UNITED NATIONS, April 17 – In the UN Economic and Social Council on April 17, the application for special consultative status by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea was approved, 29 yes, 6 no, 13 abstentions. There were a few surprises: Sudan wasn't one of the six No's, instead abstaining. And South Africa WAS one of the 6 No's. Still, nothing from ECOSOC about the China Energy Fund Committee, whose Patrick Ho has been charged with bribing then President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa - this while ECOSOC is presided over by the Ambassador of the Czech Republic, whose president still has CEFC China Energy's Ye Jianming as an adviser (Inner City Press story here). One side of the controversy surrounding the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organization was presented on March 16 in the clubhouse the UN gives to the UN Correspondents Association, also known as the UN Censorship Alliance, complete with CPJ, UN official Andrew Gilmore and Human Rights Watch, which earlier this month told Inner City Press it does not view the crackdown in Cameroon as top-90 human rights issue and therefore left the country, along with Togo and Gabon, out of the 2018 "World" Report.
The side not be presented is the NGO Committee admitting, and retaining, groups like the China Energy Fund Committee, even after its chief if indicted for UN bribery of former President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, even after its 100% funding, the oil company CEFC China Energy, is taking over by the government. Instead, the NGO Committee was - rightly in some cases - by portrayed as too stringent. UN official Andrew Gilmour, who seemed to think this private event was a "UN event" but graceously provided Inner City Press a copy of his remarks. (We've put them on Scribd, here, and on Patreon here, direct, to make sure they stay available.) He said, "The Secretary-General and the High Commissioner have often spoken about the need for a vibrant civil society freed from unnecessary constraints. Yes, the UN is an intergovernmental body, of course, but “we the peoples” – the first three words of the
UN Charter – was not just a rhetorical flourish, or a joke." But the UN, including through its UN Censorship Alliance as well bigger pictures in its impunity for killing with cholera in Haiti, has become a joke. Gilmore spoke and left before the end.
UN Charter – was not just a rhetorical flourish, or a joke." But the UN, including through its UN Censorship Alliance as well bigger pictures in its impunity for killing with cholera in Haiti, has become a joke. Gilmore spoke and left before the end.
A video was shown, speeched by China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran, contrasted with Estonia, Mexico and the US (which, Inner City Press has noted, repeatedly blocked a Sudanese NGO asserts it was connected with Osama Bin Laden but using the same technical tricks decried on March 16.) Periscope video here, around Minute 20. This all took place the private club of a group which urges the eviction of investigative press (and accepted funds from one of the NGOs of convicted UN bribery Ng Lap Seng, South South News, and then arranged for Ng to get a photo with the Secretary General). It was for pursuing that story that Inner City Press sought to cover an UNCA event in the UN Press Briefing Room, and was for that evicted from its work space, and two years and counting of restrictions. CJP did nothing - they use UNCA to "launch" their reports - just as CPJ has yet to opine on the UN's admission this week to Inner City Press that it investigates whistleblowers who leak to the investigative Press. HRW's UN lobbying urged the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric to oust Inner City Press, here, and then falsely told Google the leaked complaint to the UN should be removed from Search as copyrighted. The result? Inner City Press WAS evicted, and its work space assigned to Egyptian state media Akhbar al Yom. Here's from the UN Censorship Alliance's notice: "details on the upcoming election and slate of candidates. The speakers include: Andrew Gilmour, Assistant UN Secretary-General for Human Rights, Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch, Robert Mahoney, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)." It was Mahoney, when the UN's physical eviction of Inner City Press for pursuing the Ng Lap Seng bribery story was presented to CPJ who said he had looked into it - an "investigation" seemingly limited to conferring with his friend Charbonneau. Corporate media freedom - it's all among friends. Ironically, afterward the UN Censorship Alliance will put behind closed doors "Kazuko Ito, Founder of Human Rights Now, will be in New York City to join the CSW 62 along with Ms. Shiori Ito, a journalist who broke Japan’s silence about rape victims for the first time through her experience. They will brief" ... the UN Censorship Alliance. We'll have more on this. The crackdown in Cameroon by 36-year government of Paul Biya was raised in the March 6 press conference at the UN on children and armed conflict, by Inner City Press. The panelist from Human Rights Watch, which omitted Cameroon, Gabon and Togo and some others from its 2018 "World" report and then refused to explain it, was Jo Becker, so Inner City Press asked about the omission from HRW's report.
