Joint appeal to U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and EU foreign affairs commissioner Catherine Ashton.
Excellency,
We, the undersigned members of parliament, human rights activists and non-governmental organizations, call on you to publicly oppose the candidacies of Algeria, China, Cuba, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, for seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, elections for which will be held on November 12, 2013. We urge you to take action to defeat these manifestly unworthy candidacies, which threaten to cast a shadow upon the reputation of the Council—and of the United Nations as a whole.
Candidates for the UN Human Rights Council, according to General Assembly Resolution 60/251, are supposed to be countries that “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.”
Yet it is widely recognized that Algeria, China, Cuba, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam fail to meet these basic membership criteria. They have poor if not abysmal records on human rights protection at home, and on human rights promotion at the UN.
Rather than giving these non-democratic governments influence over vital decision on human rights, we urge you to introduce resolutions at the United Nations to hold these nations accountable, and to condemn their gross and systematic human rights violations.
Silence is complacency. For the sake of millions of victims worldwide who need a credible and effective international human rights body, please do not be silent.
Sincerely,
Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP
European Parliament Vice-President for Human Rights & Democracy
Baroness Deech
Member of the British House of Lords
Academic, lawyer, bioethicist, former Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford
Honourable Irwin Cotler, MP
Member of Canadian Parliament, Liberal Party Critic for Rights & Freedoms, International Justice
Former Justice Minister & Attorney General
Dr. Mantas Adoménas, MP
Lithuania
Michael Danby, MP
Australia
Emanuelis Zingeris, MP
President of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, Lithuania
Matyas Eörsi
Secretary General of the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy, former MP, Hungary
Egidijus Vareikis, MP
Lithuania
Bi-khim Hsiao
Member of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan
Hans van Baalen
Member of the European Parliament
United Nations Watch
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director
Switzerland
Human Rights Foundation
Thor Halvorssen, President
Initiatives for China
Yang Jianli, President
Council for a Community of Democracies
Robert LaGamma, President
The Gulf Institute
Ali AlAhmed
Mothers and Women against Repression
Sylvia Iriondo, President
M.A.R. Por Cuba
Viet Tan
Do Hoang Diem, Chairman
Cuban Democratic Directorate
John Suarez, International Secretary
United Towns Agency for North South Cooperation
Simonne Piazzini, Secretaire Generale
Associated Country Women of the World
Sharon Hatten, UN Committee Chair
Consumers Protection Association
Lehlohonolo Chefa
Lesotho
Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS)
Bhawani Shanker Kusum, Executive Director
India
Christian Coalition
Charles Mwape, President Zambia
TicinoTibet
Tashi Albertini, President
Gender Empowerment and Development (GeED)
Tilder Kumichii, Programme Coordinator
Cameroon
Consorcio desarrollo y Justicia
Carlos E . Tinoco
Venezuela
Source: UN Watch
