[DEBATE] : (Fwd) SA in the UN: anti-Human Rights under guiseof anti-West

[peter waterman]

Patrick and others:

At issue here is whether we prioritise the message or the source.

When Stalin died, Cassandra, the Daily Mirror columnist, published a list of 
all those members of the leadership of the Bolshevik party and revolution 
who Stalin had killed.

One of my Young Communist League friends responded with a montage showing 
Cassandra with a rat's body, crawling out of a sewer.

Good class instinct, bearing in mind the ownership and nature of the Mirror. 
Too bad for the truth.

It seems to me that we have to be prepared to recognise the truth in the 
discourse of the enemy.

I think, incidentally, that Marx said something like this.

Clearly this posture and procedure is more difficult than one that says, in 
effect, 'Outside the Church there is no Salvation', but just as clearly 
identification with the source (Party, Bloc, Leader, Great Thinker) is one 
of faith and dependence.

Otherwise we find ourselves in the position of Hugo Chavez, embracing 
Ahmadinejad, a fundamentalist authoritarian, anti-women and anti-worker, 
because he is an enemy of the US (and has lots of oil?).

P

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Bond" <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
To: "debate: SA discussion list" <debate at lists.kabissa.org>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 5:28 AM
Subject: Re: [DEBATE] : (Fwd) SA in the UN: anti-Human Rights under guiseof 
anti-West


