100 Human Rights Activists Urge UN Probe Of Top Official For Harassing Watchdog
A
cross-regional coalition of 100 human rights activists and
UN-accredited civil society organizations today called
on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and High
Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to investigate
Eric Tistounet, the powerful head of the UN Human Rights
Council staff since it was created in 2006, for his campaign
of "harassment and gross misconduct" targeting a human
rights group that has been recognized
for giving
a global platform to dissidents of authoritarian
regimes. In the current four-week session of the Human
Rights Council that concludes on July 14, Mr. Tistounet
blocked UN Watch from testifying in debates concerning
abuses in Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and Russia, said
Hillel Neuer, an international human rights lawyer who
directs the Geneva-based non-governmental
organization. UN Watch's speeches at the Human Rights
Council calling out state oppression have been viewed more
than 30 million times on YouTube, and oppressive regimes
like Venezuela frequently put
pressure on UN officials to cancel the NGO's
accreditation, and interrupt
its speakers as they
testify. "The numbers are astonishing: while groups
friendly to Mr. Tistounet were allowed to speak in more than
20 debates in the current session, we have been prohibited
from speaking more than once. And we know exactly what's
going on because Mr. Tistounet's former employee revealed
that he is close with China and other dictatorships that
seek to silence UN Watch, and that he actually orders his
UNHRC staff to tamper with speakers' lists to prevent us
from speaking." "What is shocking is that nine months
ago, a senior aide to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
promised that they would review our Legal
Complaint, which details how Mr. Tistounet wilfully and
systematically rigs the system to block us from speaking. In
the June
2021 session, we registered for 31 debates and were denied
30 out of 31 slots, and in June
2022 he barred us from all 36
debates. Only 10 NGOs get to speak in each debate, so he
maliciously moves UN Watch down the list so that we are
silenced. Coming from a UN human rights officer, this kind
of unethical conduct is disgraceful," said
Neuer. "According to leaked
emails, Mr. Tistounet also engages in wilful and illegal
harassment by instructing his Human Rights Council staff to
go to internet cafés to anonymously spread false
information about me online, and he told his employees to
think of ways to have me physically detained by UN security,
in order to block me from entering the Council chamber in
Geneva." (See pp.
18-24 of the
Complaint.) 100
Activists Say Blocking UN Watch Silences Victims
Worldwide The signatories of today's joint
appeal — including some of the most prominent human rights
dissidents and former political prisoners from China,
Russia, Cuba, Turkey, North Korea, Libya, Belarus, Venezuela
and Zimbabwe — said they were "gravely concerned by any
restrictions on the ability of UN Watch to exercise its
legitimate rights to take the floor at the UN Human Rights
Council." The dissidents said this would harm "the
human rights of victims of urgent country situations
worldwide who are regularly given a voice and platform by UN
Watch." "We express our strong support for the vital
work of UN Watch to monitor the world body and uphold the
Charter of the United Nations, and to promote and protect
human rights for all," said the activists, many of whom have
been hosted by UN Watch to speak at the United Nations,
either in
the Human Rights Council or at UN sessions held as part
of UN Watch's annual Geneva
Summit for Human Rights. “We commend
UN Watch for being one of the leading non-governmental
organizations in bringing human rights defenders,
dissidents, victims, and family members of political
prisoners to testify before the United Nations,” said the
human rights activists. The joint appeal called on the
UN officials to “create an independent investigation as an
essential step for accountability and
justice.” More than any
other group at the Human Rights Council, UN Watch routinely
brings high profile dissidents to address the council, from
China, Cuba, Libya, Russia and elsewhere. Many of the
regimes have in turn pressured Tistounet's office, as China
recently did when UN Watch hosted Hong Kong activist
Tania Chan. In March, Venezuela's Maduro regime filed
a complaint
to the UN calling to shut down UN Watch, after the group
gave the floor at the Human Rights Council to opposition
figures Leopoldo Lopez, María Corina Machado and Diego
Arria. As reported by the
BBC and Le
Monde, Mr. Tistounet is accused
of putting in place a UN policy of handing over to China in
advance the names of dissidents registered to speak at the
UNHRC, putting their lives and their family members at risk,
as Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa has testified. Tistounet
handed UN Watch speeches in advance to his friend Jean
Ziegler, the UN official who created the “Qaddafi Human
Rights Prize” In a June 2006 report,
UN Watch exposed the role of UNHRC expert Jean Ziegler in
co-creating and managing the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights
Prize, an award that was given to dictator Hugo Chavez,
antisemite Louis Farrkhan and convicted French Holocaust
denier Roger Garaudy, in the same year that Ziegler himself
won the prize. Tistounet participated in a panel
honoring the controversial Qaddafi supporter, who in turn
wrote the
preface to one of Tistounet's novels. According to
Emma Reilly, "Mr. Tistounet extended his targeting of UN
Watch to his personal friend Mr. Jean Ziegler, whose UN
appointments have "He would also request advance copies of UN
Watch speeches, which we were instructed to provide. No
other NGO was targeted in this manner, and no other mandate
holder was accorded this
favor." Tistounet intercepted UN
Watch speeches, drafted reprimands for chair to read,
tampered with the time clock to run out UN Watch's speaking
time Tistounet personally obtained all UN
Watch speeches in advance, so he could draft unjustified
reprimands for the chair to read out afterwards. "Mr.
Tistounet had a standing instruction that when a statement
was received in advance from UN Watch, it was to be given
directly to him either in his office or on the podium, and
placed on the desk of his office if he could not be
immediately located. This instruction did not exist for any
other NGO," testified whistleblower Emma Reilly. "On
occasion, when a UN Watch speech was received in advance,
Mr. Tistounet would request that I draft new language for
the President to give a false impression that the speeches
broke the rules." "He was fully aware that his advice
to successive Presidents to reprimand UN In addition, when he could get away
with it, Tistounet manipulated the clock to remove time from
UN Watch. "When points of order are made during
speeches, the NGO liaison and Secretary are responsible for
pressing a button on the podium to pause the NGO speaking
time. it." "Mr. Tistounet issued a standing
instruction that the button was not to be pressed during UN
Watch speeches, but instead that their speaking time should
be deemed to continue during the point of order. This
instruction applied only to UN Watch." "Mr. Tistounet
made clear on a number of occasions that his ultimate aim
was to exclude Mr. Neuer and UN Watch more generally from UN
premises." www.unwatch.org UN
Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in
1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its
Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization
(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). UN
Watch Privacy
Statement
Whistleblower Confirms: Head
of UNHRC Staff Personally Intervenes to Block UN Watch From
Speaking
Leaked Emails: Eric Tistounet
Orders Staff to Anonymously Smear Hillel Neuer
Online
Background: Tistounet
Handed Names of Dissidents to China
often been criticized by UN Watch.
Uniquely among mandate holders, Mr. Ziegler would frequently
come to the NGO liaison office and request to see lists of
speakers to verify whether UN Watch would take the
floor."
Watch for
disobeying rules was false, and that no rule was in fact
being broken."
ENDS