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The United Nations Human Rights Council is holding a discussion today (Wednesday) on a report accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Professor Anne Bayefsky, the Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of Human Rights Voices, spoke at the hearing and accused the council of engaging in antisemitism in its report by creating a moral parity between Israel and Hamas though the downplaying of Hamas's atrocities and the demonization of Israel. "The Inquiry report is a case-study in antisemitism," Professor Bayefsky said. "Antisemites deny Jews the right of self-defense. Your report never...

The United Nations Human Rights Council is holding a discussion today (Wednesday) on a report accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Before the discussion, Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of 23-year-old Romi Gonen, told the council members that there is only one side they should be on, the side that opposes the kidnappers and rapists of Hamas. Leshem Gonen emotionally described how she was forced to listen to her daughter's kidnapping over the phone. "I'm the mother of Romi Gonen, a 23-year-old woman who was hunted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023," she said. "Trying to escape...

President Biden has often made reference to his close relationship with Israel and Israeli leaders over the last half century as a way of proving his bona fides on matters relating to the Jewish state. The Obama administration had badly strained those relationships, but when Biden was elected in 2020, many hoped and some predicted that his would be an administration far friendlier to Israel. And on the surface it has been; the steady current of hostility that emanated from Obama’s White House has not been present in Biden’s. Still, more than halfway through the 46th president’s term, the facts...

Every year the PA promises the EU that it will clean up its textbooks, to revise or replace them, because of their antisemitic content, and every year it turns out that nothing has been changed, yet it still receives its funding from the EU. This year may be different. A report on the latest EU-PA contretemps is here: “PA hasn’t removed hateful content from textbooks, producing worse content,” by Ben Zion Gad, Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2022: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has reneged on an agreement with the EU to revise its academic curriculums in 2021 and has instead...

While largely established to forge "friendly relations among nations," the U.N. has been anything but friendly toward the Jewish state: Israel. In fact, the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) has long afforded a platform and impunity for those promoting Israel's destruction and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homeland. In 1974, the UNGA hosted the then-chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, who infamously referenced his "freedom fighter's gun" during his speech. At that time the PLO was an "internationally recognized terrorist organization" with its charter stating that "[a]rmed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." Some...

The U.N. human rights chief is calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights, including face-scanning systems that track people in public spaces. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said Wednesday that countries should expressly ban AI applications which don’t comply with international human rights law. Applications that should be prohibited include government “social scoring” systems that judge people based on their behavior and certain AI-based tools that categorize people into clusters such as by ethnicity or gender. AI-based technologies can be a force for...

The UN human rights chief on Monday urged countries to take “a wide range of reparations measures” to address the legacies of slavery, colonial rule and racial discrimination. Michelle Bachelet made the comment while presenting a report into racism worldwide and its impact on people of African descent. The report was called for following the murder of (b)lack man George Floyd by a white US police officer in 2020. Research “could not find a single example of a state that has comprehensively reckoned with its past or accounted for its impacts on the lives of people of African descent today,”...

The United Nations Human Rights Council has urged global action including reparations to "make amends" for racism against people of African descent. Its new report also urges educational reform and apologies to address discrimination. The findings cite concerns in about 60 countries including the UK, Belgium, France, Canada, Brazil and Colombia. In a statement on Monday, UN high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet called "on all states to stop denying - and start dismantling - racism" and to "listen to the voices of people of African descent". The UN's report is based on discussions with more than 300 experts...

Best touted as the beacon of democracy, Canadian values are supposed to be emulated by the rest of the world. Its good governance practices and rich Human Development Index are categorised as a cornucopia of an ideal modern society. However, the way it is dealing with its persecuted indigenous people reflects the legacy of its dark colonial past. Behind its glittering facade of social justice and equality lies the legal discrimination and violence against the natives. Racial discrimination and violence towards the indigenous people is not new to North America. The history, culture and society of countries in the region...

The United States will seek election to the United Nations Human Rights Council, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. The announcement comes three years after former president Donald Trump’s administration withdrew the US from the council. […] Blinken added that the Biden administration would work to eliminate what he called the Geneva forum’s “disproportionate focus” on its ally Israel. The council, established in 2006, has a stand-alone item on the Palestinian territories on its agenda every session — the only topic that receives such treatment, and a move which both Democratic and Republican administrations have opposed. While...