> (Thanks Yoshie! I'm in transit so didn't have time to follow those
> links, but as I noted the SA government flagged UNWatch as a dubious
> source. Still, just because they have Zionist roots doesn't mean the
> charges against Pretoria on Burma, Zim, Sudan, etc, don't stick...)
>
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>> On Nov 18, 2007 9:47 AM, Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za> wrote:
>>
>>> sunday times
>>> SA now skunk of the world
>>> ROWAN PHILP: London Published:Nov 18, 2007
>>>
>>>
>>> South Africa's human rights reputation is in tatters after a series of
>>> "sell-out" votes at the UN on issues ranging from rape and gay rights to
>>> tyranny.
>>>
>>> This week the watchdog UNWatch ranked South Africa last, alongside
>>> China, Russia, Pakistan, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, on a human rights 
>>> list.
>>>
>>> Human rights organisations have branded Pretoria "the chief human rights
>>> villain".
>>>
>>> SA is accused of
>>>
>>> # shielding Sudan, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of
>>> Congo and Myanmar.
>>>
>>> # opposing a resolution on human rights abuses in Darfur in November
>>> 2006 - choosing instead to praise Sudan's "co-operation";
>>>
>>> # opposing a motion for the Security Council to hear a briefing on the
>>> crisis in Zimbabwe in March this year;
>>>
>>> # helping to bar two major gay rights organisations from being
>>> accredited at the UN in July;
>>>
>>> # helping to remove all United Nations scrutiny of human rights abuses
>>> in Belarus and Cuba - the "worst rights abusers in Europe and the
>>> Americas" in June; and
>>>
>>> # opposing a Security Council briefing on human rights abuses in the DRC
>>> in June.
>>>
>>> Last week, the country led the blocking of a resolution condemning the
>>> use of rape as a weapon of war, saying it wanted more than just this
>>> form of rape condemned.
>>>
>>> Human Rights Watch's Steve Crawshaw said this was the "last straw".
>>>
>>> But Foreign Affai rs Director- General Ayanda Ntsaluba said some
>>> resolutions were designed to promote Western agendas. "A mockery is made
>>> of human rights, with the impression created that certain human rights
>>> violations are tolerable because they are committed in some countries."
>>>
>>> South Africa's ambassador to the UN, Dumisani Kumalo, accused the US of
>>> "whipping up the media, trying to make South Africa look bad".
>>>
>>> But UNWatch executive director Hillel Neuer said South Africa and India
>>> were "the biggest disappointments among free democracies".
>>>
>>> "Its [SA's] reputation has gone from pro-human rights to purely
>>> anti-Western," he said.
>>>
>>
>> I had never heard of UNWatch till I saw this article, so I looked it
>> up, and look what I found:
>>
>> <http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/3625>
>> UN Watch
>>
>> Founded in 1993 in Geneva, Switzerland, to monitor the compliance of
>> the United Nations with its charter, UN Watch is a zealously
>> pro-Israel non-governmental organization (NGO) with consultative
>> status to the UN Economic and Social Council, the UN organ that
>> "serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and
>> social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to
>> Member States and the United Nations system."
>>
>> Affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, the former publisher of
>> the neoconservative flagship magazine Commentary and founder of the
>> Transatlantic Institute, UN Watch serves as a quasi-watchdog group
>> aimed at criticizing the often one-sided, anti-Israel views expressed
>> by some members of the UN Human Rights Council. However, some
>> observers argue that the group is itself biased when it comes to the
>> rights situation in the Middle East. In his Guardian blog, the
>> commentator Ian Williams argued that UN Watch has been as "guilty of
>> hypocrisy" as some Human Rights Council members. He wrote: "Anyone
>> carrying a hypocrisy detector through the UN would be distracted by
>> its continuous beeping, as one would expect in places filled with
>> politicians and diplomats. But passing UN Watch's office would set it
>> beeping as well. If the organization could point to a single occasion
>> when it had condemned manifest Israeli transgressions of the human
>> rights of Palestinians, it would give itself a secure platform from
>> which to criticize the human rights council. UN Watch rightly
>> criticizes Sudan's refusal to let in a human rights council delegation
>> into Darfur. But then how, with a straight face, can it avoid
>> criticizing Israel for refusing to allow in rapporteurs from the same
>> council?" (April 4, 2007).
>>
>> UN Watch director Hillel Neuer drew much attention to himself and his
>> organization in March 2007, when he used his opportunity to give
>> testimony to rail against the supposedly anti-Semitic council. "In
>> truth, the despots who run this council," opined Neuer, "couldn't care
>> less about Palestinians or any human rights. They seek to demonize
>> Israeli democracy, to delegitimize the Jewish state, to scapegoat the
>> Jewish people. They also seek something else-to distort and pervert
>> the very language and idea of human rights."
>>
>> The president of the council at the time, the ambassador from Mexico,
>> Luis Alfonso De Alba, responded: "For the first time in this session I
>> will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the
>> distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke ...
>> if you'd kindly listen to me, I am sorry but I am not in a position to
>> thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not
>> tolerate any similar statements in the council. The way in which the
>> members of this council are referred to, and indeed the way in which
>> the council was referred to-all of this is inadmissible. In the memory
>> of the persons you referred to, founders of the Human Rights
>> Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any
>> future statement to observe some minimum proper conduct and language,
>> otherwise any statement you make in similar tones to those used today
>> will be taken out of the records" (Testimony at the UN, March 23,
>> 2007).
>>
>> Commenting on the episode, Williams wrote in his blog: "Last week, the
