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Russia Ousted From Human Rights Council Thanks to UN Watch Campaign

CNN's John Berman, Host of New Day: “This morning, new calls to remove Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The group UN Watch is drafting a resolution for the UN General Assembly to force them out.” Watch Video

GENEVA, April 9, 2022 — By a 92-24 vote by the UN General Assembly, Russia was ousted from the UN's top human rights body in wake of a sustained campaign by UN Watch.

The singular role of UN Watch in initiating a draft resolution and pushing to expel Putin was reported by CNN, AFP, the Boston Globe, the New York Sun and other media. See quotes below.

UN Watch welcomed the expulsion of Russia from the 47-nation Human Rights Council. "This is a rare day of moral clarity at the United Nations and its highest human rights body," said executive director Hillel Neuer, who is now calling for China, Venezuela, Cuba and other serial abusers to also be removed.

"Russia's suspension should be a turning point. EU states and others that often defend the election of gross abusers as somehow a good thing have now effectively abandoned that position in favor of a principled approach, more consistent with the rights council's own membership criteria."

Addressing the 14th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights on Wednesday, Neuer called on the UN to apply its own rules and standards and remove “Eritrea with its slave labor, Libya, which tortures African migrants and sells them in markets; Mauritania which still has slavery; Pakistan, which hosts terrorists; and Somalia with female genital mutilation. They, too, must all be removed.”
 
More on UN Watch's Campaign
“UN Watch’s Drive Led to Today’s Vote” 

CNN: “UN Watch Chief Calls to Remove Russia Now From Human Rights Council”

Apr. 4 — CNN's John Berman: "This morning, new calls to remove Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The group UN Watch is drafting a resolution for the UN General Assembly to force them out."

Joining me now is the executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer. Thank you so much for being with us.

When you see these images out of Bucha, the bodies littering the streets, I'm just wondering what your reaction is?"

Hillel Neuer: "Look, one thinks of atrocities that shock the conscience of mankind.

But I am here in Geneva, Switzerland, spending the past five weeks at a session of the Human Rights Council, and Russia is sitting there as a member.

For God's sake, Russia cannot be a member of the United Nations' highest human rights body."
Watch Video

AFP: “Russia Rights Council Suspension Sends Strong Signal”

Apr. 7, 2022 — Some non-governmental organizations accuse the regional groups of stitching up the elections by presenting the same number of candidates as vacant seats.


UN Watch's executive director Hillel Neuer has said in the past that the elections process was designed to weed out the world's worst rights abusers, but routinely saw oppressive regimes win international legitimacy.


The NGO campaigned for Russia to be expelled from the council and said it would now target other members over their alleged rights violations.


"Next on our list: China—one million Muslims in camps; Cuba—tyranny; Eritrea—slave labor; Libya—tortures migrants; Mauritania—slavery; Pakistan—hosts terrorist; Venezuela— state collapse," tweeted Neuer.
Full Article

CNS News: “UN Chief Wary About Suspending Russia From Human Rights Council”

Apr. 7, 2022 — U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, described as “extraordinary” the assertion that suspending Russia would set “of a dangerous precedent.”

“Failure to enforce the Human Rights Council's own rules – members must uphold highest standards, gross abusers face suspension – is what would be dangerous,” he said. “And precedent was on our side: U.N. removed Qaddafi's Libya in 2011 for atrocities.”

U.N. Watch has led campaigns to have abusive governments removed from the HRC, including Libya in 2011, and Venezuela’s Maduro regime and Russia more recently.

