http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/unhrc/ en-us Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:10:20 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082863/posts Contempt for the United Nations' professed values and institutions is no barrier to diplomatic grandeur at the organization's Turtle Bay headquarters. Quite the opposite, in fact. An increasing number of UN member states scorn its founding documents - the Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention. These states, dubbed the ‘The Abusers Club' by human rights activists, are drawn mainly from the developing, Arab, and Islamic worlds. They are co-ordinating their assault on human rights and political freedoms with increasing, and disturbing, success, say UN sources. Certainly the Abusers Club has hijacked the new Geneva-based Human Rights... Standpoint http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082863/posts#comment Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:10:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2034384/posts Jihad Against Freedom of Speech at the United NationsBy Jeffrey Imm The United Nations' Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has no problem with its members suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" perpetrated by the United States on itself. The human rights of America's 9/11 victims are not a priority for UNHRC's Richard Falk, the special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who engages in 9/11 conspiracy propaganda, while working for an organization headquartered in New York City funded by U.S. tax dollars. This is Richard Falk's protected freedom of speech. Denying the role of Jihadists in... Counterterrorism Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2034384/posts#comment Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:38:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016942/posts GENEVA (Reuters) - A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit. "The special rapporteur will...gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," a U.N. statement said on Friday. His three-week visit, at U.S. government invitation, will cover eight cities -- Washington D.C., New York,... Reuters (via Drudge) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016942/posts#comment Fri, 16 May 2008 16:48:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999613/posts A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. NY Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999613/posts#comment Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:14:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993359/posts Climate change is now officially a human rights issue, as the UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution on the subject, recognising that the world's poor are particularly vulnerable. The council also gave the green light for a study into the impact of climate change on human rights, describing climate change as a "global problem .. that requires a global solution". The resolution, submitted by the Maldives and passed without a vote, also noted that the poor tend to have limited resources to cope with the impact of global warming. The country's Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told AFP... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993359/posts#comment Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:50:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992933/posts To the sound of cheers, and by an overhwelming majority of 40 out of 47 votes, the UN Human Rights Council today elected Jean Ziegler, the co-founder of the "Muammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize," as an expert advisor representing the Western world. And for its new Palestine expert, the council chose Richard Falk, who, like Ziegler, accuses the U.S. of being responsible for many of the world's ills and describes Israel in Nazi terminology. "Even within the benighted UN Human Rights council, today was a dark day for human rights," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based... UN Watch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992933/posts#comment Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:33:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980319/posts The United Nations Human Rights Council held a moment of silence Tuesday for martyrs in Gaza killed in an Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Strip, after a request by Iran's foreign minister. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for the gesture on behalf of the women and children who are "nowadays under attack by the Zionist regime," the term Iranian officials use for Israel because they do not recognize its right to exist. "I would like ... to request one minute silence and ask my Muslim brothers and sisters to read the Fatah for those martyrs in Gaza," he... Haaretz.com (AP story) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980319/posts#comment Tue, 4 Mar 2008 19:24:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961275/posts HYPOCRISY, the popular 19th-century American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce once observed, could be defined as "prejudice with a halo." As false halos go, there are few bigger – or shinier, in that cheap, glittery way – than the one now swaying precariously over the United Nations’ so-called Human Rights Council. Since the council was formed as part of former secretary-general Kofi Annan’s "UN reform" a few years back, the world’s supposed watchdog for violations of human rights has been able to officially condemn just one country for abuses of those rights: Israel. If that sounds familiar – you’re right,... Halifax Chronicle Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961275/posts#comment Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:47:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1913312/posts Today, Governor Mitt Romney called for the US to pull out of the UN Human Rights Council. According to the AP: "The United Nations has been an extraordinary failure of late," Romney said in response to a question at a pancake house along the coast of early voting South Carolina. "We should withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council." Turns out that we don’t actually have a seat on the Human Rights Council though: Actually, the United States doesn’t have a seat on the human rights council, which it has been boycotting. With that kind of knowledge, Romney may... eyeon08.