>> ill-advised president of the council, Mexican diplomat Luis Alfonso De
>> Alba, who usually politely and formulaically thanks the 'distinguished
>> representatives' for their remarks, made a point of saying that he was
>> not thanking the UN Watch representative, Hillel Neuer-although, to be
>> fair, he did still call him 'distinguished.' ... Whatever the reason,
>> De Alba played right into his hands. The martyrdom of Hillel Neuer is
>> now played up in all the usual suspect neocon places, from the Wall
>> Street Journal's editorial page to the New York Sun and Canada's
>> National Post. The video has been circulated widely, with a call for
>> donations, and the usual cluckings about the UN. UN Watch will not be
>> getting a cheque from me. Not being thanked is not an attack on human
>> rights. Being threatened with censorship in the future could be. But
>> UN Watch refers to this speech as being censored. 'Banned: the speech
>> the UN refused to hear,' shouts the email that UN Watch sent out.
>> Which is odd, because the clip it is linking to on YouTube actually
>> comes from a UNTV webcast, which it acknowledges when it invites
>> people to download the Realplayer version" (April 4, 2007).
>>
>> UN Watch has criticized those who have pointed to the one-sided nature
>> of the "war on terror," in particular Islamic countries that have
>> complained about how the "war" has been aimed mainly at Muslims. In a
>> commentary about preparatory meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2007
>> for a global conference on racism, UN Watch took aim at Pakistan,
>> which was representing the Organization of the Islamic Conference at
>> the meetings, for its criticism of "religious hatred, racial profiling
>> in the fight against terrorism, and the rejection of diversity and
>> multiculturalism." UN Watch rightly pointed out that in many Muslim
>> countries there is little acceptance of "diversity," but then went on
>> to say: "Pakistan-a country wherein gang rape is a court-ordered
>> punishment for women who commit the crime of speaking to the wrong
>> tribesman-is, of course, directing this charge [of rejection of
>> diversity] against Western countries, and them alone. Countries like
>> the United States, England, Holland-where anyone can pretty much do as
>> they please-are the ones accused here of 'rejection of diversity and
>> multiculturalism'" (see "Durban Review: Day Three," UN Watch, August
>> 23, 2006).
>>
>> Neuer was himself the apparent victim of profiling during a harrowing
>> experience in late 2007 at a restaurant outside Boston when he was
>> arrested at gunpoint after employees and customers called police
>> because they were concerned that Neuer was dangerous. Police had been
>> looking for a murder suspect in the area, and Neuer's behavior seemed
>> strange and erratic. Reported the Boston Herald (November 6, 2007):
>> "Chris Robbins, the restaurant owner, said his employees told him
>> Neuer asked for a cab five times, changed into a suit and darted out
>> to next-door CVS pharmacy halfway through his pizza. 'I don't think
>> there was any fault on our part,' he said. 'He was pacing back and
>> forth up and down the restaurant at enormous speeds. He was walking in
>> and out of the restaurant.' One pizza worker said Neuer looked nervous
>> and was 'constantly fixing himself and looking around,' a police
>> report states." Charges against Neuer were eventually dropped, and UN
>> Watch released a statement that said in part: "Mr. Neuer was an
>> innocent man who went to a restaurant in Needham, and was traumatized
>> and almost killed as a result" (UN Watch, November 6, 2007).
>>
>> UN Watch was founded by Morris Abram, a former U.S. permanent
>> representative to the United Nations who died in 2000. According to
>> his UN Watch bio, "Ambassador Abram served five American
>> presidents-John F. Kennedy, as general counsel of the Peace Corps;
>> Lyndon B. Johnson, as U.S. representative to the UN Commission on
>> Human Rights and as co-chairman of the planning session of the 1965
>> White House Conference on Civil Rights; Jimmy Carter, as chairman of
>> the president's Commission for the Study of the Ethical Problems of
>> Medicine; Ronald Reagan, as vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on
>> Civil Rights; and George Bush, as U.S. permanent representative to the
>> United Nations in Geneva."
>>
>> Like many Israel supporters in and out of the United States, Abram was
>> particularly concerned about a supposed anti-Israel UN bias. In his
>> July 14, 1999 testimony to the House Committee on International
>> Relations, Abram listed a number of UN actions that he claimed pointed
>> to a pattern of unfair treatment toward Israel. His allegations
>> included: (1) "Israel is the only state whose alleged violations of
>> human rights occupy a single agenda item at the annual UN Commission
>> on Human Rights. The violations that occur in the remaining 184 Member
>> States are examined collectively under another single agenda item.
>> Only Israel has its name prominently targeted;" (2) "[Israel] is the
>> only state whose aggressors in three wars have not been challenged by
>> the Security Council. It is the only state out of 185 UN Member States
>> excluded from membership in any regional group, rendering it
>> ineligible to serve on the Security Council, the UN Commission on
>> Human Rights, and other important UN decision-making bodies;" and (3)
>> "It is the only state investigated by a Special Rapporteur with an
>> open-ended mandate that presupposes Israel's human rights violations.
>> Special Rapporteurs for all other countries have mandates of limited
>> duration with objective fact-finding missions."
>>
>> However, unlike much of the rightist pro-Israel lobby in the United
>> States, including the neoconservatives, Abram actively promoted
>> continued U.S. support for the United Nations, arguing in his 1999
>> House testimony that UN Watch "categorically supports the UN as an
>> indispensable institution. The United States should pay its past dues
>> to the UN as a matter of national honor and in recognition of the UN's
>> importance. In spite of the UN's flaws, it is inconceivable that the
>> United States withhold support from the only truly global organization
>> in such an interdependent world." He added: "I recognize and take into
