|
As
US Moves to Join UN Human Rights Council, Kenyan Activists Threatened,
No Witness Protection
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 31 -- The day before the Obama administration announced it will
seek a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, a practical flaw in the
Council's work was raised at the UN in New York. In Nairobi, dozens
of human rights activists
who spoke with UN special rapporteur Philip
Alston's report to the HRC on killings by Kenyan police are in
hiding, their lives threatened for their cooperation with the UN's
human rights machinery.
At the UN's March 30 noon briefing, Inner
City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Michele
Montas if the UN is aware of the activists' plight and if it is
providing or arranging for any protection for them.
"The Human Rights Council
does not have its own security services," Ms. Montas said, "if that’s
what you’re asking."
Video here.
And
that was
it: the UN and its HRC apparently provide no protection to witnesses
or cooperators. Worse, when HRC special rapporteur Thomas Ojeda
visited Myanmar, he flew around in a military helicopter. Little
wonder he didn't hear from those whose rights are most violated by
Than Shwe's regime, the Rohingya and Karen people, and had nothing to
say when lengthy prison terms for dissidents were announced just
after his trip.
UN's Ban in Kenya, threatened human rights activists
not shown
Another
recent
controversy at the HRC was the passage last week of a resolution
opposing “defamation of religion.” Inner City Press asked Ms.
Montas if Ban Ki-moon had any comment on the resolutions relation to
the freedom of information enshrined in the UN's Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. No, Ms. Montas said, he has no comment.
While the US State Department is on record opposing such limitations
on free speech, what is their position and plan on the HRC's lack of
witness protection, and the plight of human rights activists in Kenya
and elsewhere? We'll see.
The March
30 Q&A:
Inner
City Press Question: Okay. I wanted to ask about two
issues about Kenya. One is that there are these reports following
up on Philip Alston’s report about police killings in Kenya that some
30 human rights activist and lawyers have gone into hiding because they
think they’re going to be killed because they cooperated with the UN on
the report. Is the UN aware of it, and what’s the UN going to do
for people that actually worked with the UN on this report?
Spokesperson
Montas: This report was made to the Human Rights Council and
it is a matter for the Human Rights Council to take decisions on.
Inner
City Press Question: But if it’s true what these people say
that they’re in fear of their life because they cooperate with the UN,
does the Human Rights Council have any safety or security
service? What’s the procedure?
Spokesperson:
The Human Rights Council does not have its own security services, if
that’s what you’re asking.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
, 