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1913312/posts#comment Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:59:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892792/posts UNITED NATIONS: The United States would cut off funding to the U.N. Human Rights Council under a bill passed by the Senate, the latest action by Washington to target an agency it has harshly criticized since its creation last year. Late Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed a foreign operations appropriations bill for 2008 with an amendment stating that none of the U.S. contributions to the United Nations would be made available to the council. The House passed an appropriations bill with a similar amendment in June. The council was created in March 2006 to replace the widely discredited and highly... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892792/posts#comment Fri, 7 Sep 2007 21:47:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1886498/posts At its recent June 2007 session, the UN Human Rights Council concluded its lengthy reform process by voting, first, to drop Belarus and Cuba from its blacklist. New restrictions were imposed on the independent experts who report on country violations. The ability to introduce resolutions that name abusers was curbed. And Israel was singled out for permanent indictment—the sole country targeted by a special agenda item, and the sole country subjected to an investigation that examines only one side, is immune from review, and presumes guilt in advance. The five-minute video below offers a glimpse into how the UN's highest... UN Watch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1886498/posts#comment Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:39:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855697/posts US House bars funding for UN rights council Fri Jun 22, 11:35 AM ET The US House of Representatives moved to prohibit US funding of the UN Human Rights Council, derided by one member as a "poisonous talk shop," as part of a mammoth funding bill passed early Friday. The United States has repeatedly expressed frustration with the council over its rules, targets for monitoring -- including US ally Israel -- and the way it conducts business. The amendment, to a measure funding the State Department and US diplomacy, passed by unanimous voice vote, and prevents US funding for the... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855697/posts#comment Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:16:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1852521/posts Castro and Lukashenko to Celebrate Human Rights Council Reform Package Dictators Fidel Castro of Cuba and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus will be celebrating the UN Human Rights Council's likely adoption tomorrow of a reform package that will see both regimes dropped from a blacklist, while Israel is placed under permanent indictment. Contrary to all the promises of reform issued last year, the proposal released today by Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba targets Israel for permanent indictment under a special agenda item: "Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories," which includes "Human rights violations and implications of... UN Watch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1852521/posts#comment Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:36:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830332/posts UNITED NATIONS - A wide-ranging study of the UN Human Rights Council says Canada is the most active advocate for the world's human rights victims, but democracies could still do far more to challenge the council's near-domination by human rights abuser states. In Dawn of a New Era,? its 44- page review of the council's first year, UN Watch says political expediency has led to a situation where "too many democracies have gone along with the spoilers." The Geneva-based watchdog wants democracies to "unite and redouble their efforts" to turn the council into a credible global monitor of human rights... CanWest News Service via Sun Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1830332/posts#comment Tue, 8 May 2007 20:04:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1804437/posts Let's say this sissy quarrel would result in an all out millitary confrontation between Sweden and Cuba. What to expect? Sweden would probably win round 1 and some following ones as the Cubans would be busy not being busy and therefore being easy targets for weapons like these (stealth battle ships, AIP submarines, COMBINED multirole Air-to-Air/Air-to-Surface/Reconnaissance fighter planes, not to mention the mass fabricated Swedish 'Carl Gustav' bazooka's used on a large scale in Iraq and so on): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3724219.stm http://www.kockums.se/Submarines/gotland.html http://www.gripen.com/en/index.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_recoilless_rifle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkQnix42gNw&NR On the other hand, Cubans enjoy the best health care on earth so they'll win the last... www.thelocal.se http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1804437/posts#comment Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:01:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752407/posts GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations chief Kofi Annan demanded on Tuesday that the world body's human rights watchdog, meeting in special session on Sudan's Darfur, send a clear message that the "nightmare" of violence there had to stop. "The people in Darfur cannot afford to wait another day. The violence must stop. The killings and other gross violations of human rights must end," Annan said in a statement to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The Council, launched last June in a plan to make the U.N. more effective, must decide on what kind of mission of inquiry to send to... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752407/posts#comment Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:24:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736658/posts UNITED NATIONS - The United States sharply criticized the new U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, calling it a "disappointment" and saying it has failed to address serious violations in its first few months of operation — particularly in Sudan's Darfur region. Sudan responded with a harsh condemnation of the U.S. human rights record and said Washington had no right to judge the effectiveness of the U.N. agency. The barbs came during the Human Rights Council's first annual report to the General Assembly. The U.S. is not a member of the council, which was created earlier this year to replace... