By Maidhc Ó Cathail
On December 2, the Geneva-based UN Watch welcomed that day's "strong
condemnation" of Syria by a UN Human Rights Council emergency session,
and its establishment of a special rapporteur to monitor the situation
there following what it called "a global campaign to create the post
by a coalition of prominent democracy dissidents and human rights
groups" led by UN Watch itself. The non-governmental organization,
whose self-appointed mandate is "to monitor the performance of the
United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter," expressed regret,
however, that the UNHRC resolution "paid special deference" to Syria's
"territorial integrity" and "political independence," decrying the
provision as "a clear jab at NATO's intervention in Libya, and a
pre-emptive strike against the principle of the international
community's responsibility to protect civilians under assault."
On the same day, UN Watch delivered a speech to the Human Rights
Council plenary session in which it denounced the UN Security
Council's "shocking silence on Syria's atrocities," calling on it to
take "urgent action to protect the civilian population before
thousands more are beaten, tortured and killed." It also urged UNESCO
to reverse its recent decision to elect Syria to two human rights
committees. Submitting that day's UNHRC resolution to UNESCO's
Executive Board, the NGO demanded that they "expel the Assad
government from those panels immediately." The statement went on to
berate the UNHRC for its "longtime policy, and that of the old
Commission, of turning a blind eye to Syria's gross and systematic
violations." Also "wrong and harmful," in UN Watch's view, was the UN
body's "policy of supporting Syria's cynical and transparent ploy each
year to condemn Israel for alleged violations of human rights, which
should not be repeated this March."
For those familiar with the NGO's unmistakable governmental ties, it
will come as no surprise that UN Watch could downplay Israel's
extensively documented human rights abuses as "alleged" while at the
same time confidently asserting that "the facts are clear" regarding
Syria's "gross and systematic violations of human rights." As Ian
Williams, a former president of the United Nations Correspondents
Association, wrote in a 2007 Guardian opinion piece, "UN Watch is an
organization whose main purpose is to attack the United Nations in
general, and its human rights council in particular, for alleged bias
against Israel."
Founded in 1993 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Morris B. Abram,
the former US permanent representative to the United Nations in
Geneva, UN Watch is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee.
Described by one expert on US-Israeli relations as "the foreign policy
arm of the Israel lobby," the AJC also takes a keen interest in the
UN's alleged bias against Israel. According to a 2003 article in the
Jewish Daily Forward, a "sustained effort" by the lobby's foreign
policy arm resulted in the United States "embarking on the most
comprehensive campaign in years to reduce the number of anti-Israel
resolutions routinely passed by the United Nations General Assembly."
In February, UN Watch organized 70 "rights groups" to send a letter to
President Obama, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, and UN
Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon demanding international action against
Libya by invoking the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine. Speaking
to the Jerusalem Post at the time, the NGO's executive director,
Hillel Neuer, said that "the muted response of the US and the EU to
the Libyan atrocities is not only a let-down to the many Libyans
risking their lives for freedom, but a shirking of their obligations,
as members of the Security Council and the Human Rights Council, to
protect peace and human rights and to prevent war crimes." Despite the
unsubstantiated nature of its allegations," UN Watch's "Urgent Appeal
to Stop Atrocities in Libya" proved sufficient to get Libya suspended
from the Human Rights Council before being referred to the Security
Council, and ultimately provided the spurious justification for NATO's
eight-month "humanitarian" bombing of the country.
Undoubtedly the most significant signatory of the UN Watch-sponsored
letter was Carl Gershman, president of the "misnamed" National
Endowment for Democracy. Funded by American taxpayers but outside
Congressional oversight, the Endowment has been meddling in other
countries' internal politics since its inception in 1983. As Allen
Weinstein, NED's architect and first acting president, famously told
the Washington Post in 1991, "a lot of what we do today was done
covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." A lot of what NED does today can
also be understood by observing its longtime president's career path.
A former head of the neo-Trotskyite Social Democrats-USA who steadily
evolved into neoconservatives, Gershman is no stranger to pro-Israel
lobbying, having worked in the research department of the
Anti-Defamation League in 1968 and served on the governing council of
the American Jewish Committee in the early 1970s.
Although UN Watch purports to believe in the United Nations' mission
to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," the
pro-Israel NGO bears significant responsibility for inducing a
devastating war on the current generation in one Arab country already
this year and is clearly determined to repeat the carnage in another.
As long as UN Watch's motto of "Monitoring the United Nations,
Promoting Human Rights" continues to obscure its real mission of
"Manipulating the United Nations, Promoting Israel's Interests," the
warning of a Roman poet becomes increasingly pertinent: "Quis
custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Maidhc Ó Cathail is a political analyst and editor of The Passionate Attachment
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61839666/Indo-Pak-Wars-A-Pictorial-History
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22457862/Military-Decision-making-and-leadership
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22455178/Letters-to-Command-and-Staff-College-Quetta-Citadel-Journal
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23150027/Pakistan-Army-through-eyes-of-Pakistani-Generals
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23701412/War-of-Independence-of-1857
0 comments:
Post a Comment