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Watchdog Slams UN, EU's Human Rights 'Cowardice'
BRUSSELS - The UN and EU were accused of "cowardice" for claiming to tackle human rights abuses in places like China or Uzbekistan through quiet dialogue and cooperation, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Monday.
Highlighting its claim, the HRW report on global human rights violations was issued in Brussels the same day the European Union hosted controversial Uzbek President Islam Karimov amid a flurry of protests from campaigners.
The New York-based non-governmental organisation's executive director Kenneth Roth lambasted "the failure of the expected champions of human rights to respond" to violations in an introduction to the 600-page report covering 100-plus regimes.
In his eyes, the fundamental error made by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other leading voices is to place the accent on quiet diplomacy, which he says is often a euphemism for "other interests at stake."
Roth cites a "tepid" response from Asian partners to repression in Myanmar, with the report saying the Burmese junta's release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on November 23 was preceded by no significant steps on 2,100 other political prisoners.
The UN meanwhile is criticised for adopting a "deferential" attitude towards Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, alongside Myanmar's Than Shwe or Sudan leader Omar al-Bashir, with Ban said to have placed "undue faith" in the impact of his corridor diplomacy.
The EU's top diplomat, the much-criticised English baroness Catherine Ashton, is said to hide behind an "obsequious approach to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan" where large energy interests dominate trade and political links.
"Near-universal cowardice," meanwhile, marks efforts at confronting China's "deepening crackdown on basic liberties," with huge yuan investments -- whether in African natural resources or US and eurozone public debt -- ensuring silence is the preferred approach.
The EU cancelled a press conference at the end of a summit with China last year when Beijing's premier refused to be questioned by banned reporters in Brussels.
The Obama administration has "seemed determined to downplay any issue such as human rights that might raise tensions in the US-China relationship," the report says.
Ashton's "quiet dialogue and cooperation often look like acquiescence" leading rights defenders to "sense indifference rather than solidarity," Roth wrote in a column for the International Herald Tribune teeing up Monday's release.
Britain, France and Germany are all cited as appeasing Beijing.
As the report only covers the period up to the end of November 2010, France's controversial diplomatic stand over events leading up to Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution this month do not figure.
HRW says it is only when a government's behaviour is so outrageous that it overshadows other interests, as in Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe, that Western leaders step in, noting that "their own counterterrorism abuses" have made them much more discreet.
Roth highlights US President Barack Obama's "misplaced faith in rubbing shoulders with abusive forces," extending military aid to governments that use child soldiers -- in Chad, Sudan, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
From the North Korean gulags, where some 200,000 people are said to be held in appalling conditions, to the Congo, which tops the charts for impunity in crimes of rape (some 8,000 from January to June last year), HRW details abuses round the globe.
They examine Colombia, where new paramilitary, drug-backed terror groups have emerged, or Russia, which has shown more openness to international cooperation on rights but where the general rights climate is "deeply negative".
The United States meanwhile sets a dubious world record with 2,574 minors serving life sentences at the time the report was written.
In Europe, the continent's biggest minority, the Roma, face discrimination and marginalisation as well as extreme poverty, the report said, citing the expulsion from France last year of Romanian and Bulgarian Roma.
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23 Comments so far
Show AllVery interesting? Did any notice that "Israel" is not mention in the articles?
"George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, plans to announce on Tuesday that he is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch to expand the organization's work globally."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/07/
george-soros-human-rights-watch-donation
_n_706986.html
Good catch, especially in light of Israel's creation of the Warsaw Ghetto, I mean Gaza Ghetto.
No doubt Human Rights Watch doing an excellent job everywhere, but when Soros donated HRW 100 millions, you need think and ask why? Find out the despicable ways’ Soros make his billions than you will understand he's no fool.
Soros and his MoveOn.Org SUCKS!
BINGO!
Yes, siva, I noticed it right away. Astonishing, no?
HRW is known for its double standards.
And you are known for being too lazy to do a couple minutes of research, first on the "wikileaks" Palestinian papers, when it was al Jazeera, then on this.
The original HRW report mentions Israel multiple times.
You are correct and I apologize for my mistake. Nevertheless, I still don't trust Soros, the Repug and Dim. The number of deaths and pain suffered by the Palestinians is pale by comparison. HRW reports is one thing stopping the criminal is another, no one seems to care.
I repeat, HRW is known for its double standards, particular as regards Israel. And I am hardly the first to say this. I don't care if Israel IS mentioned in this particular report. You can be sure it is insufficiently mentioned, if it's from HRW.
And you, bloh, are known for being a pedantic blowhard.
Israel is mentioned by HRW in their report.
It is AFP that has chosen to deliberately omit the mention of Israel.
The more knowledge,the more sorrow. No mention of Isreal.
Like many large NGO advocacy organizations, HRW has been somewhat compromised by the corporate neoliberal agendas of its financial supporters.
They were a key player in the coup against Aristide - providing the necesary demonization through unsubstantiated claims of electoral corruption.
They also declared Venezuela a violator of human rights a few years ago becasue they would not renew the broadcast license for one of several right-wing pro business TV networks that were complicit in a violent atttempt to overthrow the democratically elected Bolivarian government, and openly slander Chavez on an hourly basis to this day.
So no, you wont hear any criticism of Israel from HRW.
Actually you will.
A simple google search will bring you to the actual report itself:
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2010
Israel is mentioned.
Sometimes, a few quick minutes of research is a good idea, if only to prevent yourself from looking like a loudmouthed fool.
Exactly correct about HRW's "neutrality" and entanglements.