She said that HRW has to decide where to spend the resources it receives, and apparently didn't see Cameroon as among the 90 countries meriting a look in their "World" report, nor Gabon or Togo. Video here.
To make sure the question was not misunderstood, given the answer, Inner City Press waited as others from who had skipped the press conference came in to ask questions, then showed Ms. Becker the report. She said she had understood the question. (She did not explain why "Ashley" who answered for HRW Press never returned with this answer, nor put Inner City Press back on HRW's mailing lists). So who makes these decisions for Human Rights Watch?
HRW has refused to provide any read-outs of the issues it raises to Guterres. Guterres is himself far from transparent. On February 28 his close protection ordered Inner City Press to stop recording, in a photo op session in which Guterres conveyed his "very very warm regards" to Egypt's Sisi. Guterres' Secretariat has assigned Inner City Press' long time UN work space to a no-show Sisi state media, Akhbar al Yom. (HRW's UN lobbying previous lobbied Guterres' spokesman to throw Inner City Press out of the UN, then got his leaked complaint to the UN removed from Google Search by mis-characterizing it as copyrighted). So what will happen and be discussed at 3:330? Watch this site. When Inner City Press was sent the link to the 660-page 2018 report by Human Rights Watch, it turned to the Table of Contents to read the section on Cameroon, which it covers even as the UN, for now to the highest levels, covers up. But Cameroon was not there, between Cambodia and Canada. Tweeted photo here. Nor under its French spelling, Cameroun. Nor the word Anglophone, much less Ambazonia. Nor 36-year ruler Paul Biya. Nor were Togo or Gabon mentioned, photo here. Online HRW report, perhaps to be changed, here. Inner City Press on the morning of January 22 asked HRW's press operation the following: "Hello. Searching today the HRW 2018 Report for Cameroon (as well as Togo and Gabon, for example), not finding them in the Table of Contents (photo attached), nor word-search. (Seems the two references to Cameroon, despite the crackdown there, are both in the Nigeria section). Can you please explain, on deadline? Also, for future reference, can you please restore Inner City Press, at this email address, to HRW's press email list and explain the previous deletion? Finally, does HRW/Ken Roth intend to meet with UNSG Guterres in the first half of 2018? What issues would HRW raise? What issues did HRW raise in March 2017, and why did it decline to state any of them at the time?" The reply, not a real response, was from an Ashley without a last name, promising a response from "researchers" which, a day later, has not come: "Hi Matthew, Thank you for your email. I’ve sent your request to our researchers and will keep you posted. Best, Ashley." Later on January 22, Inner City Press wrote again to hrwpress [at] hrw.org, "Hello - this morning on the simple question why Cameroon, Togo and Gabon are not in the Table of Contents of HRW's 2018 Report, the reply was 'I’ve sent your request to our researchers and will keep you posted.' What is the answer? Please advise." And... nothing. In March 2017 after Ken Roth and three of his Human Rights Watch UN lobbyists went to the UN for a meeting on the 38th floor, Inner City Press asked Roth and his lobbyists, including two former UN correspondents Louis Charbonneau and Philippe Bolopion, for a summary of what HRW had raised. There was no answer at all. Video here. It was a typical UN scene: a group promoting principles outside of the UN not pursuing them inside the UN, in order to maintain access and perceived influence. Now having asked online what it is missing, the absence not only of Togo but also Gabon has been noted. We'll have more on this.
Human Rights Watch speechifies about accountability but has said much less about the UN killing 10,000 Haitians with cholera, or about the lack of prosecutions for peacekeepers' sexual abuse. The UN talks about the rule of law but does not abide by it.
