B'nai B'rith International - The Global Voice of the Jewish Community

Our Mission at the United Nations
By Daniel S. Mariaschin, Executive Vice President, B'nai B'rith International

As I write this, the first of my new quarterly columns for B'nai B'rith Magazine, the U.N. General Assembly is in session. B'nai B'rith International (BBI) is once again making its positions known to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva and UNESCO in Paris, as well as to friends and foes at U.N. headquarters in New York City.

In September alone, BBI leaders met with more than 20 heads of state and foreign ministers, including some of Israel's Arab neighbors, such as Egypt and Jordan.

I am often asked what we do in the course of so many U.N. meetings and why we bother to spend so much time talking to what can often serve as a platform of enmity toward Israel.

Being the only Jewish nongovernmental organization (NGO) with an office exclusively dedicated to United Nations affairs, we at BBI believe it is our duty to press the U.N. to consider long-term strategies for promoting and protecting Jewish and Israeli causes and rights.

In the course of our deliberations, we consider the big picture for Jews in the world today. In this year's meetings, we discussed the global threat of Iran; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Israel's status at the U.N.; antisemitism and the upcoming review of the Durban World Conference Against Racism; and the situation in Darfur with respect to genocide prevention.

Here's a review of our current advocacy agenda.

Iran

Iran remains one of the most severe threats, not only to regional stability but to the entire world. Based on its statements that it is now capable of industrial-scale uranium enrichment, Iran is defying two Security Council resolutions demanding that it suspend such programs.

It's important that we welcome all Security Council efforts to tighten sanctions against Iran, because it shows that we believe the U.N. system was created for a reason. On the flip side, if the Security Council is to remain a credible source of authority on matters of collective security, a clear, swift response to this threat must be sustained.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Any legitimate Palestinian government must renounce violence and end incitement, recognize Israel, and accept previous agreements and obligations, as stated in the principles of the Middle East Quartet-the U.N., European Union, Russian Federation, and United States.

BBI believes the Palestinians have long been ill-served by a leadership that does not have its people's true interests at heart. While Israel has its obligations as well, they can only be met in a dialogue with Palestinians who are willing to consider Israel's fundamental rights and needs and who must end incitement and close down-once and for all-all terrorist organizations.

The HRC as Symbol of Israel's Beleaguered Status at the U.N.

The decision to include a permanent item on the question of Palestine, thus placing Israel on the agenda as the only country-specific agenda item, is damaging to the HRC's credibility and its ability to promote and protect human rights. For several years, the Commission on Human Rights, the HRC's predecessor, allowed this biased treatment toward Israel; we had hoped instituting this new human rights body would stop that trend.

Compounding this problem is the council's decision to reiterate the former commission's perpetual mandate of John Dugard, the special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, who focuses exclusively on alleged Israeli violations. This is in sharp contrast with the mandates of more than 40 other human rights experts.

Antisemitism/Durban Review Conference

The 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Xenophobia in Durban provided a platform for an extreme manifestation of antisemitism, both visible and physical, as outlined in the text of an NGO-adopted declaration.

The decision recently taken by member states to convene a Durban review conference bears great risk of repeating that shameful aberration. Without official acknowledgement by the U.N. and its member states of the hatred spawned at the conference, in the absence of a review of lessons to be learned and a commitment to prevent similar manifestations through practical steps, an additional conference threatens to perpetuate the same hatred.

This is why we have joined nearly 30 other NGOs in committing to a set of core operating principles for the 2009 Durban Review Conference. We are calling on other NGOs to join us in committing to promote international human rights standards, and to prevent U.N. sessions from serving as a vehicle for antisemitism and any other form of racism.

Darfur and Genocide Prevention

We welcome the creation of a hybrid peacekeeping force-a joint African Union-U.N. operation-and hope the recently adopted resolution in the Security Council is implemented in a timely fashion. The credibility of the U.N. remains at stake in Darfur, where the Sudanese government remains intransigent.

We also welcome the appointment of international scholar and former Sudanese diplomat Francis Deng as the fulltime special adviser to the secretary-general on genocide prevention. This is an important step in guaranteeing future efforts to uphold its goals as laid forth in the U.N. Charter and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

So, again, why do we bother making our presence known to the U.N. and its commissions?

We bother because the prestige that so many accord the U.N.-no matter how undeserved it may be-is impossible to ignore.

We bother because someone needs to point out, for example, that the HRC has betrayed its ideals and is coddling dictators, even as it perverts the human rights agenda by maligning Israel.

We bother every year in the hope of fostering a fairer U.N., one where the language of human rights is not invoked to mask cold-blooded power plays.

The vocal participation of the Jewish community is more necessary than ever before, even though its task seems ever-more thankless.