Ah another loudmouthed fool who was too lazy to do a couple minutes of research, but then, I expect that from you.
rfloh, I would rather trust HRW than trust you here but then I do not trust HRW either. Sorry but you seem to be unaware of the timing and content of too may HRW pronouncements. Admittedly I write from the gut here and without making detailed study and collation of all their pronouncements over the years I cannot fully justify
this opinion, but this is the territory of blogging where tone and timing are what we have to work with. This by the way is an asset of the territory.
Just one other thing: propagandists are experts at skewing the emphasis and the USA has been flooded with propaganda for generations now. HRW is skewing the emphasis with a little help from friends I guess and has done do elsewhere in my experience.
Do yourself a favour and treat their pronouncements with a degree of scepticism otherwise it is you who will likely be the fool.
That's a good observation. HRW in particular produces reams of information, of varying quality, but above all varying emphasis. There is lots on what Israel is doing, but for the most part it's in thick reports that gather dust in a few academic libraries, unless someone like Norman Finkelstein bothers to go through 3,000 pages of reports to glean nuggets of information — as he ended up doing. The stuff that gets highlighted via press releases such as this very news item is greenlighted for high profile presentation based on criteria that are entirely dependent on the whims of upper management, i.e. Kenneth Roth and his ideological peers. Roth's take on the world can be gauged by the free PR advice he provides to Israel's ruling elites in the pages of the Jerusalem Post (any takers for a bet that Roth will write helpful guides on image management for, say, the leadership of China also?)
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The issue, I stress, is not Israel's right to defend itself from the scourge of suicide bombing but the method of defense. In many parts of the world, public horror at the bombing and sympathy for the Israeli victims too often gives way to outrage at Israeli indifference to the same body of international human rights and humanitarian law that prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians.
It would be in Israel's interest for Post readers to understand this sad reality. Yet the Post opinion pages might lead them to believe that the problem lies not with Israeli government conduct but with the supposed bias of groups like Human Rights Watch. If only it were so simple. Yes, some governments and organizations exaggerate Israel's misconduct or apply a double standard; but others, like Human Rights Watch, conscientiously try to call it as it is. If supporters of Israel want to defend its government effectively, they should make such distinctions. Only by rejecting the false and reflexive attacks too often found on these pages is it possible to undertake the honest inquiry that alone will help Israel to address the difficult political and security situation it faces today.
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http://justworldnews.org/archives/000606.html
*sigh*
You are assuming that I trusts HRW (without equivocation). I do not. I do not trust HRW (without equivocation), I do not trust wikileaks (without equivocation). I do not trust al Jazeera (without equivocation).I do not trust anyone, any organisation, on politics, on international relations (without equivocation)
That does not mean I do not find HRW, or wikileaks of use. Not least because I am not only interested in US, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, which tend to be what most people in the west, whether left or right, obsess over when it comes to civil liberties and human rights. Not least because I have lived in some countries with overtly restrictive laws on human rights.
I do not object to criticism of HRW. Or wikileaks. Or al Jazeera.
What I object strenuously to, is people who are too lazy to spend a couple minutes checking up on the original report, what I object is people who are too lazy to look at the source document, which is easily available, and who jump to conclusions.
What I object strenuously to, are people who must see everything in manichean black or white terms.
That is what I expect of right wing trolls, such as mightymite (who used to be known under various other aliases, Henry8 / Thomas More / Prometheus among others), and who objects to anyone pointing out the human rights abuses of America, of his beloved US military.
I expect better from other posters here, who should well be aware that MSM sources such as Reuters, AP, AFP, would deliberately skew reports on human rights.
the US has the good chunk of its own population, never mind other peoples around the world the US kills and rapes everyday, locked up for private profit.
as long the locked-up population can watch TV all day, it's pretty humane and OK, i suppose.
huffpo reports:
"The point man for the Obama administration's financial wars on Iran, North Korea and al Qaeda, Stuart Levey, has decided to leave his senior U.S. Treasury Department post at what is turning out to be a particularly critical time.
Mr. Levey's departure will leave President Barack Obama without the principal architect of Washington's economic-sanctions campaign against Tehran, just as that campaign is likely to be ramped up following the breakdown of talks among Iran, the U.S. and a bloc of global powers on Saturday."
financial terrorism is worse than any other crime, as it begets all the other crimes.
The country HRW is absolutely afraid of/cowardly toward is the USA, which is THE massive human rights abuser on the planet. HRW is so devoid of principles, its "work" is worthless.
Another example of HRW's stellar record of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comforted:
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"Gaza is dying," Patrick Cockburn reported in The Independent, "its people are on the edge of starvation….A whole society is being destroyed….The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal."
...
It is at times like this that we expect human rights organizations to speak out.
How has Human Rights Watch responded to the challenge?
It criticized Israel for destroying Gaza's only electrical plant, and also called on Israel to "investigate" why its forces were targeting Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza and to "investigate" the Beit Hanoun massacre.
On the other hand, it accused Palestinians of committing a "war crime" after they captured an Israeli soldier and offered to exchange him for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. (Israel was holding 10,000 Palestinians prisoner.) It demanded that Palestinians "bring an immediate end to the lawlessness and vigilante violence" in Gaza. (Compare Amira Hass's words.) It issued a 101-page report chastising the Palestinian Authority for failing to protect women and girls. It called on the Palestinian Authority to take "immediate steps to halt" Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
Were this record not shameful enough, HRW crossed a new threshold at the end of November.
After Palestinians spontaneously responded to that "unknown voice on a cell phone" by putting their own bare bodies in harm's way, HRW rushed to issue a press release warning that Palestinians might be committing a "war crime" and might be guilty of "human shielding." ("Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks").
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http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/human-rights-watch-must-retract-its-shameful-press-release
So Human Rights Watchdog mentions some Israeli regime violations, which makes its reporting neutral and fair? Depends on one's standards and moral posture doesn't it?