Breaking: Russia Expelled from UN Human Rights Council

Apr 7, 2022 • Russia has been expelled from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.

US UN Ambassador Wants to Suspend Russia From the UN Human Rights Council | Amanpour and Company

Apr 6, 2022 • President Zelensky addressed the U.N. Security Council yesterday, detailing Russian atrocities against his people. The US is now moving to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Christiane speaks with the U.S. Ambassador to the UN about this move and other, broader efforts to isolate Russia. Originally aired on April 6, 2022.

Will US Lose Global Influence after Human Rights Council Pullout? | Al Jazeera English

Diplomats are assessing the fallout of the US withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The move was widely condemned by activists and even some of Washington's allies. They say the retreat could leave the US with less influence on the international stage.

What Is behind US Decision to Abandon UN Human Rights Council? | Inside Story

The United States has announced it's leaving the UN Human Rights Council. It calls the 47-member body 'hypocritical' and 'self-serving'. The decision follows months of threats by President Donald Trump.

The United States has long had a conflicting relationship with the UNHRC and says it has to be reformed. President Trump has recently faced widespread, and vociferous condemnation for his zero tolerance immigration policy, that's separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

So, how will this decision impact the global fight to protect human rights? And will this further isolate the U.S. on the world Stage?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie | Guests: Guillaume Charron - Director of the global advisory group, Independent Diplomat; Rosa Freedman - Professor of Law and Global Development, University of Reading; Mohammed Cherkaoui - Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University

US Withdrawal from Human Rights Council “Imminent” After U.N. Condemns Israel for Gaza Massacre

The Trump administration will reportedly withdraw the United States from the U.N.'s Human Rights Council. Reuters reports the decision is “imminent” and comes after the U.N. General Assembly voted 120 to 8 on Wednesday to condemn Israel over its massacre of Palestinians protesting nonviolently against Israel's occupation. We speak with Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. He will speak in front of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next week about poverty in the United States.

UK Lawyers: Remove Saudi from UN Human Rights Council

Two British lawyers are calling for Saudi Arabia to be suspended from the UN's Human Rights Council after investigating the arbitrary detention of activists in the Gulf Arab kingdom. The will submit their report to the Council in Geneva, which accuses the Saudi government of targeting human rights activists and political dissidents trying exercise their right to free speech.

Ahmed Benchemsi, a Communications and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch, talks to Al Jazeera about why HRW called for Saudi Arabia's suspensioN from the UNHRC.

US - Donald Trump Considers Pulling the United States Out of the UN Human Rights Council

UK Government Urged to Kick Saudi Arabia Off UN Human Rights Council for Yemen Brutality

Politicians and NGOs are urging the UK government to vote against Saudi retention of the chairmanship of the UN human rights council in light of the Gulf theocracy’s ongoing brutal war in Yemen.

Jon Snow Challenges David Cameron over Deal with Saudi Arabia: Read the Transcript of the Interview in Full

THE INDEPENDENT: PM defended 2013 deal to get Saudi Arabia onto the UN Human Rights Council, claiming UK had a 'relationship' with country

David Cameron repeatedly refused to explain the British government’s deal with the Saudi Arabian authorities during an embarrassing interview with Channel 4’s Jon Snow. » | Rose Troup Buchanan | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Why Is Saudi Arabia On UN Human Rights Panel?

Saudi Arabia has been appointed by the UN to head a key human rights panel despite the repressive country having a deplorable record on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents and having beheaded more people this year than ISIS. The wife of imprisoned free speech blogger Raif Badawi, Ensaf Haidar, called the appointment “scandalous” and said that it meant “oil trumps human rights”. We look at the controversial move on the Lip News with Elliot Hill and Margaret Howell.

The Lip »

Should Saudi Arabia Be On The U.N. Human Rights Council? - Newsy

Saudi Arabia has a lot of known human rights issues — so why is it on the United Nations Human Rights Council?

U.N. Suspends Libya From Human Rights Council
Mar 1 - The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously suspended Libya's membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council, following a deadly crackdown by Libya on anti-government protesters. Jon Decker reports

Robert Spencer: Obama Declares War on Free Speech
HUMAN EVENTS: The Obama Administration has now actually co-sponsored an anti-free speech resolution at the United Nations. Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, calls on states to condemn and criminalize “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”

What could be wrong with that? Plenty.

First of all, there’s that little matter of the First Amendment, which preserves Americans’ right to free speech and freedom of the press, which are obviously mutually inclusive. Any law that infringed on speech at all -- far less in such vague and sweeping terms -- would be unconstitutional.

“Incitement” and “hatred” are in the eye of the beholder -- or more precisely, in the eye of those who make such determinations. The powerful can decide to silence the powerless by classifying their views as “hate speech.” The Founding Fathers knew that the freedom of speech was an essential safeguard against tyranny: the ability to dissent, freely and publicly and without fear of imprisonment or other reprisal, is a cornerstone of any genuine republic. If some ideas cannot be heard and are proscribed from above, the ones in control are tyrants, however benevolent they may be.

