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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’...

The U.N. Human Rights Council this week will appoint an official whose job is to examine Western sanctions, viewed as constituting human rights violations against the targeted countries. The newly-created post, established by a resolution introduced by Iran, will go to a veteran Algerian diplomat who in his application expressed concern about U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. The move comes three weeks after Secretary of State John Kerry in an address to the Geneva-based HRC praised it for the “historic progress” it has made since the Obama administration joined in 2009. …

This is incredible. The European Union has decided to boycott the anti-Israel agenda item that is part of every meeting of the United Nations 'human rights council.' Let's go to the videotape.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, launched a scathing attack on a United Nations organization from the podium of the UN itself when he denounced its Human Rights Council as a “terrorist rights council”. […] In a controversial address to the General Assembly, he contended that the council’s treatment of Israel was “biased” and rooted in a global upsurge in anti-Semitism. Mr. Netanyahu argued that it was Hamas, the faction that controls the Gaza Strip, that should be investigated for war crimes as it used civilians as human shields and fired missiles at Israel from batteries planted by mosques and...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of a “genocidal crime” in Gaza, telling the United Nations negotiations had failed and the time for Palestinian independence had come, and drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington, AFP reports. Abbas vowed to seek war crimes prosecutions against Israel over what he called the 50-day “war of genocide” in Gaza that allegedly killed 2,140 Palestinian Arabs—at least half of whom were projected to be terrorists, according to expert analysis. […] The US State Department reacted with a tersely-worded statement, calling the speech provocative and saying it would undermine peace efforts....

Two major groups of Arab sates questioned Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas in Gaza, in addresses to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva. Describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as self-defense is both “legally incorrect” and “morally abhorrent,” said Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. […] Switzerland, Ireland, and Iceland were among the few Western countries to address to address the UNHRC under Agenda Item 7. Ireland condemned both Israel and Hamas as unacceptable for attacking innocent civilians during the Gaza war. With respect to Israeli attacks in Gaza, Ireland said,...

William Schabas, the Canadian professor who was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to head a commission of inquiry into Israel’s military operations in Gaza, on Wednesday insisted that he is not anti-Israel, despite the many remarks he has made in the past proving the contrary. Speaking to the Arab-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Schabas claimed that “even if Spiderman was heading the probe, they would’ve attacked him.” “I do not hate Israel,” he declared, but also said, “I will put my prior positions aside.” “This is an investigation that is necessary,” Schabas said. “I will not resign.” …

Former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis was appointed on Monday to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commission investigating Israel’s Operation Protective Edge and that actions of the Hamas terrorist group. The move comes after Lebanese-born British lawyer Amal Alamuddin—Hollywood star George Clooney’s fiancée—turned down her nomination citing existing professional commitments. The selection of McGowan Davis is par for the course for UNHRC’s probe, given that the judge was part of the 2009 Goldstone committee which accused Israel of “war crimes” in Operation Cast Lead. Israel rejected the findings of the report which many assessed as blatantly biased, and...

Speaking in a 2013 panel, Prof. William Schabas, who has been tapped to head the United Nations' investigation into Operation Protective Edge, clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring about the prosecution of Israel over its actions in Gaza, even if that involved “twisting things and maneuvering” in the international legal arena. He said that it is his “profound belief, that international law can be used to demonstrate and underscore the violations committed by the state of Israel, and moreover can be used to hold accountable individuals who have perpetrated international crimes against the people of Palestine.” Asked about various...

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of granting "legitimacy to terror organizations" by investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza. "UNHRC gives legitimacy to murderous terror organizations like Hamas and Daash (Islamic State)," he said, accusing the rights body of overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East in favor of investigating Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza. The UNHRC has selected Prof. William Schabas to head an investigation into Operation Protective Edge. Speaking in a 2013 panel, Schabas clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring...

A three-member panel appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will investigate allegations that Israel violated humanitarian law in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The commission of inquiry will be headed by Canada’s William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London who served on the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2002 to 2004, the UN council said in an e-mailed statement to the news website. The other members are Amal Alamuddin, a British-Lebanese lawyer who previously worked at the International Court of Justice, and Doudou Diene of Senegal, the...

Obama and the U.N.’s Alternate UniversePosted By Bruce Thornton On August 1, 2014 @ 12:55 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments Barack Obama has managed to push American foreign policy into an alternate universe in which everything the human race has learned over the past 2500 years about human nature, aggression, and its deterrence has been stood on its head. He is not solely to blame for this. For 150 years the West had indulged the illusion that human nature is progressing away from our violent past toward a world of reason in which conflict can be resolved and negotiated...

What follows is testimony delivered on Wednesday by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, at the UN Human Rights Council Emergency Session on Gaza, in Geneva. The Palestinian ambassador to the UNHRC, together with Iran, Syria, Egypt, Cuba and Venezuela had tried but failed to silence Mr. Neuer. As expected, the council voted 29 to 1 (USA), with 17 abstaining (EU & others), to condemn Israel for “gross violations of international human rights,” and it created a new commission of inquiry. ... An entire nation—towns, villages and cities, from the Negev Desert up to the Galilee, from the Judean hills...

The media, which have favorites and enemies, report accordingly. The UN Human Rights Council is much the same.IntroductionThis is a re-posting of a satirical article from May 23, 2012. It mocked media coverage of the death of Trayvon Martin (the Religion of Peace personified) at the hands of George Zimmerman (Zionism personified). It also mocked and compared media coverage of Israel and "Palestine" as of that date. With few exceptions, the media coverage of Israel, particularly in connection with her current operations in Gaza, has not substantially improved since then. Mr. Zimmerman was tried and convicted in the media. However, when relevant and admissible evidence was presented in a court...

Israel has been accepted to join the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Maariv reported Thursday. The international body infamous for condemning the Jewish state will now add it to the list of 9 Western states. The move is a complete about-face for the UNHRC, which in its 5-year history has condemned Israel over 46 times—more than any other nation in the world. The UNHRC was also the body that appointed the Goldstone Commission’s investigation of “Operation Cast Lead” in the December 2008–January 2009 Gaza War, eventually concluding that Israel had committed war crimes. While Judge Richard Goldstone rescinded parts...

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...

Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has warned Israel to face a periodic United Nations Human Rights Council (U.N.H.R.C.) Periodic Review—or face severe diplomatic consequences, according to a Haaretz report (Sunday). … In a personal letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Westerwelle warned that Israel’s failure to attend the periodic evaluation—a review infamous for its anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian measures—would alienate Israel’s allies and cause “severe diplomatic damage”, Haaretz reports. …

The United States is again calling for the resignation of Richard Falk, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to a six-year term as a “Special Rapporteur” for the Palestinian territories. The U.S. envoy to the UN Human Rights Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, says the United States “completely rejects and condemns the irresponsible call by Mr. Richard Falk” to investigate UN Watch, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva that monitors the compliance of the United Nations with its own charter. … In a June 3 report, Falk blasted UN Watch for “defamatory attacks demeaning his character (and) repeatedly distorting his...

The United Nations Human Rights Council will on Monday debate a report by its fact-finding mission on West Bank settlements, which concluded that Israel could be culpable for building over the pre-1967 lines before the International Criminal Court, if the Palestinians become party to the Rome Statute. The report was first published in January, but the debate on the document takes place during the council’s 22nd session from February 25 to March 22. On the same day, the council will also debate two other reports and six resolutions on Israeli actions in areas over the pre-1967 lines: East Jerusalem, the...

GENEVA, December 14, 2012 (Zenit.org).- A UN committee of legal experts reprimanded the Russian Federation last month for allowing the Ryazan province of Russia to enforce a law that bans the promotion of homosexuality among minors as part of a national effort to protect children from early sexualization, and related adverse health consequences. In 2009 Irina Fedotova, a lesbian activist, lodged a complaint against Russia with the UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the implementation of the 1966 International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). She was detained and fined for standing outside a secondary school with posters that...