GENEVA, March 1 – Nine months after shamefully electing the Qaddafi regime to its Human Rights Council, the UN today reversed itself and suspended Libya’s membership. Click here for details.
From the moment the Libyan regime declared its candidacy last year, UN Watch initiated the opposition to Qaddafi sitting as a world judge of human rights. Click here for chronology of UN Watch’s tireless campaign.
In September, when the Libyan regime took its seat, UN Watch launched a campaign demanding Libya’s suspension from the Geneva-based Council, becoming the first voice to do so. We were supported by 27 human rights groups, a number that surpassed 80 in our renewed NGO appeal of nine days ago.
Most powerfully, to support the campaign, victims and relatives of victims showed great courage in accepting UN Watch’s invitation to challenge the Libyan regime at the council and confront their oppressor. On this day, UN Watch pays tribute to these victims — and the partner organizations which signed our appeals – by reprinting the September briefing below. The victim testimonies are worth hearing. Tragically, the UN refused to heed their pleas, until the mass killings of last week became unbearable.
Yesterday we shared these quotes from the media’s global coverage of UN Watch’s campaign. Today, UN Watch analysis was again featured at length in the Wall Street Journal, FOX News, the Malaysia Sun, Canada’s National Post, and the blog of Commentary Magazine. Minutes ago, the Vancouver Sun reported:
“The election of Libya to the world’s top human rights body last May was a shameful act that bolstered Gadhafi’s regime, demoralized his victims, and stained the reputation of the United Nations,” said Montrealer Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, which has led a campaign by international activist groups to remove Libya from the council.
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Vol. 251 | September 16, 2010
UN Watch Launches Global Campaign to Oust Qaddafi Regime from UN Human Rights Council
Geneva, September 16 - Only days after Libya took its seat for the first time as a newly elected member of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, UN Watch today launched a global campaign to remove it, bringing some of the world’s most well-known victims of Libyan crimes to testify before the assembly of country representatives.
Bulgarian nurse Kristyana Valchyeva (click for video) and Palestinian doctor Ashraf El Hagoug (click for video) took the floor to speak about their suffering as medical workers in Libya who were framed, imprisoned and tortured over false charges of infecting 400 children with HIV.
Speaking on behalf of Freedom House and UN Watch, the two were repeatedly interrupted by the Libyan delegate, who attempted to stop their testimony by making vociferous objections which were then echoed by speakers from Iran, China, Cuba and Venezuela.
However, the United States representative rallied to the defense of UN Watch’s witnesses, insisting on their right to speak freely, as did Belgium for the European Union, Britain, and Ireland.
As a result, amid heated exchanges between the repressive regimes and the democratic alliance, the president of the council, Ambassador Sihasak Phuangketkeow of Thailand, eventually allowed UN Watch’s invited victims to complete their testimony.
In addition, UN Watch today organized a press conference and a NGO panel, featuring the two torture victims together with Bob Monetti of the Pan Am 103 Victims Association (click for video), and Mohamed El Jahmi (click for video), brother of the late Libyan dissident Fathi El Jahmi — both of whom are scheduled to testify tomorrow before the plenary.
At the events, UN Watch released the appeal signed by 27 NGOs. The campaign invokes Article 8 of the council charter allowing for suspension of member states that commit systematic violations of human rights.
From today’s protest campaign:
•Joint Appeal to Remove Libya Signed by 27 NGOs
“The election of the Libyan Arab Jamahariya to the UN Human Rights Council is an outrage to the global human rights community. Given its notorious record as one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, the Qaddafi regime’s membership on the Council flies in the face of the United Nations’ promise, enshrined in Resolution 60/251 (2006), to elect member states that are committed to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Read more
•Voice of America Reports on UN Watch Campaign
“An overwhelming majority of U.N. member states elected Libya to the 47-member Council in May. U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer calls this an outrage. He says it sends the wrong message to what he calls the victims of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. More
•U.S. Senator Robert Menendez Issues Statement Supporting UN Watch Campaign
“I hope the U.N. Human Rights Council listens to witnesses like Robert Monetti, a New Jerseyan who lost his son on that ill-fated flight, and ceases to include representatives in this body that do not have a history and tradition of respect for life and human rights.” Read more
•Bulgarian Nurse Testifies to Council on Her Brutal Torture by Libya
“They tried to destroy us physically, mentally and morally. We were hostages for eight and a half years. We have never received an apology or compensation for our suffering. Mr. President, I ask: When will this Council take action to end impunity?” Read more
•Palestinian Doctor Challenges Council on Including Libya
“Our trials were seriously flawed. The confessions obtained by torture were used and admitted in court against us. Evidence by experts on HIV was disregarded by the Libyan courts. Mr. President, in the name of universal human rights, how can Libya be elected a member of the Human Rights Council?” Read more
•Pan Am 103 Victim: Bob Monetti, Father of Slain American Student, Outraged at UN Election of Qaddafi
“As long as Qaddafi sits on all that oil, he can do whatever he pleases and get away with it. There’s no morality in politics. World politics is about business, and in Libya, business is about oil… Why ever would the U.N. let Qaddafi judge other countries’ human rights records?”