Now no less distinguished a personage than the President of the United States has given his imprimatur to this tyranny; the implications are grave. The resolution also condemns “negative stereotyping of religions and racial groups,” which is of course an oblique reference to accurate reporting about the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism -- for that, not actual negative stereotyping or hateful language, is always the focus of whining by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and allied groups. They never say anything when people like Osama bin Laden and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed issue detailed Koranic expositions justifying violence and hatred; but when people like Geert Wilders and others report about such expositions, that’s “negative stereotyping.” >>> Robert Spencer | October 08, 2009

Sex Abuse Rife in Other Religions, Says Vatican
THE GUARDIAN: The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was "busy cleaning its own house" and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger.

In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.

The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that "available research" showed that only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.

He also quoted statistics from the Christian Scientist Monitor newspaper to show that most US churches being hit by child sex abuse allegations were Protestant and that sexual abuse within Jewish communities was common.

He added that sexual abuse was far more likely to be committed by family members, babysitters, friends, relatives or neighbours, and male children were quite often guilty of sexual molestation of other children.

Nor did The [sic] statement said [sic] that rather than paedophilia, it would "be more correct" to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males.

"Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17."

The statement concluded: "As the Catholic church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it."

The Holy See launched its counter–attack after an international representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Keith Porteous Wood, accused it of covering up child abuse and being in breach of several articles under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Porteous Wood said the Holy See had not contradicted any of his accusations. "The many thousands of victims of abuse deserve the international community to hold the Vatican to account, something it has been unwilling to do, so far. Both states and children's organisations must unite to pressurise the Vatican to open its files, change its procedures worldwide, and report suspected abusers to civil authorities."

Representatives from other religions were dismayed by the Holy See's attempts to distance itself from controversy by pointing the finger at other faiths. >>> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent, and Anushka Asthana | Monday, September 28, 2009

UN Rights Council Passes Religious Defamation Resolution
JTA: WASHINGTON -- A U.N. body has passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation.

The resolution, introduced by Pakistan on behalf of a group of Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council, passed Thursday by a vote of 23-11, with 13 absentions.

Opposition primarily came from Western nations, who say such a resolution would restrict freedom of speech. Proponents said they wanted to prevent such things as the defamation of Islam, as in the case of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, which sparked angry Muslims protests in Europe three years ago.

"Defamation of religion is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence," the adopted text said. "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."

The World Jewish Congress condemned Thursday's vote. "We see it as weakening the rights of individuals to express their views and criticize other religions, and, in the case of this specific resolution, particularly Islam,” WJC President Ronald Lauder said.

"This resolution is an attempt to bring to the international body the blasphemy laws prevalent in some Muslim countries."

Language condemning defamation of religion recently was removed from a draft declaration for the Durban II conference on racism in an attempt to get the United States and other Western countries to attend the parley. [Source: JTA] | Thursday, March 26, 2009

Donate to JTA : HERE

UN Watchdog Slams Religious Defamation Resolution
JTA: NEW YORK -- A Geneva-based U.N. watchdog group blasted a draft resolution opposing "defamation of and contempt of religions."

In a statement Wednesday, U.N. Watch said the resolution, authored by Pakistan and expected to pass the U.N. Human Rights Council, would undermine moderate Muslim voices.

"It's an Orwellian text that distorts the meaning of human rights, free speech, and religious freedom, and marks a giant step backwards for liberty and democracy worldwide," the group said.

The U.N.'s human rights body has previously adopted resolutions on the defamation of religions while mentioning only Islam as a target. Such measures have been opposed by the United States and Europe, which see defamation laws as pertaining to individuals and not ideas, such as religious creeds. Such resolutions, crtiics say, would have a chilling effect on free speech.

"The first to suffer will be moderate Muslims in the countries that are behind this resolution, like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan, who seek international legitimacy for state-sanctioned blasphemy laws that stifle religious freedom and outlaw conversions from Islam to other faiths," U.N. Watch said. "Next to suffer from this U.N.-sanctioned McCarthyism will be writers and journalists in the democratic West, with the resolution targeting the media for the 'deliberate stereotyping of religions, their adherents and sacred persons.'

"Ultimately, it is the very notion of individual human rights at stake, because the sponsors of this resolution seek not to protect individuals from harm, but rather to shield a specific set of beliefs from any question, debate, or critical inquiry." [Source: JTA] | Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Only Religious Scholars Allowed to Discuss Matters of Faith, Says UN Body
DAILY TIMES: * UN body says only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss 
matters of faith

GENEVA: Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council. Religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”, council President Doru-Romulus Costea said Wednesday.



Scholars: Only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss matters of faith, he told journalists in Geneva.



While Costea’s ban applies to all religions, it was prompted by Muslim countries complaining about references to Islam. Muslim Countries Win Concession Regarding Religious Debates >>> | June 19, 2008

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers