Hillel C. Neuer (click for videos) is the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He has written on law, human rights and international affairs for the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Commentary magazine, The New Republic Online, South Africa’s Sunday Times, and other publications. Neuer appears regularly before the United Nations Human Rights Council, intervening for the victims of Darfur, the rights of women, political prisoners in Zimbabwe and Cuba, and the cause of Middle East peace. Neuer is regularly quoted as an expert on U.N. and human rights issues by major media including the New York Times, Die Welt, Le Figaro and Reuters. He has appeared on TV for CNN's "Diplomatic License," Al Jazeera, and FOX News, and on radio for BBC's "World News Tonight," Radio France, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and CBC's "As it Happens."
Neuer taught international human rights at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, and in 2008 was elected Vice-President of the Conference of NGOs' Special Committee on Human Rights in Geneva. Neuer represented 25 human rights groups as Secretary-General of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy at its 2009 and 2010 conferences. In a recent profile, Concordia University Magazine said Neuer is "helping to shape history."
Prior to joining UN Watch, Neuer practiced commercial and civil rights litigation at the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Active as a human rights defender, Neuer challenged the New York State prison system in Reynolds v. Goord, a precedent-setting First Amendment case for prisoners’ rights and freedom of religion, published in the AIDS Litigation Digest. Neuer was cited for the high quality of his pro bono advocacy by the Federal Court of New York, as reported in the New York Law Journal. In Hines v. Widnall, Neuer took on the U.S. Air Force as an advocate for African-Americans claiming a pattern and practice of racial discrimination in hiring and promotions.
Originally from Montreal, Neuer served as a law clerk for Justice Itzhak Zamir at the Supreme Court of Israel. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Western Society and Culture from Concordia University, a B.C.L. and LL.B. from the McGill University Faculty of Law, and a LL.M. in comparative constitutional law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Neuer is a member of the New York Bar and the author of several legal publications.
Hillel Neuer's banned U.N. speech from March 2007 became the most viewed and written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations.
Profile on Hillel Neuer: "Watching the Watchers," Concordia University Magazine, Summer 2010. (En francais: "En Observant les observateurs," Hillel Neuer, le directeur exécutif d’UN Watch travaille à s’assurer que les Nations-Unies et son Conseil des Droits de l’homme de l’Onu poursuivent leurs idéaux fondateurs.)
Videos of Hillel Neuer
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