UN Watch

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UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO whose mandate is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter and to promote human rights.[1] As a non-governmental organization active in UN bodies, it works to encourage United Nations adherence to the objectives of the UN Charter and to prevent actions inconsistent with those principles.

History

Founding

UN Watch was founded in 1993 under the chairmanship of Morris Abram, a former US civil rights leader with Martin Luther King, Jr., prosecutor in the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, and vice chairman of the United States Civil Rights Commission.

Current Status

UN Watch participates actively at the UN as an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). It is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, a NGO established in 1906, which was a pioneer advocate of the UN Charter's inclusion of international human rights guarantees, and the creation of the post of a High Commissioner of Human Rights.[12]

Issues

Darfur

UN Watch is an advocate at the United Nations for human rights victims in Darfur.[2][3] UN Watch chaired the NGO Activist Summit For Darfur in 2007.[4] UN Watch challenged Sudan in 2007 for its rejection of human rights experts in Darfur.[5] UN Watch justice for child victims in Darfur in 2005.[6]

Human Rights Campaigns

UN Watch cooperates with non-governmental organizations around the world in order to protect and promote the principles of the UN Charter. In 2004 UN Watch intervened on behalf of victims of torture and censorship in Cote d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan.[7] UN Watch also spoke out for the Lebanese victims of Syrian political assassinations.[8]

Defending Arab Rights in Iran

UN Watch has advocated for ending persecution of Arabs in Iran, delivering several interventions before the UN Human Rights Council for their rights, as well as for the persecuted Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims, and Baha'i.Speech for Arab rights in Iran2007 HRC speech 8 June 2009 UNHRC speech, "Human rights situations that require the council’s attention"

Combating Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Bias

UN Watch has been outspoken in supporting Secretary General Kofi Annan's declared goal of ending the UN's perceived imbalanced treatment of Israel,[9] which UN Watch believes consumes a disproportionate amount of the UN's time and resources, preventing it from addressing other compelling needs around the world. UN Watch is active at the UN in combating anti-Semitism and what it calls the selective and politicized treatment of Israel by many UN bodies.[10] On March 23, 2007, UN Watch's Hillel Neuer asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) why it failed to address pressing humanitarian situations around the world, instead devoting 100 percent of its resolutions to scapegoating Israel. The UNHRC President, Luis Alfonso De Alba of Mexico, responded by threatening to "remove from the record" the testimony, and said he would not "express thanks for that statement... I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council."[11][12] It became the most written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations, earning praise from the editorial and opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Sun,[13] the Washington Times, Canada's National Post, Italy's Il Foglio and numerous other newspapers in Canada, Australia and around the world. Major blogs that praised the speech included Commentary, Foreign Policy, Atlantic Monthly magazine, and the on-line magazine Slate, which reported on the speech's blog coverage in its "Today's Blogs" column.[14]

Criticism

UN Watch has been criticized by the governments of Iran, Libya[citation needed], Cuba, Pakistan[citation needed], Sri Lanka, Sudan[citation needed], Algeria[citation needed], and their supporters. In September 2009, Iran attacked UN Watch in the Human Rights Council after an Iranian human rights activist on behalf of UN Watch exposed abuses of the Ahmadinejad government. [15] In January 2008, after UN Watch told the Council about the single-candidate elections in Cuba, the representative of the Fidel Castro government lashed out at the human rights organization, accusing its director of "Hollywood displays" and being "funded by the CIA and Mossad." The Cuban regime's delegate intimated his government would use its membership on the 19-country UN Committee on NGOs in New York to go after UN Watch. [16] In June 2009, Cuba and Sri Lanka attacked UN Watch for criticizing their policy of mutual praise in order to hide human rights abuses. [17] Hamas and Hezbollah supporters have also attacked UN Watch, including Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, a documented member of the "Spinwatch" front organization who defends Hezbollah as a "non-violent...resistance movement" and praised its leader Hassan Nasrallah as a "modest Shia cleric [who] is a living legend," whose "pronouncements are invariably thoughtful, nuanced and carefully worded [and] grounded in fact," and for having a "reputation for saying only what he means and promising only what he is able to deliver."[18] Likewise, left-wing blogger Ian Williams, who once praised the election of Hamas as "a victory,"[19] has attacked UN Watch on several occasions. [20]


Board Members


References

  1. ^ Mission & History, UN Watch
  2. ^ [1], UN Watch.
  3. ^ [2], UN Watch
  4. ^ [3]. UN Watch.
  5. ^ [4], UN Watch
  6. ^ [5], UN Watch
  7. ^ [6], UN Watch
  8. ^ [7], UN Watch
  9. ^ [8]
  10. ^ http://www.yale.edu/yiisa/videos.htm
  11. ^ UN Council Chief Doesn't Like Message, Threatens Messenger - Politics & Government - Israel News - Arutz Sheva
  12. ^ Testimony at the UN, UN Watch
  13. ^ ‘I Will Not Express Thanks' - March 30, 2007 - The New York Sun
  14. ^ Watch Out - By Michael Weiss - Slate Magazine
  15. ^ Europe News: "Iran attacks UN Watch for exposing its abuses". September 2009.
  16. ^ UN Report"Cuba lashes out at UN Watch for criticizing Castro's single-candidate elections". January 2008.
  17. ^ UN Human Rights Council: "Sri Lanka and Cuba attack human rights NGOs". June 2009
  18. ^ "Muhammad Idrees Ahmad praises Hezbollah terrorist group," Atlantic Free Press, May 6, 2008 [9]
  19. ^ [10]
  20. ^ Casting the first stone (The Guardian, April 4, 2007)
  21. ^ [11]
  22. ^ http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=872349&ct=872849

Further reading

External links

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