Neuer also tweeted that U.N. representatives “fear our campaign opens a can of worms,” pointing out that current HRC members include China, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Pakistan, Somalia, and Venezuela.
Full Article

Boston Globe: “The UN Human Rights Council makes a mockery of human rights”

Apr. 8, 2022 — Among those pressing for Moscow’s suspension was Hillel Neuer, the director of the Geneva-based nongovernmental organization UN Watch. “Every day that Russia sits on the world’s highest human rights body while slaughtering innocent civilians in Ukraine is an outrage,” Neuer told the New York Sun.
Full Article

New York Sun: “Ouster of Russia From UN’s Human Rights Council”

Apr. 7, 2022 — UN Watch’s executive director, Hillel Neuer, launched the drive to expel Russia shortly after it invaded Ukraine last month. 

“This a rare day of moral clarity at the UN and its human rights body,” Mr. Neuer told the Sun after his drive led to today’s vote. Specifically, he added, Russia’s expulsion represents an “effective abandonment of a long-held European position that justifies the election of dictatorships to human rights bodies under a ‘big tent’ theory.”
Full Article

Business Day: “SA abstains again as UN suspends Russia from human rights body”

Apr. 7, 2022 — There was concern that the resolution was not focused purely on ending the conflict but would be used as a precedent to remove countries such as China, Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Pakistan and Venezuela from the council as well.

This follows a tweet to this effect by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which came up with the resolution and lobbied for it to be adopted by the General Assembly.
Full Article
Timeline: UN Watch's Campaign To Oust Russia From HRC
 

• April 29, 2020: After Russia announces bid for Human Rights Council seat, UN Watch is first to fact-check and expose their lies, later published as official documents by the United Nations and circulated to diplomats.

• September 24, 2020: UN Watch took the floor in the plenary of the UNHRC, saying: “In its pledge, Russia promised to ensure protection of human rights and freedoms under international law. If so, why does Russia trample international law — by invading Ukraine, swallowing Crimea, and systematically bombing civilians, hospitals and schools in Syria? Why do critics of President Putin wind up imprisoned, poisoned or assassinated?”

• October 9, 2020: UN Watch organizes press conference where Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza—twice poisoned in Moscow—appeals to the United Nations not to elect the Putin regime, saying it would be “an embodiment of the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.”

• October 13, 2020: Russia wins election to the council, sweeping 82% of the votes. BBC News reports on UN Watch's opposition campaign, including its joint NGO report on why Russia and other candidates were entirely unqualified.

• February 2022: As soon as Russia attacked Ukraine, UN Watch led the call on democracies to expel Russia from the UNHRC. As we predicted, the international community had to wait for a new atrocity—the slaughter in Bucha—to take action to expel Russia from the UN's top human rights body.

• March 1, 2022: US Secretary of State Tony Blinken addressed the UN Human Rights Council and implied that Russia did not belong there.

• March 2, 2022: Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told the Council directly: “The only way to retain the credibility of the Human Rights Council is to suspend the membership of Russia.”

• March 29, 2022: In an extraordinary statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman opposed removing Russia, saying it would be “setting a dangerous precedent.” (Video)

• March 31, 2022: UN Watch took the floor at the United Nations Human Rights Council to formally demand that they remove Russia. This appeal entered the record.

• April 3, 2022: UN Watch criticized the UN chief for his inappropriate statement defending Russia, and reminded him that, on the contrary, it is the failure to enforce the UNHRC’s own rules on membership duties that would be dangerous; and that the precedent is that, in wake of a 2010-2011 campaign led by UN Watch, Qaddafi’s Libya was removed in 2011 from the Council.

• April 3, 2022: UN Watch drafted a resolution to remove Russia and circulated it to diplomats, calling on U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield to take the lead at the General Assembly.

• April 4, 2022: CNN reports on UN Watch's campaign and interviews executive director Hillel Neuer: "This morning, new calls to remove Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The group UN Watch is drafting a resolution for the UN General Assembly to force them out." (CNN Video & Transcript)

• April 6, 2022: Western democracies and Ukraine co-sponsor a draft resolution, similar to that published earlier by UN Watch, to remove Russia.

• April 7, 2022: The UN General Assembly votes 93-24 to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. Major media credit UN Watch's role.
 
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