Rights Abusers Run Unopposed For Top Human Rights Body

Rights Abusers Run Unopposed For Top Human Rights Body, NGOs Protest

Six candidates deemed "Unqualified": Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Eritrea, Philippines & Somalia

GENEVA, October 11, 2018 - On the eve of tomorrow's UN election of 18 nations to its highest human rights body, a coalition of non-governmental human rights groups from Europe, the U.S. and Canada today called on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to lead member states in opposing the election of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Eritrea, the Philippines and Somalia, deemed "unqualified" due to their human rights records.

Abuses by those candidates are detailed in the 21-page joint NGO report published this week by UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, which was circulated to UN diplomats and reported today in The Guardian.

"The whole point of the 2006 reform was to create competition that would weed out the worst abusers. Sadly, this was never respected, with current elected members including Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Burundi and Venezuela. Yet this year, there is not even the illusion of competition," said Hillel Neuer of the Geneva-based UN Watch.

"Once again, we have the inmates running the asylum," said Neuer. MORE

ends

© Scoop Media