U.N. Censures #Syria But Waters Down Rejection of Assad

Saturday, 7 July 2012, 12:53 pm
Press Release: UN Watch

PRESS RELEASE
U.N. Censures Syria But Waters Down Rejection of
Assad’s 2013 Bid for Human Rights Council Seat

Deleted from U.S. draft: “the current Syrian government’s announced candidacy for the Human Rights Council in 2014 fails to meet the standards for Council membership.”

GENEVA, July 6- The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch welcomed today’s strong censure of Syria by the UN Human Rights Council but expressed concern over the removal by the U.S. of its own proposed language rejecting Assad’s declared 2013 bid for a seat the following year on the 47-nation body.
“We had urged the U.S. and the EU to resist the pressure by Syria’s allies and not to water down a council statement rejecting the candidacy of Syria’s Assad, who is a tyrant and mass murderer,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
“While today’s resolution was strong overall, the council squandered a golden opportunity to set a new tone regarding its composition, which remains a serious issue given its election of Libya’s Gaddafi only two years ago, the membership today of Russia, China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia, and the imminent election of Pakistan and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.”
As reported exclusively by UN Watch, the U.S. on Wednesday had circulated a draft resolution which “stress[ed] that the current Syrian government’s announced candidacy for the Human Rights Council in 2014 fails to meet the standards for Council membership.” (See U.S. July 4th draft, par. 14.)
However, during off-camera sessions attended by UN Watch, delegates from Russia, China, Cuba, Egypt and Brazil opposed any mention of Syria’s candidacy.

“The result,” said Neuer, “is today’s watered-down paragraph [see par. 19] that makes only a general reference to standards for council membership, but which drops the originally proposed rejection of Assad’s preposterous bid to become a world arbiter of human rights.”
The idea to opt for an abstract reference was raised by Brazil during the Wednesday morning session, reported UN Watch, and supported by Russia.
Another indirect reference to Assad’s candidacy came in comments today to the council plenary by U.S. Ambassador Eileen Donahoe. Noting that Syria’s actions contradicted the principles of the Human Rights Council, she said that “no state that engages in such actions should serve on this council.”
Human rights activists, however, said they would have preferred the direct language. “Should the Assad regime remain in power and continue with its candidacy for a council seat next year — a bid originally announced in May 2011 when it traded places with Kuwait — regrettably we will be in a weaker position to stop it given the council’s decision to drop the express rejection of Syria’s credentials.”
“The tragic reality at the U.N. is that even though Syria has been roundly condemned, UNESCO in November elected Syria to two human rights committees, and so we cannot exclude the possibility that the Assad regime will be elected next year to the U.N.’s top rights body,” said Neuer. 

Source: scoop.co.nz

A Bastion for Human Rights? The UN Nominates #Syria…Seriously

Posted: 07/05/2012 3:42 pm

In what can only be described as an act straight from the “theatre of the absurd”, comes news that Syria is running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Only thing, this is no fiction!

According to UN Watch, an independent human rights group based in Geneva, “the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad is a declared candidate for a seat on the 47-nation U.N. body, in elections to be held next year at the 193-member General Assembly.”

The Syrian regime will be one of four nations from the 53 block of Asian nations running as part of a fixed slate of “faux elections” for the Council, in which regional groups plan, devise and orchestrate uncontested elections. This is precisely how some of the current human rights luminaries on the Council, such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Cuba “won” their positions.

Unless another Asian country nominates, Syria will win a three-year term on the UN body charged with strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the world.

News of Syria’s candidacy broke after UN Watch discovered it was vying for a seat from a US-sponsored and EU-backed draft resolution that was debated Wednesday in Geneva. The resolution sought to pre-empt Syria’s candidacy by declaring it ineligible on the basis that it “fails to meet the standards for Council membership” as set forth in its founding charter.

That Syria is a contender for a seat on the Council should not come as a major revelation, as Syria had originally declared its official candidacy in May 2011. Although the regime dropped out of the race at the last minute to make way for another human rights bastion — Kuwait — Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari made clear at the time the regime was “reconsidering our priorities” and would run for the Council again in 2013.

