World's democracies snub UNHRC's annual anti-Israel session - Amit Mizrahi, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

by Amit Mizrahi, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Western nations take "significant stand" against prejudice by absenting themselves from U.N. Human Rights Council session, says monitoring group head

The U.N. Human Rights Council headquarters in Geneva | Photo credit: AFP

The world's democracies dealt the United Nations Human Rights Council a humiliating blow Monday, snubbing its annual anti-Israel session.

Israel is a fixed item on the agenda of the 47-member body, which was set up in 2006 and has passed 70 resolutions against the Jewish state. Based in Geneva, the council holds an annual session that centers on Article 7, a permanent agenda item titled "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories," which argues that Israel violates Palestinian human rights.

As was the case last year, the seats of all the democratic nations represented on the council remained empty for the duration of the session, sparking protests from the council's Arab members.

The United States has never attended the Article 7 session. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that "Article 7 is a scandalous provision that must be removed." She warned that the U.S. may withdraw from the council at least in part because of its anti-Israel bias.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of Human Rights Watch, a Geneva-based NGO monitoring the agency's work, told The Algemeiner that the nonattendance at Monday's session signaled a "significant stand by the Western democracies against prejudice."

He said he himself took part in the session primarily to point out why Western democracies were absent. 

"Hopefully, one day Article 7 will be removed," he said.

Addressing the council, Neuer said: "The U.S., Canada, Australia, all European Union member states, Japan, and other established democracies have boycotted this debate. The democracies are absent to protest prejudice, because this is the only agenda item that singles out one specific state, the Jewish state, for differential and discriminatory treatment. No one treats Syria, Sudan or North Korea this way."

Neuer said the council still issued its routine condemnation of Israel, with serial human rights abusers including Syria, Lebanon and Venezuela attacking Israel's human rights record and depicting it as the "greatest threat to peace in the Middle East."

Amit Mizrahi, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=43261

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