sixty years in the making. It is folly to believe the 2008 elections will change any of this.

I have but one suggestion. The Muslims have taken over the UN Human Rights Commission. They may be amenable to charging US officials with war crimes and murder.