UN Watch - Geneva, July 11, 2007 — UN Watch today released a new video revealing how the UN’s highest human rights body is “routinely turned on its head by the worst abusers, to attack democracies, destroy mechanisms of human rights protection, and assault the very idea of human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based non-governmental organization.
Despite attempts to break from a discredited past, the UN Human Rights Council concluded its June 2007 reform session by voting to drop the authoritarian regimes of Belarus and Cuba from its blacklist, while imposing new restrictions on the independent experts who report on torture, violence against women, or violations by countries like Sudan. The ability to introduce resolutions that name abusers was curbed. However, Israel was singled out for permanent indictment under the council's sole agenda item targeting a specific country.
The new video is already making the rounds on popular blogs. Previous UN Watch videos have been seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers through the popular YouTube.com website, and were the subject of editorials around the globe.
“Tragically, instead of protecting victims, the council is run by notorious violators who worry only about protecting themselves,” said Neuer. “Dominated by members like Cuba and China—and by observer states like Sudan, which heads the council’s influential Arab group—it’s a classic case of the inmates running the asylum.” (more)
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