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736658/posts#comment Sat, 11 Nov 2006 02:15:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1662220/posts After its shift on Iran, India on Thursday registered yet another alteration in its West Asia policy. It joined 29 countries to vote in favour of a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva that demands an end to Israeli military action in Gaza and asks for the release of detained Palestinian ministers and leaders. A special session of the UNHRC also decided to send a fact-finding mission urgently to the Palestinian areas to assess the ground situation. The resolution on the human rights situation in Gaza expressed "grave concern at the detrimental impact of the... The Pioneer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1662220/posts#comment Sat, 8 Jul 2006 05:16:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646070/posts <p>New York: Deputy Secretary-General of the U.N. was on Wednesday night accused of making ``a very, very grave mistake'' after calling the Bush administration hypocrites who were feeding a right-wing anti-U.N. frenzy in middle America.</p> <p>Washington's Ambassador to the U.N. responded with undisguised fury to a speech by Mark Malloch Brown, the Deputy Secretary-General, in which he accused Washington of using the international body ``almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool'' while failing to defend it at home.</p> Guardian Newspapers Limited by way of The Hindu http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646070/posts#comment Fri, 9 Jun 2006 07:04:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1630074/posts Cuba, Saudis, China on Rights Council UNITED NATIONS, May. 10, 2006 (AP) (AP) Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats on the new U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday despite their poor human rights records, but two rights abusers _ Iran and Venezuela _ were defeated. Human rights groups said they were generally pleased with the 47 members elected to the council, which will replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission. It was discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible rights records used their membership to protect one another from condemnation. "The spoiler governments, the governments that have... CBS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1630074/posts#comment Wed, 10 May 2006 21:30:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1629483/posts FIVE nations seen by rights groups as among the world's worst abusers have been elected along with 39 other countries to the United Nations' new Human Rights Council in a first round of voting. Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, identified by New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership on the new UN body, were among those winning seats. But two others on the group's list, Iran and Azerbaijan, failed to win membership on the first ballot. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said it was inevitable some rights foes would win seats but "the important... Herald Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1629483/posts#comment Tue, 9 May 2006 23:46:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603744/posts By Ryan Jones Almost completely disregarding Palestinian Arab aggression against Israel's Jews, a United Nations envoy has sought to lay the blame for regional conflict at the doorstep of the Jewish state by misrepresenting and exaggerating Israel's defensive measures and isolated acts of frustration. In a special report prepared for next week's annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission, South African lawyer John Dugard charged: "It seems that settlers are able to terrorize Palestinians and destroy their trees and crops with impunity." What he failed to mention, however, are the innumerable stoning, shooting and bombing attacks carried out against... jnewswire.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603744/posts#comment Mon, 27 Mar 2006 05:03:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1587494/posts A new report from the UN Commission on Human Rights concludes by calling on the United States to close its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay “without further delay.”[1] The report, issued by a body that counts Sudan, Cuba, China and Zimbabwe as current members, alleges torture at the Guantanamo facility, and demands that “all persons found to have perpetrated, ordered, tolerated or condoned such practices, up to the highest level of military and political command,” presumably including the U.S. President and the Secretary of Defense, be “brought to justice.”[2] These demands, however, are groundless. None of the reportÂ’s authors toured... Heritage Foundation http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1587494/posts#comment Wed, 1 Mar 2006 03:31:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580085/posts The White House has savaged a UN report demanding the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp calling it "a discredit to the UN". White House spokesman Scott McClellan said investigators failed to examine the facts and that their time would be better spent studying other cases. The report says the US should try all approximately 500 inmates, or free them "without further delay". Aspects of the treatment at the camp amount to torture, the UN team alleges. In response, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "sooner or later" the camp will have to close, but added that... BBC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580085/posts#comment Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:45:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580193/posts GENEVA -- The United States must close its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice, a U.N. report released Thursday concluded. The White House rejected the recommendation. The 54-page report summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts accused the United States of practices that "amount to torture" and demanded detainees be allowed a fair trial or freed. The investigators did not visit the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Those people should be released or brought before an independent court," Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator for torture, told... NBC 4 Columbus http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580193/posts#comment Fri, 17 Feb 2006 03:41:02 GMT