UN Watch in the News

"...Victims of abuses worldwide are ignored. The [HRC] currently has multiple inquiries under way against democratic Israel, yet none on massacres committed by gross violators like China, Iran, Sudan, or Kyrgyzstan. Eleanor Roosevelt and René Cassin, the proud Zionists who created the UN’s human rights system in response to the atrocities of World War II, are surely turning in their graves..." - UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer quoted in Jordana Horn, "'Israel is world's most isolated country,'" The Jerusalem Post, July 21, 2010.

"...The 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council to which Mr. La Rue must report -- dominated by dictatorships such as China, Cuba and Libya -- has turned a blind eye to Mr. Chávez's trampling of basic human rights and due process...The international community should demand that Venezuela accept Mr. La Rue's request to visit and investigate..." - Hillel Neuer, "U.N. needs to challenge Venezuela rights abuses," The Washington Post, Letter to the editor, July 16, 2010.

"...United Nations Watch, a human rights watchdog, is putting together a joint appeal on the forced evictions of the Shanghai World Expo, which Initiatives for China President Yang Jianli said will give the Sparrow Initiative 'new momentum to push forward...'" - Michelle Phillips, "Chinese nationals protest forced evictions," The Washington Times, July 14, 2010.

"...Chinese advocates of human rights with the greatest ability to succeed should be identified and supported by the international community. It’s a smart investment that would ultimately benefit the population at large..." - Hillel Neuer, "Repression in Tibet," The New York Times, Letters, July 2, 2010.

"...[Richard Falk] is one of the leading promoters in the US of the conspiracy theory that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US were an inside job, perpetrated by the US government...'" - Jordana Horn, "Population transfer may be war crime," The Jerusalem Post, July 1, 2010.

"...What’s significant is UN Watch uses the UN Charter itself to scrutinize what goes on inside that body. In other words, UN Watch doesn’t set the standards, the UN does. UN Watch simply judges the UN by its own yardstick..." - Peter Worthington, "Group shames UN," Toronto Sun, June 28, 2010.

"...Packed with representatives of dictatorships, the UNHRC, says Neuer, is little more than a 'mutual praise society...'" - Frida Ghitis, "The Human Rights Council is a tragic joke," The Miami Herald, June 25, 2010.

"...U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization, urged U.N. member states, particularly the U.S. and European countries, to 'vocally oppose' D’Escoto’s nomination.  'His record of virulent anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Semitic politics, and his ardent support for extremist leaders such as Iranian President Ahmadinejad, have rendered him a notoriously divisive figure who falls afoul of this U.N. position’s criteria of independence and impartiality...'" - Patrick Goodenough, "Former U.N. General Assembly President – a Critic of the U.S. and Israel – Will Provide ‘Expertise’ to U.N. Human Rights Council," CNS News, June 18, 2010.

"'...That the U.N. Human Rights Council chose to honor and be advised by an apologist for genocide perpetrators and promoters only underscores the inverted morality of this Orwellian body. Just when we thought the council had already reached rock bottom, today it found a way to sink even deeper...'" - UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer quoted in Jonathan Wachtel, "U.N. rights council backs ‘censorship’ watchdog, elevates U.S. foes," Fox News, June 18, 2010.

"'...The Islamic bloc is attempting to turn an international shield for religious freedom into a sword for religious-motivated state censorship,' said Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch. 'It's part of a larger campaign to invert the real danger of Islamist extremism and terrorism around the globe into an imagined narrative of Western victimization of Islam and its adherents...'" - "Critics call Islamic states’ U.N. media watchdog proposal a censorship ploy," Fox News, June 17, 2010.

"...'UN Watch is alarmed by the Islamic bloc’s attempt to turn an international shield for religious freedom into a sword for religious-motivated state censorship,' said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based watchdog group. 'It’s part of a larger campaign to invert the real danger of Islamist extremism into an imagined narrative of Western victimization of Islam and its adherents...'" - Steven Edwards, "Muslim states push for UN action on 'Islamophobia,'" The National Post, June 16, 2010.

"'...We deeply regret that the council, whose founding mission is to end intolerance toward any religious, racial, or ethnic group, was the venue for the expression of such crude and hateful allegations,' Neuer said. 'It is now incumbent on all responsible U.N. authorities to speak out immediately and forcefully to condemn this bigotry...'" - UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer quoted in Patrick Goodenough, "At Human Rights Council, ‘Regime’ not allowed, but ‘A State Built on Hatred’ is okay," CNS News, June 9, 2010.

"...Inside the room, business proceeded as usual, but controversy instantly erupted from outside the U.N. Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, an NGO that monitors the Council, rebuked Council President Alex Van Meeuwen for allowing Rifai's comments to stand unchallenged and called upon Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to censure Van Meeuwen for his oversight..." - Clare Sestanovich, "Remarks by Syrian envoy spark controversy at U.N. Human Rights Council," Foreign Policy Passport, June 9, 2010.

 

"'...Richard Falk is a fruitcake who promotes the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government was behind the September 11, 2001, attacks,' said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director..." - Steven Edwards, "Shifting ties pose new Mideast challenge," Montreal Gazette, June 9, 2010.

 

"...Israel, which in the past 18 months has delivered over one million tons of aid to Gaza, offered to receive the flotilla's cargo in the nearby port of Ashdod, and, after inspection, to deliver it to Gaza. The organizers, however, rejected this offer. They wanted to create a political provocation; they were looking for a physical confrontation. Is this a humanitarian path?..." - UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer's statement to the UN Human Rights Council during its "urgent debate" on the Gaza flotilla, reprinted in "An insult to real humanitarians," The National Post, June 3, 2010.

 

"...Those words hardly describe dictator Moammar Khadafy’s Libya — recently depicted by a coalition of 37 human rights groups as 'one of the world’s most brutal and longest-running tyrannies.' Yet Libya was elected to the Human Rights Council with the support of 155 nations..." - UN Watch-led civil society appeal quoted in "A rogues' gallery at the UN," The Boston Globe, May 28, 2010.

"...Hillel Neuer, the executive director of the UN Watch in Geneva, who leads the coalition said, “By electing serial human rights violators, the UN violates its own criteria as well as common sense..." - Jennie S. Bev, "The license to kill, punish and discriminate," The Jakarta Post, May 23, 2010.

 

"...Libya last week was elected to the UN Human Rights Council. Numerous NGOs objected, describing the regime of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi as "one of the world's most brutal and longest-running tyrannies"… Libya and 13 other nations ran unopposed... NGOs called the process undemocratic, pointing out that 'elections without competition don't make sense...'" - Lula Ahrens, quoting from the NGO appeal initiated by UN Watch, and from a UN Watch press release, "UN Human Rights Council faces the same criticism as its predecessor" Radio Netherlands Worldwide, May 21, 2010.