>> full account the vagaries and contradictions in international
>> diplomacy. I accept the primacy of realpolitik in international
>> relations, and that some of the mistreatment of Israel within the UN
>> may be attributed to such factors. However, the accumulation of
>> attacks against Israel within the UN, as now occurs against no other
>> State, cannot be simply dismissed as politics."
>>
>> In recognition of UN Watch's work, Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote
>> in a 1997 letter to Abram, quoted on the UN Watch website: "I deeply
>> appreciate the valuable work performed by UN Watch. I believe that
>> informed and independent evaluation of the United Nations' activities
>> will prove a vital source as we seek to adapt the Organization to the
>> needs of a changing world. I can promise you that I will pay close
>> attention to your observations and view in the years ahead."
>>
>> Under Neuer, UN Watch seems to have increasingly taken on the mantle
>> of many hardline critics of the international body. In a September 29,
>> 2006 press release, the group argued: "This afternoon in Geneva the UN
>> Human Rights Council will return to condemnations of Israel, with the
>> presentation of new reports as mandated by prior resolutions that were
>> criticized as one-sided by Western democracies and human rights
>> groups. 'Sadly, the constructive part of this Council session-reports
>> by the Council's 40 independent monitors on human rights situations
>> around the world-is now over,' said Hillel Neuer, executive director
>> of UN Watch. ... 'Anyone observing the Council's agenda over the next
>> week might easily mistake it for a meeting of the Organization of the
>> Islamic Conference.'"
>>
>> In a 2006 "Take Action" posting on its website, UN Watch asked its
>> readers to sign on to an e-mail petition urging the ouster of Iran
>> from the United Nations. Suggested content for the e-mail was: "It's
>> time to tell Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that his promotion
>> of hatred and destruction-his repeated denial of the Holocaust, his
>> explicit incitement to eliminate Israel, his mad pursuit of nuclear
>> weapons in defiance of the international community-carries a price. A
>> government that systematically denies one genocide while actively
>> seeking another stands in contempt of the principles of the United
>> Nations."
>>
>> Although largely focused on issues in the Middle East and anti-Israel
>> bias in the United Nations, UN Watch also addresses other
>> international topics. It has posted reports about human rights in
>> Cuba, promoted stronger UN action in Darfur, and critiqued the
>> formulation of the new UN Human Rights Council, which according to
>> Neuer has proven to be a "profound disappointment." In a September 7,
>> 2006 editorial for the International Herald Tribune, Neuer argued that
>> among the new council's many failures is that it has "provided further
>> encouragement to Islamic extremists by adopting a resolution against
>> 'defamation of religions'-a thinly veiled endorsement of the fury of
>> violence that followed the Danish cartoon controversy and an attempt
>> to silence Middle East dissidents by equating democracy with
>> blasphemy" (International Herald Tribune, September 7, 2006).
>>
>> Although it advocates a "just application of UN Charter principles,"
>> UN Watch's preoccupation with Middle East affairs is almost
>> exclusively focused on anti-Semitism and violations committed by
>> Islamic extremists. On November 1, 2007, UN Watch published "United
>> Nations and Anti-Semitism: 2004-2007 Report Card."
>>
>> Among the 13 joint letters and statements posted on its website
>> between April 2004 and September 2006, nearly half were concerned with
>> issues of anti-Semitism and threats to Israel. Not one mentioned
>> alleged abuses of Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories.
>> Why this selectivity? Because according to UN Watch "the
>> disproportionate attention and unfair treatment applied by the UN
>> toward Israel over the years offers an object lesson (though not the
>> only one) in how due process, equal treatment, and other fundamental
>> principles of the UN Charter are often ignored or selectively upheld."
>>
>>
>> Contact Information
>>
>> UN Watch
>> Case Postale 191
>> 1211 Geneva 20
>> Switzerland
>> Tel: +41-22-734-1472
>> Fax: +41-22-734-1613
>>
>> International Board Members
>>
>>     * Per Ahlmark
>>     * Irwin Cotler
>>     * David A. Harris
>>     * Jeane Kirkpatrick
>>     * Alfred H. Moses
>>     * Ruth Wedgwood
>>
>> Sources
>>
>> Ian Williams, "Casting the First Stone," Guardian "Comment is Free"
>> blog, April 4, 2007,
>> http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/04/it_was_a_makemyday_event.html
>> .
>>
>> UN Watch, Testimony of Hillel Neuer, March 23, 2007, "Human Rights
>> Nightmare," 
>> http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=3698367
>> .
>>
>> "Durban Review: Day Three," UN Watch, August 23, 2006.
>>
>> UN Watch, "UN Watch Director 'Victimized' on Massachusetts Visit,"
>> Press Release, November 6, 2007.
>>
>> Jessica Fargen, "Judge Dismisses Charge against Man Caught during
>> Needham Frenzy," Boston Herald , November 6, 2007.
>>
>> UN Watch, http://www.unwatch.org.
>>
>> UN Economic and Social Council: Background,
>> http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/ecosoc_background.html.
>>
>> Morris B. Abram, "The Treatment of Israel by the United Nations,"
>> Testimony before the U.S. House Committee on International Relations,
>> July 14, 1999, 
>> http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1330827/apps/nl/content2.asp?
>> content _id={4FB03412-DE83-4276-9400-5DEC91380194}&notoc=1.
>>
>> UN Watch press release, "UN Human Rights Council Returns to Slamming
>> Israel," September 29, 2006.
>>
>> UN Watch, "Take Action: Tell the UN: Expel Ahmadinejad's Iran,"
>> http://www.unwatch.org/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1288071/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?aid=7521.
>>
>> Hillel Neuer, "So Far, a Profound Disappointment," International
>> Herald Tribune, September 7, 2006.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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