Italy’s Il Foglio: From Navalny to Israel to Ukraine: Amnesty’s moral bankruptcy

By Giulio Meotti

August 10, 2022 — Amnesty is now overwhelmed by the report accusing Ukraine of endangering the civilian population. Oksana Pokalchuk, director of Amnesty International Ukraine, announced her resignation from the organization that she had tried to dissuade her from publishing the report as it was written.

“Amnesty’s report endangers Ukrainian civilians,” wrote Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch yesterday. “It emboldens Russia to attack civilian areas, blame Ukraine and invoke the backing of an international human rights group. Last year, Amnesty stripped Alexei Navalny of his prisoner of conscience status. Their leaders should resign. Now.”

Prague’s Dnes: “Another Amnesty International branch chief resigns over Ukraine report”

August 10, 2022 — Criticism that AI has drifted away from its original mission over the years and become more political is echoed by other human rights activists. According to UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, AI leaders are “blinded” by an anti-Western, anti-American and anti-NATO worldview and should resign.

“Amnesty International was founded to defend prisoners of conscience jailed by oppressive regimes. But today what truly motivates its leadership is attacking the West.,” Neuer states.

“It emboldens Russia to attack civilian areas and blame Ukraine,” Neuer says of the AI report’s conclusions. “AI has lost its moral compass,” he added.

National Review: “A Righteous Watchdog”

July 24, 2022 — For years, there has been a big debate concerning the United States and the U.N. human-rights panel: Should we sit on it, in order to keep it from being worse than it is, in order to reform from within? Or should we say, “To hell with it. You just continue being the anti-Israel playpen that you are, but without us”?

I want to know where Hillel Neuer stands. And he says this, roughly: “I am the single most hated man at the U.N. Human Rights Council. Part of me says, ‘Just stew in your own juices.’ But when the U.S. leaves, things get extra-crazy. It’s like the teacher leaving the room, and appointing a student monitor in her stead. Mayhem breaks out, until she returns.”

Neuer further says — again, I am paraphrasing — “Americans may not give a rip about the U.N. Human Rights Council. This is understandable. But plenty of people around the world do care. So, it’s good to have the U.S. in the game.”

But: “The U.S. has to be willing to be critical of the U.N. — Moynihan-style, Kirkpatrick-style. If the U.S. is determined to defend the U.N., no matter what, it will do no good.” For sure.

Newsweek: “A Lesson in How to Sweep Torture Under the Rug”

By Simon Plosker, UN Watch Managing Editor

July 22, 2022 — Only in the Orwellian world of the United Nations could one find a Chinese “human rights expert” welcoming Iceland’s “increasing efforts for the implementation of the Convention Against Torture,” while recommending “your country have a specific definition of torture in your criminal law… to teach you to carry out your own constitution, not only international treaties.”

Questioning Cuba, this same Chinese expert claimed: “from time to time, there are alleged political factors behind the concept of human rights.” He then asked “what is the response of Cuba to the politicization of human rights in the implementation of the Convention Against Torture?”

”Watchdog accuses Palestinian Authority, Hamas of routinely torturing detainees”

July 14, 2022 — The UN Watch lobby group released a report Thursday accusing the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terror group of regularly engaging in the torture of detainees.

UN Watch said that its representatives will present the report to the 10-member committee at a private briefing along with other human rights groups on July 18, the day before the Palestinians will be called on to answer questions about their adherence to the UN treaty on torture, which the PA signed in 2014.

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said, “Evidence continues to emerge of widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held in Palestinian custody in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Neuer called on the Palestinian representative to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, “to be open about the PA’s routine use of torture at the upcoming review.”

A 67-page response from the PA submitted to the UN “seeks to absolve Palestinian actors of responsibility for complying with the treaty’s prohibitions against torture, and instead points the finger at Israel to deflect attention from the PA’s own record, which is the subject of the UN review,” the UN Watch statement said.

The Palestinian submission “contains no data on the pervasiveness of torture under the PA and Hamas, or on any practical measures implemented to prevent torture by security forces during interrogation,” UN Watch legal adviser Dina Rovner said in the statement.

“Report reveals methods used by Palestinian Authority, Hamas to torture detainees”

July 19, 2022 — The UN Watch report claims the detainees subjected to these practices include members of the LGBTQ community, human rights activists and Palestinians accused of selling land to Israelis or cooperating with the Jewish state.
The rights group, which is based in Geneva is a non-governmental organization that monitors the performance of the United Nations. In their mission statement the group says it stands at the “forefront in combating racism, antisemitism, and anti-Israel prejudice,” at the international body.

In a report published on its website on Tuesday, the group said they would monitor the UN committee on torture, which is convened for a two-day session, to probe if the Palestinians are in compliance with UN policies.

“UN Committee Against Torture to review Palestinian Authority, Hamas”

July 19, 2022 — In its own report, UN Watch charged that the PA and Hamas routinely torture human-rights activists, women, members of the LGBT community, political opponents, “collaborators” with Israel, and Palestinians who sell land to Jews. CAT published the UN Watch report on its website. UN Watch representatives will present their findings to CAT’s 10-member committee during a private briefing for human rights groups on Monday.

The UN Watch report details numerous instances of torture by the Palestinian Authority, including a 2021 series of arrests of activists and students who were taken to an infamous Jericho prison and severely abused. UN Watch also noted examples of PA torture of those accused of “collaborating” with Israel, including beatings, the pulling out of teeth, and sexual abuse.

Jewish Insider: “U.N. to review reports of torture carried out by the Palestinian government”

July 12, 2022 — “We welcome the fact that for the first time ever the Palestinian Authority will come under scrutiny at the United Nations for its record on torture,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva, told Jewish Insider.

Haaretz: “Being Gay in the Palestinian Authority is Like a Death Sentence”

July 25, 2022 — According to the report of the human rights organization UN Watch from July 14, LGBT people in the West Bank and Gaza suffer persecution and ostracism from the Palestinian Authority. Escapees recount harrowing torture including attempts to coerce them to inform on others, forced marriages, and death threats.

“Palestinian Authority faces grilling by UN Committee Against Torture”

July 19, 2022 — Geneva-based human rights organization UN Watch presented a report to the 10-member committee on Monday, which alleges the “severe persecution and ostracism” of LGBTQ+ people, the “routine” torture of prisoners, and the persecution of “collaborators” with Israel, such as those who sell land to Jews.

One of the examples cited by UN Watch is an incident in May 2021 where PA security forces arrested dozens of activists and students considered critical of the PA, and were allegedly taken to a Jericho prison reportedly known as the “slaughterhouse,” allegedly accused of “stirring up sectarian and racial strife” and subjected to torture.

‘Cruel, Inhuman’: UN Concludes First-Ever Investigation Into Palestine’s Record Of ‘Widespread Torture’

July 20, 2022 — The UN Watch report on Palestine also accused President Mahmoud Abbas of avoiding accountability for activity that violates the CAT.

“Rather, the PA under President Abbas has been using these treaty reviews to evade its own compliance obligations and instead shift responsibility and blame for non-compliance to Israel, as the ‘occupying power,’” the report stated.

Newsweek: Stop Funding Palestinian Jew-Hatred

By Brooke Goldstein

July 22, 2022 — The social media accounts of UNRWA teachers are littered with posts that express support for terrorist groups and incite violence against Jews and Israelis. UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, has widely reported on these postings, including in a presentation to the U.S. Congress. Watchdog groups the world over have been shouting this same message for years.