At the same time Syria originally declared its candidacy, which also happened to coincide with the beginning of Assad’s murderous rampage in March that year, Ja’afari also said “promotion and protection of human rights are of the highest importance to Syria.” Wow, even Joseph Goebbles would have been impressed with Ja’afari’s efforts to whitewash his regime’s crimes.

Ordinarily, one would not have needed to go into details about Assad’s unbridled brutality, however given his decision to run again for the Council, perhaps a brief refresher is in order.

Since uprising first began in March 2011, almost 14,000 innocent people have been mercilessly slaughtered by the regime.

According to a Human Rights Watch report released this week, Syria is running an “archipelago of torture centers,” where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, had their fingernails pulled and have been sexually assaulted.

Freedom House has rated Syria one of the “Worst of the Worst” nations in its 2012 Freedom in the World survey, having given it the lowest possible rating for political and civil rights.

Even the UN’s chief observer to Syria has said that the level of violence is “unprecedented” (notwithstanding that the UN itself seems to be doing little but seemingly just “observing” Assad continue along his merry killing ways).

But for Bashar Ja’afari, and the regime which represents, the term “human rights” does not even enter the lexicon, with Ja’afari having previously said “the so-called turmoil does not affect our candidacy,” adding “[t]hese are two different issues.” And if the UNHRC’s record is anything to judge by, he is absolutely right here.

As long as the UNHRC continues to count gross human rights violators such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Cuba among its members, then clearly observing even a modicum of human rights has no correlation to being elected to this body.

The UNHRC was formed in 2006 specifically in order to create a new body to tackle human rights abuses in light of the failures of its discredited predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission.

The Commission was largely criticized for its one-sided obsession with Israel and the make-up of its members, which included some of the most abusive regimes like, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and Cuba. Libya even chaired the Commission during 2003.

Former Secretary General Kofi Annan said this contributed to the Commission’s “fatal credibility deficit” — one that was casting “a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.”

Regrettably, the new UNHRC has done little to improve the reputation of the United Nations and continues to make a complete mockery of human rights as a concept.

That Syria is able to even nominate for the UNHRC in the first place, let alone be in a strong position to win a seat, is reflective of the endemic problem with the body — the fact that observance of human rights is no barrier to becoming a member.

Enough with this charade of tyrants, butchers and dictators. It is time to disband this sham of a body and replace it with a Democratic Council, before it makes any further mockery of human rights.

Source: huffingtonpost.ca

Canada slams UNESCO for keeping #Syria on rights committee

Canadian Ambassador to UNESCO Jean-Pierre Blackburn had walked out of an executive board meeting while Syria’s representative was speaking, a spokesman said.
Photograph by: Reuters , Reuters

OTTAWA — Canada criticized UNESCO Thursday after members of the UN cultural agency’s executive board refused to kick Syria off a committee charged with investigating human-rights abuses.

Canada was one of 14 countries that had asked for Syria’s membership on UNESCO’s committee on conventions and recommendations to be revoked by sending a letter to the head of the executive board in December.

Syria was initially named to the committee in November. The appointment was made with unanimous consent from members of the executive board, including the United States and France, despite President Bashar Assad’s ongoing crackdown on demonstrators.

“Today, UNESCO had an opportunity to correct that wrong,” said a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Joseph Lavoie. “Instead, it failed to call out Assad and his backers for what they are: a regime that slaughters innocent Syrians.”

Members of UNESCO’s executive board voted 35-8 to condemn the crackdown on civilians in Syria, but the motion did not include any reference to the country being removed from the committee on conventions and recommendations.

Canada was unable to vote as it only has observer status on the executive board. However, last week, Canadian Ambassador to UNESCO Jean-Pierre Blackburn had walked out of an executive board meeting while Syria’s representative was speaking, Lavoie said.

“While Canada was not involved in the original decision to name Syria to the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations at UNESCO, we nonetheless found it deeply disturbing given the Assad regime’s continual and repeated violation of human rights,” he added.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based advocacy group UN Watch, believed the international community squandered an important opportunity to send the Assad regime a message because many UNESCO members were worried that censuring Syria would set a precedent.

“Politics simply trumped human rights, with too many UNESCO diplomats fearing that if Syria were removed for its violations, many of them would be next,” he said in an email.

Meanwhile, a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia spilled into Ottawa on Thursday.

