Top EU Lawmakers Urge Own Governments to Oppose China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi in UN Rights Council Educ

Top EU Lawmakers Urge Own Governments to Oppose China, Russia, Cuba,
Saudi in UN Rights Council Educ
By UN Watch (Bio and Archives) Thursday, November 7, 2013

GENEVA, - Top European lawmakers today called on their own governments
to oppose China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and other "manifestly
unworthy" countries running in next Tuesday's election of 14 new member
states to the UN's 47-nation human rights council. See text below.

According to an exclusive report today by UN Watch, Jordan has pulled
out of the race, which means that Asian group candidates China, Saudi
Arabia and Vietnam no longer face any competition.

Today's open appeal, organized by the Geneva-based human rights group UN
Watch, was sent today by an international coalition of 30 MPs and human
rights activists to all EU governments, as well as to EU foreign affairs
commissioner Catherine Ashton.

Signatories include European Parliament Vice-President Edward
McMillan-Scott, Elmar Brok, Chair of the European Parliament Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt,
who now heads the European Parliament's Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party.

Other legislators joining the appeal include Baroness Deech of the
British House of Lords, Baroness Ludford of the European Parliament,
Canadian MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler, and Emanuelis
Zingeris, Lithuanian MP and head of the global Parliamentary Forum for
Democracy.

Diplomats had predicted some difficulty for the Saudi bid, with UN
delegates still upset over Riyadh's surprise rejection of its Security
Council seat. Now with a closed slate, however, the Saudis are almost
assured of winning a seat on the world body that holds primary
responsibility over issues such as women's rights and religious freedom.

As part of the opposition campaign, UN Watch together with Human Rights
Foundation organized a press conference this past Monday at UN
headquarters in New York, where they presented a comprehensive report
detailing why no less than 12 of 16 candidates fail to meet the UN's own
basic criteria for membership on the human rights council.

UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation brought famous dissidents to
testify at UN headquarters this past Monday, November 4th, before a
gathering of diplomats, activists and journalists. Left to right:
Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, Cuban dissident Rosa Maria Paya, Saudi
dissident Ali Al-Ahmed, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer,
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, HRF president Thor Halvorssen, and
Russian dissident Masha Gessen.

The NGO event also featured passionate appeals from some of the world's
most famous human rights dissidents, including blind activist Chen
Guangcheng from China, Rosa Maria Paya of Cuba, Ali Al-Ahmed of Saudi
Arabia, and Masha Gessen of Russia. (Click here for quotes from the
event; and click here for the speech of Chinese dissident Yang Jianli.)

In anticipation of the Nov. 12 elections, UN Watch executive director
Hillel Neuer warns: "If the UN enables gross abusers to act as champions
and global judges of human rights, it will be an insult to the political
prisoners and other victims of those regimes. When the UN's highest
human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the
world's victims suffer.

"China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia systematically violate the human
rights of their own citizens," said Neuer, "and they consistently vote
the wrong way on UN initiatives to protect the human rights of others."

"For the UN to elect Saudi Arabia as a world judge on human rights would
be like making a pyromaniac the fire chief," said Neuer.

—————-

Appeal Against UNHRC Candidacies of Algeria, China,
Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam

As sent to all UN member states, 7 November 2013.

Excellency,

We, the undersigned members of parliament, human rights activists and
non-governmental organizations, call on you to publicly oppose the
candidacies of Algeria, China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, for
seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, elections for which
will be held on November 12, 2013.

We urge you to take action to defeat these manifestly unworthy
candidacies, which threaten to cast a shadow upon the reputation of the
Council—and of the United Nations as a whole.

Candidates for the UN Human Rights Council, according to General
Assembly Resolution 60/251, are supposed to be countries that "uphold
the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights."

Yet it is widely recognized that Algeria, China, Cuba Russia, Saudi
Arabia and Vietnam fail to meet these basic membership criteria. They
have poor if not abysmal records on human rights protection at home, and
on human rights promotion at the UN.

Rather than giving these non-democratic governments influence over vital
decision on human rights, we urge you to introduce resolutions at the
United Nations to hold these nations accountable, and to condemn their
gross and systematic human rights violations.

Silence is complacency. For the sake of millions of victims worldwide
who need a credible and effective international human rights body,
please do not be silent.

Sincerely,

Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP
European Parliament Vice-President for Human Rights & Democracy

Elmar Brok, MEP
Chair of Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament

Guy Verhofstadt, MEP
Leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)

Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Baroness Deech

Member of the British House of Lords
Academic, lawyer, bioethicist, former Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford

Baroness Ludford
Member of European Parliament, UK

Honourable Irwin Cotler, MP
Member of Canadian Parliament, Liberal Party Critic for Rights &
Freedoms, International Justice
Former Justice Minister & Attorney General

Emanuelis Zingeris, MP
President of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, Lithuania

Matyas Eörsi
Secretary General of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, former MP,
Hungary

Dr. Mantas Adoménas, MP
Lithuania

Michael Danby, MP
Australia

Egidijus Vareikis, MP
Lithuania

Bi-khim Hsiao
Member of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan

Hans van Baalen
Member of the European Parliament, Netherlands

Hannu Takkula
Member of European Parliament, Finland

United Nations Watch
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director
Switzerland

Human Rights Foundation
Thor Halvorssen, President

Initiatives for China
Yang Jianli, President

Council for a Community of Democracies
Robert LaGamma, President

The Gulf Institute
Ali AlAhmed

Mothers and Women against Repression, M.A.R. Por Cuba
Sylvia Iriondo, President

Viet Tan
Do Hoang Diem, Chairman

Source: "Top EU Lawmakers Urge Own Governments to Oppose China, Russia,
Cuba, Saudi in UN Rights Council Educ" -
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