UN Watch "Dog" Barks

In a speech given during a session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission on March 23rd, Hillel Neuer, Director of United Nations Watch, delivered a scathing attack on the commission's track record, describing it as a "human rights nightmare". Responding to the speech, the Council President Luis Alfonso De Alba said Neuer's speech fell short of "minimum proper conduct," adding that Neuer's comments were "inadmissible."

Here's another case where the U.N. is shown to be a bunch of corrupt, self-serving, political hacks, and their response is to try and squash the messenger. Why am I not surprised? For those with low bandwidth, I've provided a transcript...

De Alba: I now give the floor to a representative of United Nations Watch.

Neuer: Thank you Mr. President. Six decades ago in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, René Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here on the banks of Lake Geneva to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today we ask, what has become of this noble dream?

In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has this council pronounced? What has it decided? Nothing. It's response has been silence. It's response has been indifference. It's response has been criminal. One might say in Harry Truman's words, that this has become a "do-nothing, good-for-nothing" council.

But that would be inaccurate. This council has after all done something. It has enacted one resolution after another condemning one single state... Israel. In 8 pronouncements (and there will be 3 more this session) Hamas and Hezbollah have been granted impunity. The entire rest of the world... millions upon millions of victims, in 191 countries continue to go ignored.

So yes, this council has done something. And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very a good thing, and that they seek to protect human rights... Palestinian rights. So too, the racist murders of Darfur women, the rapists of Darfur women, tell us that they care about the rights of Palestinian women. The occupiers of Tibet care about the occupied. And the butchers of Muslims in Chechnya care about Muslims.

But do these self-proclaimed defenders truly care about Palestinian rights? Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians were killed by Palestinian forces. This is 3 times the combined total that were the pretext for calling Special Session in July and November. Yet the champions of Palestinian rights, Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafy, John Dugard... say nothing.

Little 3-year old boy Salam Balusha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Hania's troops. Why has this council chosen silence? Because... because Israel could not be blamed. Because in truth, the despots who run this council couldn't care less about Palestinian or about 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

You ask, "What has become of the founders' dream"? Of Eleanor Roosevelt, of René Cassin, of John Humphrey, P.C. Chang, Charles Malik -- who assembled here in Geneva 60 years ago. Mr. President, with terrible lies and moral inversion, this council is turning that dream into a "nightmare". Thank you Mr. President.

De Alba: 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, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you can 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 members of this council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the council itself was referred to. And all of this is inadmissable. 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 statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statements you make in similar tones to those used today will be stricken out of the records.