Russian diplomats in Moscow and Damascus have accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism by providing arms and training to rebels in Syria.

In response, the Saudi Embassy in Ottawa sent out a news release condemning the statements and countering that Russian support for Assad’s regime might expose Russia to “moral, legal and criminal responsibility.”

“History alone will respond to such accusations of arming terrorists,” the release adds, “and will undoubtedly testify to who are the terrorists and who are behind them.”

lberthiaume(at)postmedia.com

Twitter.com/leeberthiaume

Source: canada.com

Canada pushing to remove #Syria from UN board

Anti-government protesters in Syria on Monday during the funeral of Jamal Hamdo Daqno, Subhi Haroon and Akrma Muhammad Qutani, who protesters said were killed during clashes with government troops. Reuters.

By Lee Berthiaume

OTTAWA • Canada is working with key allies behind closed doors to have Syria expelled from a UN committee charged with investigating human-rights abuses.

While seen as a positive development, a Syrian opposition leader in Canada says there is growing impatience and frustration that the federal government isn’t doing more to stop the spiralling violence, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives.

Canada is one of 14 countries who have asked that Syria’s membership on UNESCO’s committee on conventions and recommendations, whose mandate includes investigating alleged human-rights abuses, be reconsidered when the UN cultural agency’s executive board meets on Feb. 27.

“The situation in Syria challenges UNESCO’s basic constitutional objectives, in particular to further respect for justice, for the law and for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” reads a letter signed by Yasemin Heinbecker, Canada’s deputy ambassador to UNESCO, and 13 counterparts from the U.S., the U.K., Qatar and other countries.

The letter, dated Dec. 14 and sent to the head of UNESCO’s executive board, was obtained and made public by UN Watch, an NGO that had opposed Syria’s membership.

An attached explanatory note says UNESCO must “respond to [international] appeals for concerted action to address the egregious human rights situation in Syria.”

“Syria participates in the examination of cases involving alleged human rights violations,” it adds. “In view of the current situation in Syria, the Executive Board must review the participation of Syria.”

Syria was initially named to the committee on conventions and recommendations in November. The appointment was made with unanimous consent from members of the UN cultural agency’s executive board, including the United States and France, despite the ruling regime’s ongoing crackdown on demonstrators.

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said regimes like that in Syria often use membership on such boards to boost their own legitimacy, particularly within their countries.

Canada’s involvement in the effort to censure Syria sends a strong signal, Mr. Neuer added, and shows the government is determined not to let the UN be used for propaganda or undermined by human rights violators.

“Canada has been on the forefront of most worthwhile initiatives to keep gross violators accountable,” he said.

Mohamad Khatib, a Toronto-based member of the Syrian National Council, which is trying to be recognized as the legitimate opposition to Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, also applauded Canada’s involvement.

“The regime is now torturing its people and we should do anything we can to isolate this regime and make [Assad] accountable,”Mr. Khatib said. “The regime doesn’t deserve to be in the human rights committee or even in the United Nations.”

But Mr. Khatib also expressed frustration with what he sees as Canada’s lackadaisical approach to ending the violence in Syria, especially as the Arab League’s efforts are failing to produce real results.

While he acknowledged there is only so much Canada can do alone, Mr. Khatib said there is a growing sense the federal government hasn’t taken the situation in Syria seriously enough.

“The decision of taking the matter seriously is not there yet,” he said. “When they decided that the NATO will involve in Libya, everything was ready in a few days.

“Now it’s been 11 months. There’s a lot of suffering and it’s winter there.”

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Wednesday that Canada was expanding sanctions to include 22 more individuals associated with the Assad regime and seven companies.

More than 50 observers from Gulf Arab states left Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were certain “the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue.”

Their colleagues in Damascus, about 120 strong, pledged to continue the monitoring mission, now extended until Feb. 23, to verify Syria’s compliance with an earlier Arab peace plan.

“The departure of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries will not have an impact on the mission’s work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job,” said a senior Arab monitor, who asked not to be named.

“We need more monitors of course and more will come soon to replace those who left.”

Syrian opposition groups have accused the observer mission, which began on Dec. 26, of giving Mr. Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the League’s committee on Syria, wrote jointly to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon setting out their plan for a political solution in Syria.

Source: news.nationalpost.com