UN Watch is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva whose mandate is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter. UN Watch was established in 1993 under the Chairmanship of Ambassador Morris B. Abram, the former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. UN Watch participates actively at the UN as an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).  UN Watch is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Hillel C. Neuer (click for videos) is the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He has written on law, human rights and international affairs for the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Commentary magazine, The New Republic Online, South Africa’s Sunday Times, and other publications. Neuer appears regularly before the United Nations Human Rights Council, intervening for the victims of Darfur, the rights of women, political prisoners in Zimbabwe and Cuba, and the cause of Middle East peace. Neuer is regularly quoted as an expert on U.N. and human rights issues by major media including the New York Times, Die Welt, Le Figaro and Reuters. He has appeared on TV for CNN’s “Diplomatic License,” Al Jazeera, and FOX News, and on radio for BBC’s “World News Tonight,” Radio France, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and CBC’s “As it Happens.”

Neuer taught international human rights at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, and in 2008 was elected Vice-President of the Conference of NGOs’ Special Committee on Human Rights in Geneva. Neuer represented 25 human rights groups as Secretary-General of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy at its 2009 and 2010 conferences. In a recent profile, Concordia University Magazine said Neuer is “helping to shape history.”

Prior to joining UN Watch, Neuer practiced commercial and civil rights litigation at the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Active as a human rights defender, Neuer challenged the New York State prison system in Reynolds v. Goord, a precedent-setting First Amendment case for prisoners’ rights and freedom of religion, published in the AIDS Litigation Digest. Neuer was cited for the high quality of his pro bono advocacy by the Federal Court of New York, as reported in the New York Law Journal. In Hines v. Widnall, Neuer took on the U.S. Air Force as an advocate for African-Americans claiming a pattern and practice of racial discrimination in hiring and promotions.

Originally from Montreal, Neuer served as a law clerk for Justice Itzhak Zamir at the Supreme Court of Israel. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Western Society and Culture from Concordia University, a B.C.L. and LL.B. from the McGill University Faculty of Law, and a LL.M. in comparative constitutional law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Neuer is a member of the New York Bar and the author of several legal publications.

Mr. President,

Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné 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 their 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 the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?

Nothing.  Its response has been silence.  Its response has been indifference.  Its 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 eight pronouncements—and there will be three 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 is doing something.  And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very good thing. That they seek to protect human rights, Palestinian rights.

So too, the racist murderers and rapists of Darfur women tell us 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 three times the combined total that were the pretext for calling special sessions against Israel in July and November.  Yet the champions of Palestinian rights—Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafi, John Dugard—they say nothing.  Little 3-year-old boy Salam Balousha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh’s troops.  Why has this Council chosen silence?

Because Israel could not be blamed.  Because, in truth, the despots who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, 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 Rene Casssin, of John Humphrey, P.C. Chang, Charles Malik, who assembled here in Geneva sixty years ago?  With terrible lies and moral inversion, it is being turned into a nightmare.

Thank you, Mr. President.

REPLY BY UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PRESIDENT LUIS ALFONSO 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’d kindly listen to me.  I am sorry that I’m 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, all of this is inadmissible.  In the memory of the persons that 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 statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records.