Showing posts with label United Nations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United Nations. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
'UN Human Rights Council Is Oxymoron' – Netanyahu to UNGA 2014 (Full Speech)
Thursday, September 25, 2014
'Certain States Helped Create Islamist Extremism' – Iran’s Rouhani to UN General Assembly (Full Speech)
Iran’s Leader Blames Outside Meddling for Islamic State’s Existence
“Certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hands of madmen, who now spare no one,” Mr. Rouhani said, adding that “all those who have played a role in founding and supporting these terror groups must acknowledge their errors” and apologize. » | Somini Sengupta | Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
THE LEGAL PROJECT: A recent decision by the United Nation's (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) foreshadows an ominous future for free societies should Muslim entities like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) achieve their goal of having "Islamophobia" defined internationally as a form of prejudice.
Former German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin has got himself in trouble with the UN, as the Turkish Union in Berlin-Brandenburg (Türkischer Bund in Berlin-Brandenburg or TBB) stated with satisfaction in an April 18, 2013, German-language press release. The spokesman of this German-Turkish interest group, Hilmi Kaya Turan, praised a February 26, 2013, "historic decision" by the CERD condemning Germany for not having prosecuted Sarrazin's criticism of Arab and Turkish immigrants.
Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands or SPD), produced a storm of controversy with his August 2010 book Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab: Wie Wir Unser Land aufs Spiel Setzen ("Germany Abolishes Itself: How We Are Risking Our Country"). In the context of this controversy, CERD's detailed 19-page target=_blank>decision extensively excerpted in English translation a fall 2009 interview with Sarrazin. In the interview, the Berlin magazine Lettre International discussed some of the upcoming book's themes.
CERD complained that "[i]n this interview, Mr. Sarrazin expressed himself in a derogatory and discriminatory way about social 'lower classes', which are not productive' and would have to 'disappear over time' in order to create a city of the 'elite'." Sarrazin specified that about 20% of Berlin's population depended on welfare payments, which he wanted to cut, "above all to the lower class." » | Andrew Harrod and Sam Nunberg | Frontpage Mag | Thursday, May 16, 2013
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Britain's most senior judge Lord Neuberger says policy would mean pulling out of UN and European court of human rights
Britain will have to withdraw from the United Nations as well as the European court of human rights if it wants to deport terrorist suspects to states that carry out torture, the country's most senior judge has warned.
In his first interview since becoming president of the supreme court, Lord Neuberger launched a sustained attack on "slanted" coverage and "one-sided" portrayals that misrepresent the way the human rights court operates.
The UK's supreme court is "not subservient" but works "in a dialogue" with the judges in Strasbourg, he insisted. Pulling out of the Council of Europe body – which the home secretary, Theresa May, and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, both contemplate – would "certainly send an unfortunate number of messages", Neuberger added.
The judge's comments, timed for publication on Tuesday, were made before the two ministers' views were published in Sunday papers. Neuberger also talked about the lack of diversity in the upper reaches of the judiciary, suggesting that appointment panels could be suffering from a "subconscious bias" against women.
"Human rights excite great emotion," the 65-year-old judge said. "The concerns that people have about human rights are, generally speaking, exaggerated … [although] sometimes courts get it wrong. » | Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent | Tuesday, March 05, 2013
GUARDIAN EDITORAL: Human rights laws: supremely serious judgment: The Tories are living in a fantasy land if they think lawmaking in their Little England could ignore international human rights » | Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Monday, December 03, 2012
If London were to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv for consultations, this would be an unprecedented step.
The diplomatic row follows last Friday’s announcement by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. He promised that his government would respond to the Palestinian decision to seek upgraded status at the United Nations by adding 3,000 new homes to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In addition, Israel would also begin the planning process to build in a highly sensitive area known as “E1”. This cuts off East Jerusalem – which the Palestinians claim as their future capital – from the rest of the West Bank. It also divides the northern and southern halves of the West Bank, potentially depriving any future Palestinian state of territorial contiguity.
British and French diplomats saw this decision as a calculated rebuff by Mr Netanyahu, particularly as both countries had supported the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, where eight days of air strikes and rocket barrages claimed 166 Palestinian and six Israeli lives last month.
