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UN Watch is a Geneva-based NGO whose mandate is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter and to promote human rights. As a non-governmental organization active in UN bodies, it works to encourage United Nations adherence to the objectives of the UN Charter and to prevent actions inconsistent with those principles.

History

Founding

UN Watch was founded in 1993 under the chairmanship of Morris Abram, a former US civil rights leader with Martin Luther King, Jr., prosecutor in the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, and vice chairman of the United States Civil Rights Commission.

Current Status

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). It is affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, a NGO established in 1906, which was a pioneer advocate of the UN Charter's inclusion of international human rights guarantees, and the creation of the post of a High Commissioner of Human Rights.

Issues

Darfur

UN Watch is an advocate at the United Nations for human rights victims in Darfur. UN Watch chaired the NGO Activist Summit For Darfur in 2007. UN Watch challenged Sudan in 2007 for its rejection of human rights experts in Darfur. UN Watch justice for child victims in Darfur in 2005.

Human Rights Campaigns

UN Watch cooperates with non-governmental organizations around the world in order to protect and promote the principles of the UN Charter. In 2004 UN Watch intervened on behalf of victims of torture and censorship in Cote d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan. UN Watch also spoke out for the Lebanese victims of Syrian political assassinations.

Defending Arab Rights in Iran

UN Watch has advocated for ending persecution of Arabs in Iran, delivering several interventions before the UN Human Rights Council for their rights, as well as for the persecuted Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims, and Baha'i.Speech for Arab rights in Iran2007 HRC speech 8 June 2009 UNHRC speech, "Human rights situations that require the council’s attention"

Combating Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Bias

UN Watch has been outspoken in supporting Secretary General Kofi Annan's declared goal of ending the UN's perceived imbalanced treatment of Israel, which UN Watch believes consumes a disproportionate amount of the UN's time and resources, preventing it from addressing other compelling needs around the world. UN Watch is active at the UN in combating anti-Semitism and what it calls the selective and politicized treatment of Israel by many UN bodies. On March 23, 2007, UN Watch's Hillel Neuer asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) why it failed to address pressing humanitarian situations around the world, instead devoting 100 percent of its resolutions to scapegoating Israel. The UNHRC President, Luis Alfonso De Alba of Mexico, responded by threatening to "remove from the record" the testimony, and said he would not "express thanks for that statement... I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council." It became the most written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations, earning praise from the editorial and opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Sun, the Washington Times, Canada's National Post, Italy's Il Foglio and numerous other newspapers in Canada, Australia and around the world. Major blogs that praised the speech included Commentary, Foreign Policy, Atlantic Monthly magazine, and the on-line magazine Slate, which reported on the speech's blog coverage in its "Today's Blogs" column.

Supporters

Kofi Annan

The work of UN Watch has often been praised by the United Nations itself. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: “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 views in the years ahead.”

Kofi Annan praised UN Watch founder Ambassador Abram as someone who “proved himself a global citizen of the first rank.” Annan added: “I say this even as head of an organization which has been on the receiving end of some sharp criticism from UN Watch, Morris's current passion. Don't get me wrong. We don't agree with everything Morris says, but we can take it.”

United Nations Office at Geneva

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Statement paid tribute “to the valuable work of UN Watch in support of the just application of values and principles of the United Nations Charter and support for human rights for all.”

Agence France Presse, Neue Zurcher Zeitung and other Major News Agencies

News organizations have praised UN Watch’s special contribution to truth and human rights. According to The New Republic, “UN Watch is a truth-telling organization.” Agence France Presse reported that “UN Watch is a non-governmental organization that champions human rights worldwide.”

Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised UN Watch for its “meticulous” reporting. Claudia Rosett, former reporter with the Wall Street Journal, praised “the stalwart and invaluable UN Watch.”

