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A secret deal between Switzerland and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1970 has recently come to light. The Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung reports that then-Foreign Minister Pierre Graber offered to support Palestinians diplomatically in exchange for assurances the PLO would not carry out terror attacks against Swiss targets. [...] The meeting between the Swiss government and the PLO was arranged by long-time Israel hater Jean Ziegler, who was a member of the Swiss parliament at the time. Within diplomatic channels, he has encouraged the International Criminal Court in the Hague to charge Israel with war crimes and referred...

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement in response to the United Nations Human Rights Council vote in condemnation of Israel:“Our single vote in opposition is just and the abstentions of our friends are welcome, but at this point they are meaningless gestures. It is time to stop ceding moral authority to the UNHRC and tell the truth about this hopelessly biased and anti-Semitic institution. There is no equivalency between Israel’s right to self-defense and Hamas’ genocidal aggression against the Jewish people. There is no equivalence between Israel’s extraordinary efforts to protect civilians and Hamas’...

Canadian legal expert William Schabas said on Monday he would resign his post as head of a UN Human Rights Council inquiry into the 2014 Gaza war, after Israel charged that he had worked as a consultant for the Palestine Liberation Organization in 2012. In a letter on the matter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to prevent the issue from overshadowing the preparation of the report, which is due to be published in March. Schabas’ departure highlights the sensitivity of the UN investigation just weeks after prosecutors at the International...

What if dictatorships judged the world on human rights? Special Benefits for Tyrants in the UN From the video: What do these four countries have in common? CHINA: China insists that Tibet must never break away from Chinese rule...and proves it's point with violence against it's own. CUBA: Life isn't easy for Cuba's political dissidents. Video illustrates this point. RUSSIA: Russia's new law means that all public demonstrations by sexual minorities are now illegal. SAUDI ARABIA: For now, Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world that doesn't give women the right to drive. So...what do these four countries...

The United Nations on Sunday night criticized Israel’s policy towards illegal immigrants, as thousands of them protested in Tel Aviv, demanding that Israel recognize them as refugees and grant them asylum. The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) released a statement in which it accused Israel of “sowing fear and chaos” among the illegal aliens who, it said, should be referred to as “asylum seekers” and not “infiltrators”. “We demand that the government examine the asylum requests of the foreigners, and stop the large-scale arrests in south Tel Aviv,” said the UN agency, adding that while it supported the...

Human rights groups urged the U.N. General Assembly Thursday to approve a resolution to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance in the digital age and criticized the U.S. and its key allies for trying to weaken it. Brazil and Germany, whose leaders have allegedly been targeted by U.S. eavesdropping, circulated a revised draft late Wednesday after intense negotiations. The rights organizations said Thursday the text was “relatively undamaged,” despite lobbying by the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which comprise the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group. The key compromise dropped the contention that the domestic and international interception...

UNITED NATIONS – China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam are among the nations running unopposed for seats on the Human Rights Council, the U.N.'s highest rights watchdog body, a prospect that has upset independent human rights groups. The General Assembly on Tuesday will elect 14 new members to the 47-seat, Geneva-based council, which can shine a spotlight of publicity and censure on rights abuses by adopting resolutions — when it chooses to do so. It also has dozens of special monitors watching problem countries and major issues ranging from executions to drone strikes. New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed out...

The United States and Germany won a closely contested race Monday among western nations for UN Human Rights Council seats, while the likes of Venezuela and Pakistan secured places without a competitive vote. Rights groups condemned the “pre-cooked” arrangements by most continental groups at the 193-member UN General Assembly which gave council seats to countries whose records have been widely questioned. The United States, Germany and Ireland won the only open election among western nations. …

Jerusalem (CNN)—Israel has decided to suspend all working ties with the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, and will not cooperate with the council's plans for an investigation of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman told CNN Monday. "Working relations, participating in debates and discussion and exchanging papers, sending information and requesting information, and organizing visits and so on and so on, this is all suspended," Yigal Palmor said about the decision by senior management of the Foreign Ministry. The move came in response to a resolution by the Human Rights Council to establish a "Fact...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday he may recall the Israeli ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council and cut ties with the body. His remarks came after the 47-member council voted to establish a fact-finding mission to probe the "effects of settlements on Palestinian human rights." Lieberman also said Israel may choose not to cooperate with the council in its investigation, adding that he plans to ask the US to quit the council as well.