The U.N human rights chief says she expects the U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden will be “much, much better” when it comes to human rights, and warned of shrinking “democratic space” in Hong Kong — saying her office will be monitoring the rights situation there. Michelle Bachelet spoke to reporters in Geneva in a catch-all news conference to recap the year and look ahead to 2021. She cited concerns about the inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism like that highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. Bachelet hailed “a series of promising pledges” by Biden, on...

Chinese state media Xinhua reported that the Cuban statement said the law was beneficial for Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability, and guarantees that Hong Kong residents can exercise their freedom in a “safe environment.” The law criminalizes anti-government movements, and is targeted at pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong who have pushed back against Beijing’s incursions on freedoms in the territory -- which is supposed to be ruled on the principle of “one country, two systems.” The law punishes crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. It also establishes a national security...

The top U.N. human rights body agreed on Monday to hold an urgent debate on allegations of “systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests” in the United States and elsewhere on Wednesday. The U.N. Human Rights Council’s decision followed a request last week by Burkina Faso on behalf of African countries in response to the killing of George Floyd, an African American, on May 25 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer. His death has ignited protests across the nation and worldwide. “We think it is a moment to really discuss this issue, as you have...

The United Nations Human Rights Council this week will review reports of racism, police brutality and violence against protesters in the U.S. in an urgent meeting after weeks of anti-racism protests that have swept the country. The request to hold an “urgent debate” among the 47-member group, of which the U.S. is not a member, was initially requested by Burkina Faso on behalf of 54 African countries after the family of George Floyd urged the group to review systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. Mr. Floyd died on May 25 after a white officer knelt on his neck...

In an initiative led by the ACLU and backed by hundreds of non-governmental organizations, the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and Michael Brown are calling on the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) to convene an emergency session “on the escalating situation of police violence and the repression of protests in the United States.”

The UN Human Rights Council has released a report detailing a “black list” of international companies operating in Judea and Samaria. The council listed 112 companies which it claims violate international law by continuing to operate in the Jewish communities in the area, including Airbnb, Expedia, and TripAdvisor. Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz responded to the black List, saying that “the UN Human Rights Council’s announcement of the “black list” of business companies is a shameful surrender to the pressures of countries and organizations interested in hurting Israel, even though most countries in the world have refused to join this political...

The United Nations released an “unprecedented” report on anti-Semitism on Monday, which pointed out that the frequency appears to be increasing. It also linked anti-Semitism to denunciations of Israel as well as the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a boycott of all Israeli products. The report stressed that the “prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes and the risk of violence against Jewish individuals and sites “ is significant. The report, “Combating Antisemitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief,” was released on Monday by U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or...

Four representatives of the UN Human Rights Council are demanding clarifications from the Israeli government regarding the Nationality Law and the damage which, they claim, it is causing to the Arab minority in Israel. The representatives are demanding that the clarifications be received within 60 days, and have threatened to initiate a condemnation of Israel that will be put to a vote in the Human Rights Council. The Nationality Law, which was approved by the Knesset several months ago, states that Israel is the Jewish people’s nation state and establishes as law Israel’s flag, symbols, the Hebrew language, and various...

France’s leaders proposed a new alliance of “goodwill powers” on Friday in an attempt to revive the type of global diplomacy that they say is being jeopardized by the United States, Russia and other countries that favor unilateralism over cooperation. French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the plan during a speech at Harvard University, suggesting that Europe should align itself with countries like India, Australia, Mexico and other “powerful democracies” that share a commitment to multilateralism. His speech described an erosion of the brand of diplomacy that brought nations together following World War II and led to the...

It was mid-May, about six weeks after Trump appointee Mari Stull began her new job as senior adviser at the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs. As senior adviser at the bureau, Stull was in charge of making sure President Trump’s agenda was represented at the many international organizations the U.S. participates in and mostly funds, such as the United Nations and its various agencies. Stull and her boss, Amb. Kevin Moley, had just left for a trip to Geneva for the World Health Assembly. Back at the State Department, Erin Barclay, a senior career diplomat at the IO...