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What Human-Rights Violations?
Posted By Sam Munson On March 26, 2007 @ 12:24 PM In Contentions | 6 Comments
On Friday, March 23, Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch [1], gave a speech before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. He took the Council stingingly to task:
Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin, and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream?
In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports, from around the world, of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?
Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal.
Neuer went on to note the strange fact that the Council, in the face of flagrant abuses of human rights, ranging from the murder by Hamas gunmen of three Palestinian children in Gaza City to the mass rapes and genocide in Darfur, has enacted numerous resolutions condemning Israel—and none condemning any other state. (Joshua Muravchik made a similar observation in this post [2].)
As shocking as this is, the response of Council president Luis Alfonso de Alba shocks still further:
For the first time in this session I will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you’d kindly listen to me. I am sorry that I’m not in a position to thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council. The way in which members of this Council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the Council itself was referred to, all of this is inadmissible. In the memory of the persons that you referred to, founders of the Human Rights Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any future statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records.
This is the first speech ever to be rejected in this way by the Council. Proof, one might argue, of the speech’s truth and value. Read the whole text of Neuer’s speech (and watch it on video) here [3].
Article printed from Commentary: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs
URL to article: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/munson/296
URLs in this post:
[1] UN Watch: http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1277549/k.BF70/Home.htm
[2] post: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/muravchik/277
[3] here: http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=3698367
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6 Comments To "What Human-Rights Violations?"
#1 Comment By ikessler On March 26, 2007 @ 3:21 PM
To: Hillel Neuer
UN Watch
Congratulations on continuing the frustrating but essential fight against the racist and antisemitic policies of the UN ! Perhaps this organization has to deteriorate even further, before it is finally recognized for the dictator-loving and Jew-hating body that it really is.
Dr. Irving I. Kessler
Baltimore, MD
#2 Comment By Alex Schuettenberg On March 26, 2007 @ 4:14 PM
Well that’s always been the problem with the UN, ever since they let mass murderers like Stalin have a seat at the table. What do you do with this concept of “world community” when so many of the rulers of the world community are thugs?
#3 Comment By hamutzi On March 26, 2007 @ 5:03 PM
I’m only 61 years old right now, but when I grow up, I want to be like Hillel Neuer and John Bolton!
#4 Comment By Ari N. On March 26, 2007 @ 5:50 PM
To be frank, I’m appalled but hardly shocked. UN Watch is doing good work. I’m going to look into seeing what can be done from the United States to support them. And, Dr. Kessler, it’s good to see a fellow Baltimore resident on the commentary blog – I’m a UMBC student myself.
#5 Comment By heroyalwhyness On March 26, 2007 @ 8:48 PM
The UNwatch.org website posted this in it’s entirety but excluded a detail I’m curious about. Since UN Watch is not an official arm of the UN, rather, an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) which is permitted to give official statements at UN meetings if a representative country cedes time to them.
WHich member yielded their time for Hillel Neuer? A pat on the back to the country providing this much needed opportunity!
#6 Comment By Leib Orlanski On March 26, 2007 @ 9:15 PM
The problem with this type of speech(referring to Hillel Neuer’s speech before the Human Rights Council) is that it accomplishes nothing. What is needed is that Alfonso(presumably a respected Spanish Diplomat) be forced by pain of humiliation and intellectual ridicule to answer why only Israel gets condemned.Does he truly believe that Israel is the worst nation in the World? Does this Alfonso have an email address? if so I think he should be engaged in an honest dialoge .Leib