Obama's U.N. DebacleThe Obama administration's big hopes of reforming the Human Rights Council from within are in shreds. President Obama’s decision to place the United Nations at the center of his foreign policy took another hit Friday as the U.N. Human Rights Council ended its latest session in Geneva. One of the president’s primary justifications for joining the notorious council shortly after he assumed office was its mandatory five-year review process; if the U.S. was a member, the administration claimed, it could influence this process. The process, which quietly unfolded in back rooms in Geneva over the past six months,...

Although it is not in the form of binding resolution, the American push for U.N. action has helped win over a handful of new countries to the cause. A resolution could be brought to a vote later this year. The issue of gay rights has polarized nations at the U.N. for years. And despite growing acceptance for homosexuality in Western nations and parts of Latin America, lawyers say there is still a gap in human rights treaties for the protection of gays against discrimination and mistreatment. "We are very concerned that individuals continue to be killed, arrested and harassed around...

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends. President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia....

Of all the targets for fund-cutting, the idea from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) might be the most popular — and the most appropriate. Ros-Lehtinen wants to save money by cutting all funds supporting the United Nations’ worst practical joke, its Human Rights Council. The Congresswoman rightly calls it a “rogues’ gallery”: A key House Republican is quickly pressing forward with her goals to scale back U.S. funding for the United Nations.Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill that oversight would be a key function of the panel, particularly funding to the U.N. Human...

The UN's Human Rights Council (HRC) is a perfect example of what is wrong with the United Nations, at best it us a joke, at worst it does more to harm human rights than to protect those being abused. The council is a great example of the lunatics running the asylum, it is loaded with human rights violators. Last night, when the State Department released its most recent analysis of the human rights situation in the countries of the world, nearly half of the countries (22 out of 46) on the UN's HRC were described as being serious human rights...

On October 1, 2009, the Obama administration in conjunction with the Egyptian government, introduced an anti-free speech measure to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council (HRC). It was adopted the next day without a vote. Earlier this year, when the United States sought a seat on the HRC, it was a controversial decision. Many who found the HRC neither credible nor useful, opposed the move. Yet, others were more optimistic that America could change the HRC from within. Perhaps the U.S. could spur debate stemming from its opposition to China, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia on critical human rights...

IF the Obama administration really wants to improve human rights, it's taking the wrong approach in seeking a seat on the seriously flawed United Nations Human Rights Council. The best thing now, ironically, would be for the HRC to show its true colors and reject Washington's application in the vote it plans for Tuesday -- although don't count on it. The administration says it's aiming to "promote universality, transparency and objectivity" in the council, but more likely its presence simply would legitimize a body hostile to democracy and human rights. The Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to supersede...

How does the United Nations investigate war crimes by Israel in the recent Gaza offensive, get the desired guilty condemnations, absolve Hamas of any wrong-doing, and be able to claim all proceedings were fair and above board, while credibly claiming to have a pro-Jewish slant to the investigations? This was the criterion facing the U.N. Human Rights Council this week as they gleefully accepted to investigate charges of abuse and human rights violations by Israel during the recent Gaza offensive called “Operation Cast Lead”. The U.N. Human Rights Council found their solution in a renowned Jewish judge from South Africa...

The Dominion of Canada. It was nice while it lasted: "Nineteen Regular Army divisions, one dozen divisions of the Army National Guard, plus the Second and Fourth Marine Divisions, rolled across the border just before dawn on 11 May, 2020. "Despite the gallant resistance put up by the main elements of the Canadian Forces, notably the Royal 22nd and Twelfth Armored, which died in defense of Quebec City, the Royal Canadian Regiment and Royal Canadian Dragoons, shattered in the forlorn defense of Ottawa, and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and Lord Strathcona's Horse, butchered in detail in a hopeless...

Recently I reported on a speech by Michael Ignatieff under the title Ignatieff in the lion’s den and also posted Ignatieff’s non-apology by my friend Rochelle Wilner. Ignatieff had come to the Jewish community to apologize for accusing Israel of war crimes. Unfortunate he kept stressing the need for Israel to abide by international human rights law and the Geneva Convention. Irwin Cotler was in the room. I wrote to Irwin subsequently to plead with him to make Israel's case vis a vis international law. Whether he was responding to me or not, a week or so later, he delivered...