After Mr Netanyahu’s announcement, Matthew Gould, the British ambassador to Israel, and his French counterpart, Christophe Bigot, are understood to have held a “very tough” telephone conversation with Rafi Barak, the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry. They urged a reversal of Israel’s decision. » | Robert Tait in Jerusalem and David Blair | Monday, December 03, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Israel is to build 3,000 new settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank after the Palestinians won recognition as a non-member state at the United Nations, according to reports.
An Israeli official, when pressed by AFP, France's national news agency, confirmed a report that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had decided to build the 3,000 units in response to the Palestinian success at the UN.
The decision was revealed in a tweet by the diplomatic correspondent of Haaretz newspaper, who said some of the homes would be built in E1, a highly-contentious area of the West Bank which links annexed east Jerusalem with Maaleh Adumim settlement. » | Friday, November 30, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: After the UN General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to make Palestine a non-member state, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticises the decision as leaders from the region react.
An historic resolution that enhanced the Palestinians' position at the UN from "permanent observer" to “non-member observer state”, a status also held by the Vatican, passed the General Assembly by a resounding 138 votes to 9, with 41 countries abstaining, including Britain. » | Friday, November 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Israel should topple the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, if he presses ahead with a request for recognition of the state of Palestine by the United Nations general assembly in two weeks' time, the hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has urged. In a draft paper distributed to the media, Lieberman argued that overthrowing the Palestinian leadership was Israel's only viable option, faced with the certainty of an overwhelming vote in support of the Palestinian bid.
"A reality in which the United Nations recognises a Palestinian state according to a unilateral process will destroy all Israeli deterrence and completely harm its credibility," the paper said.
"Although this step is not simple, considering the implications that Israel will have to deal with, the only other option in this case would be the toppling of Abbas's government … The other option, of containment or a softer response, would be seen as raising a white flag."
Lieberman's extreme stance comes as the Israeli cabinet is considering a range of punitive measures it could take in response to the vote, expected on 29 November. These include the full or partial annulment of the 1993 Oslo Accords, financial penalties and an acceleration of settlement expansion. » | Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem | Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
VOICE OF AMERICA: WASHINGTON — In the wake of a U.N. resolution condemning discrimination on the basis of religion, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has stopped pushing for an international treaty banning the defamation of religion.
The 57-member confederation of Muslim countries has lobbied for years for an international treaty that would outlaw blasphemy against Islam and other religions.
Ufuk Gokcen, the OIC's Permanent Observer to the U.N., played a key role in that effort.
But the Turkish diplomat said the OIC is now satisfied with U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 adopted last year.
"I don't see any attempt to go back to the old controversy over defamation and blasphemy," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Resolution 16/18 recognizes that free expression plays an important role in bolstering religious tolerance. » | Gabe Joselow | Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Despite doctrinal and political differences with President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Nour Party played a key role in supporting it during presidential elections in June.
Led by Emad Abdel Ghaffour, it now ranks as the second-largest party in parliament and plays a formidable force in Egypt's new politics.
"We call for legislation or a resolution to criminalise contempt of Islam as a religion and its Prophet," said Ghaffour, one of four permanent assistants to the president, on Saturday.
"The voice of reason in the West will prevail if there is mutual respect, dialogue and efficient lobbying for this critical resolution," he told Reuters in an interview. » | Reuters | Sunday, September 23, 2012
Thursday, August 02, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Syrian peace mission impossible because of militarisation on the ground and lack of international unity, says former head of UN
International disarray over the bloody crisis in Syria has been starkly underlined when the UN envoy Kofi Annan announced that he was resigning because of the failure of what he said had become a "mission impossible".
The former UN secretary general said it had been a "sacred duty" to take up the position five months ago to try to find a solution to the conflict. But growing militarisation and a lack of unity among world powers had changed the circumstances.