Critics

UN Watch has been criticized by the governments of Iran, Libya, Cuba, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Algeria, and their supporters. In September 2009, Iran attacked UN Watch in the Human Rights Council after an Iranian human rights activist on behalf of UN Watch exposed abuses of the Ahmadinejad government. In January 2008, after UN Watch told the Council about the single-candidate elections in Cuba, the representative of the Fidel Castro government lashed out at the human rights organization. The Cuban regime's delegate intimated his government would use its membership on the 19-country UN Committee on NGOs in New York to go after UN Watch. In June 2009, Cuba and Sri Lanka attacked UN Watch for criticizing their policy of mutual praise in order to hide human rights abuses. Hamas and Hezbollah supporters have also attacked UN Watch, including Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, a documented member of the "Spinwatch" front organization who defends Hezbollah as a "non-violent...resistance movement" and praised its leader Hassan Nasrallah as a "modest Shia cleric is a living legend," whose "pronouncements are invariably thoughtful, nuanced and carefully worded grounded in fact," and for having a "reputation for saying only what he means and promising only what he is able to deliver." Likewise, left-wing blogger Ian Williams, who once praised the election of Hamas as "a victory," has attacked UN Watch on several occasions.

Board Members

• Alfred H. Moses, Attorney, former US Ambassador to Romania and Presidential Emissary for the Cyprus Conflict, Special Counsel to President Jimmy Carter . Former American Jewish Committee president.
• Per Ahlmark, former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
• Irwin Cotler, international human rights advocate, Canadian Member of Parliament since 1993, former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, known as "Counsel for the Oppressed"
• David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee
• Max Jakobson, former Finnish Ambassador to the United Nations
• Ruth Wedgwood, international human rights law scholar, Johns Hopkins University

References

1. Mission & History, UN Watch
2. , UN Watch.
3. , UN Watch
4. . UN Watch.
5. , UN Watch
6. , UN Watch
7. , UN Watch
8. , UN Watch
10. http://www.yale.edu/yiisa/videos.htm
11. UN Council Chief Doesn't Like Message, Threatens Messenger - Politics & Government - Israel News - Arutz Sheva
12. Testimony at the UN, UN Watch
13. ‘I Will Not Express Thanks' - March 30, 2007 - The New York Sun
14. Watch Out - By Michael Weiss - Slate Magazine
15. Kofi Annan letter to Ambassador Morris B. Abram, Chairman of UN Watch, January 30, 1997,
16. Kofi Annan letter to Ambassador Morris B. Abram, Chairman of UN Watch, January 30, 1997,
17. Kofi Annan tribute to UN Watch founder, UN Press Release SG/SM/7260, December 15, 1999,
18. United Nations Office at Geneva Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Statement Delivered at Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, March 16, 2006, .
19. The New Republic Online, June 18, 2007,
20. Agence France Presse, May 18, 2007,
21. Agence France Presse praises UN Watch, “NGOs say five nations unfit to serve on UN rights body,” May 6, 2008,
22. Markus Häfliger, “Zieglers Libyen-Connection,” NZZ am Sonntag, June 25, 2006,
23. National Review Online, June 20, 2007,
24. Europe News: "Iran attacks UN Watch for exposing its abuses". September 2009.
25. UN Report"Cuba lashes out at UN Watch for criticizing Castro's single-candidate elections". January 2008.
26. UN Human Rights Council: "Sri Lanka and Cuba attack human rights NGOs". June 2009
27. "Muhammad Idrees Ahmad praises Hezbollah terrorist group," Atlantic Free Press, May 6, 2008
29. Casting the first stone (The Guardian, April 4, 2007)
31. http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=872349&ct=872849

Further reading

• Hillel Neuer of UN Watch interviewed on Shire Network News
• The Struggle against Anti-Israel Bias at the UN Commission on Human Rights - Hillel C. Neuer

External links

• UN Watch (official website)

• Civic and political organizations
• Human rights organizations
• Organizations established in 1993
• Organisations based in Switzerland