B’nai B’rith International (BBI) condemns the United Nations Human Rights Council’s recent passage of five anti-Israel resolutions. Though not surprising, the votes are further evidence that the council is hostage to an anti-Israel faction. The U.N. body also passed a resolution pushed by a coalition of Islamic nations against “defamation of religions” that claims Islam, above all other religions, is the target of “deliberate stereotyping,” and the resolution instructs nations to follow “legal strategies” to curtail this kind of anti-Islamic speech.
The resolutions directly targeting Israel condemned its settlements, its recent Gaza military operation, and the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, among other issues.
“The Human Rights Council’s abject failure to recognize and combat real human rights issues is outrageous,” BBI’s Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. “That the council seems capable only of condemning Israel, while grave human rights violations continue unthwarted around the globe, makes the U.N. body’s findings suspect.”
In its three short years, the Human Rights Council, charged with “strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe” has fallen far short of its mission.
“The 10th session of the Human Rights Council followed in the disreputable footsteps of the previous nine sessions,” BBI President Moishe Smith said. “The council once again holds Israel to a separate set of standards at the expense of real global human rights reform.”
As a non-governmental organization involved in the U.N. since its inception, and the only Jewish group with an office devoted exclusively to U.N. affairs, B’nai B’rith International carefully monitors the Human Rights Council. Sadly, the council follows the same troubled path as the discredited and disbanded Human Rights Commission that preceded it.
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