"At a time when we need – when the Syrian people desperately need action – there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the security council," Annan said on Thursday in a sometimes bitter and frustrated statement he made at the UN's Geneva headquarters. » | Ian Black, Middle East editor | Thursday, August 02, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
THE INDEPENDENT: Britain today condemned the decision of Russia and China to veto a United Nations' resolution to step up sanctions against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
The UK's ambassador to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant said he was "appalled" at the decision, which he predicted would lead to "further bloodshed and the likelihood of a descent into all-out civil war".
And he dismissed as "irrational" the arguments of Moscow and Beijing that the Western-backed resolution could act as a precursor to military action.
The vetoes at the UN in New York came just hours after Prime Minister David Cameron issued a personal plea to Russian president Vladimir Putin to help the Security Council send "clear and tough messages about sanctions" to the Assad regime.
Speaking during a visit to Afghanistan, Mr Cameron warned that Syria was facing civil war unless Mr Assad stepped down.
"I have a very clear message for president Assad. It is time for him to go," said the Prime Minister.
"It is time for transition in the regime. If there isn't transition it's quite clear there's going to be civil war."
But today's vetoes by Russia and China are likely to have the effect of shoring up Assad and allowing him to remain in power for longer. » | Andrew Woodcock | Thursday, July 19, 2012
Friday, June 08, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Secretary general says Syrian people 'are bleeding' and that crimes against humanity may have been committed
The Syrian regime has "lost its fundamental humanity" and no longer has any legitimacy, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said on Thursday as he described a massacre of around 90 villagers as "shocking and sickening" and demanded that the killers be brought to account.
Using some of the strongest language yet to condemn the government of Bashar al-Assad, Ban said UN monitors were shot at trying to get to the scene of the massacre on Wednesday.
He said the situation in Syria was close to breaking point and the danger of civil war was imminent and real.
The recent mass killings were "indicative of a pattern that may amount to crimes against humanity," he added. "The Syrian people are bleeding. They are angry. They want peace and dignity. Above all, they all want action."
The latest massacre, in the hamlet of al-Qubair, near Syria's fourth city of Hama, comes less than three weeks after more than 100 people were killed in Houla – an event that has sharply increased sectarian tensions and appears to be sending the country sliding towards civil war. » | Martin Chulov in Beirut | Friday, June 08, 2012
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Thursday, March 01, 2012
Henning Schnaars, who works for a shipping company in the northern German port city of Bremen, is standing with his two trolley cases on the side of a road in Libya. He has just been handed his first setback.
Schnaars stands with his back to the Benghazi airport, looking at a billboard. It depicts Libyan revolutionaries with outstretched arms and making the V-for-victory sign with their fingers. At the bottom of the billboard are the words, written in capital letters, "Merci La France."
"Oh, well," Schnaars says. At the moment, the French aren't exactly his favorite people.
Schnaars landed in Benghazi an hour ago and has just finished meeting with the airport's new director. It was a short conversation, with not even enough time for the coffee he had expected to be served. The director, who returned to Libya from exile during the civil war, had cut the meeting short after apologizing profusely, saying that he unfortunately had another appointment.
Schnaars was annoyed. He stood up reluctantly, took his briefcase and made his way to the door. It opened, and a delegation of well-dressed Frenchmen walked in, some wearing sunglasses. They saw a stocky German who hadn't had enough sleep and was standing there in his shirtsleeves without a jacket. A few of the Frenchmen grinned. One wished Schnaars "good business" as he walked by.
Schnaars was served his coffee, but it was in the waiting room, where he could hear his Libyan host enthusiastically greeting the French delegation through the closed door. » | Uwe Buse and Takis Würger | Thursday, March 01, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Panel of UN experts says senior Syrian officials, including, it is claimed, President Assad, could face investigation
The United Nations has drawn up a list of the most senior officials in the Syrian regime, including, it is claimed, President Bashar al-Assad himself, who it says should be investigated for ordering "crimes against humanity" and other gross human rights violations.
The sealed report prepared by the UN-appointed independent international commission of inquiry on Syria has been handed over to the UN high commissioner for human rights.
While it accuses both parties to the conflict of torture and extra-judicial executions, it says that the opposition's rights violations are in no way "comparable in scale and organisation" to the abuses being carried out by the Assad regime, which have led to thousands of deaths. » | Peter Beaumont | Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 09, 2012
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