UN WATCH

'UN Watch' is a Geneva-based NGO whose mandate is to monitor the United Nations according to the principles of its charter and to promote human rights for all. ^[1]
It was founded in 1993 by Morris B. Abram, a leading advocate of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, Jr. UN Watch is currently led by former US Ambassador and special envoy in Europe, Alfred H. Moses. ^[1]
In 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of it:

I deeply appreciate the valuable work performed by UN Watch. I believe that informed and independent evaluation of the United Nations' activities will prove a vital source as we seek to adapt the Organization to the needs of a changing world. I can promise you that I will pay close attention to your observations and view in the years ahead.[1]

It participates actively at the UN as an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
On March 23, 2007, UN Watch's Hillel Neuer made a speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Neuer criticized the body for failing to address the pressing humanitarian situations around the world and instead devoting 100 per cent of its resolutions to scapegoating Israel. The UNHRC President, Luis Alfonso De Alba of Mexico responded by threatening to "remove from the record" the testimony, and said he would not "express thanks for that statement... I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council."^{[3] [4]} This UN Watch speech has been viewed by more than a quarter of a million people, on various video versions on YouTube.com and other websites, making it the most widely heard speech in the history of the United Nations Human Rights Council and its predecessor body, the Commission on Human Rights, since being founded in 1946. ^[5] It was also the most written-about NGO speech in the history of the United Nations, earning praise from the editorial and opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Sun,^[6] the Washington Times, Canada's National Post, Italy's Il Foglio and numerous other newspapers in Canada, Australia and around the world. Major blogs that praised the speech included Commentary, Foreign Policy, Atlantic Monthly magazine, and the on-line magazine Slate, which reported on the speech's blog coverage in its "Today's Blogs" column. ^[7]

Contents

Board Members

References

External links

Board Members

★ Alfred H. Moses, Attorney, former US Ambassador to Romania and Presidential Emissary for the Cyprus Conflict

★ Per Ahlmark, former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden

★ Irwin Cotler, international human rights advocate, Canadian member of parliament and former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General

★ David A. Harris, Executive Director of AJC

★ Max Jacobson, former Finnish Ambassador to the United Nations

★ Jeane Kirkpatrick, former US ambassador to the United Nations

★ Ruth Wedgwood, international human rights law scholar, John Hopkins University

References

1. http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1313591/k.954F/Mission__History.htm
2. http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1313591/k.954F/Mission__History.htm
3. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/121990
4. http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=3698367
5. http://youtube.com/watch?v=uhWgZu6tcZU
6. http://www.nysun.com/article/51521
7. http://www.slate.com/id/2163090/

External links

★ UN Watch [2] (official website)

★ Video and transcript of speech before the UNHRC [3]

★ Hillel Neuer of UN Watch interviewed on Shire Network News [4]