Tag: un

UN Report Finds Palestinians Sexually Abused and Beaten in Israeli Detention

A document compiled by the UN Palestinian agency (UNRWA) found rampant abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities. The detainees report frequent beatings, sexual abuse, and even the deaths of prisoners. Thousands of Palestinians have been rounded by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza over the past four months. 

The New York Times viewed a UNRWA report that documents pervasive abuse in Israeli detention camps. “Detainees said they were beaten, stripped, robbed, blindfolded, sexually abused, and denied access to lawyers and doctors, often for more than a month,” the outlet wrote. “Some detainees, according to the report, told UNRWA investigators that they had often been beaten on open wounds, had been held for hours in painful stress positions, and had been attacked by military dogs.”

One prisoner reported he was “beaten so badly that his genitals turned blue and that there was still blood present in his urine,” adding that “guards made him sleep naked in the open air, next to a fan blowing cold air, and played music so loudly that his ear bled.” 

The draft document describes “a range of ill-treatment that Gazans of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds have reported facing in makeshift detention facilities in Israel.” Such treatment, the report concluded, “was used to extract information or confessions, to intimidate and humiliate, and to punish.”

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U.S. Blocks UN Resolution That Blames Israel for Gaza Massacre at Food Convoy

The Biden administration, once again, proved that there is no crime too severe that Israel can commit against Palestinians that would result in public condemnation or a policy change.

Just a day after over 100 Palestinians were killed at a Gaza food convoy — including many with gunshot wounds — the U.S. blocked consideration of a UN Security Council resolution blaming Israel for the deaths, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The report read:

The Associated Press reported that 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council favored approving the resolution, drafted by Algeria, but that the United States, one of five permanent members of the council with veto power, blocked it, seeking more information about the incident. The text of the draft resolution was not available.

The White House’s position is that is waiting for the result of investigations because Israel claimed that many of those killed died in a stampede near the convoy.

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Biden say’s its all Legal Under the UN Rules of Murder

First they bring food by truck and tell people to come get the food, then they open-fire, killing +100, and injuring +1,000

Then they call out the people to come back for food and they do it again, and shoot the survivors who are desperate for food;

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/495541/Over-110-Gazans-killed-760-injured-while-waiting-for-food-aid

Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said the deadly attack on aid seekers was a part of “systematic criminal acts by the occupation forces”.

The incident was a clear violation of international law the ministry said, adding that it was “nothing but a continuation of the policy of extermination pursued by the Israeli occupation forces”.

( Yep, its clear that USA has veto power over UN, and USA makes all its rules; This is called the Golden-Rule )

“The Sultanate of Oman calls on the international community to intervene urgently and decisively to put an end to the tragic humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and to hold the occupying state fully responsible for its targeting of civilians and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said, Al Jazeera reported.

Also, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israeli forces have committed “yet another crime” after firing on Palestinians queueing for food in northern Gaza, where Israel has blocked or delayed large portions of humanitarian assistance for months.

“Israel has committed yet another crime against humanity with the killing of the Palestinians in the Nabulsi Square. The fact that Israel, which has been using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, is now targeting innocent civilians who are seeking life-saving aid is evidence of Israel’s intention to destroy the entire Palestinian population,” a statement from the ministry reads.

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Chinese Surveillance Giant Complicit in Uyghur Genocide Joins UN ‘Sustainability Initiative’

A Chinese state-owned surveillance giant that provides equipment used in the communist nation’s mass surveillance and detainment of Uyghur Muslims is joining a United Nations “sustainability initiative” aimed at fighting climate change and countering “human rights abuses.”

Hikvision, which sits on a U.S. trade blacklist over its complicity in the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide in Xinjiang, is now a member of the United Nations Global Compact, the company announced in a Tuesday statement. Launched in 2000, the compact consists of thousands of companies from across the world that pledge to “support U.N. goals” and implement “universal sustainability principles” related to “human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.” Hikvision said its inclusion in the compact reflects the company’s “continuous efforts to put into practice our understanding of ‘Tech for Good.'” By joining the compact, meanwhile, Hikvision pledged to “make sure” it is “not complicit in human rights abuses.”

Hikvision’s work in its native China, however, tells a different story.

The company’s cameras are a crucial part of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance system used to track and detain Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Hikvision—which reports to the Chinese government through its largest shareholder, the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group—entered into government contracts in Xinjiang that contained language referring to the surveillance of “Uyghurs” and “mosques.” Its technology has been used to help detain Uyghurs flagged for traveling abroad, and its cameras are included in the CCP’s mass detention facilities located in Xinjiang. In 2019, Hikvision marketed a camera that can automatically identify Uyghurs.

The revelation reflects China’s growing grip on the United Nations, with the communist nation working in recent years to put its officials in leadership positions and gain a seat on the organization’s influential human rights council panel. Hikvision’s inclusion in the U.N. Global Compact could also create problems for the Biden administration, which has proposed to collaborate with the compact to vet federal contractors.

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Defunding UNRWA: The Last Phase of Israeli Genocide

UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly in 1950 to provide Palestinian refugees with humanitarian services including schools, health clinics and other social services. The hasty freezing of financial aid by the US and other donor countries without first conducting independent investigations into the veracity of Israeli claims against UNRWA employees is cabalistic, adds to the Israeli blockade and deepens the suffering of the Gaza civilians.

Sky News, who have reviewed the Israeli dossier on the alleged “evidence” against UNRWA’s staff, has stated that it “has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA.” Nevertheless, the Agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini summarily terminated the accused, without due process, possibly hoping to avert the very hyperbole reaction from the donor countries. 

Meanwhile, the imprudent decision to halt funding for the largest and oldest UN agency serving Palestinians would likely lead to the malnourishment of young children. This decision will also impede UNRWA’s ability to deliver crucial humanitarian assistance to the 2 million displaced civilians, including 17,000 children who are unaccompanied or have been separated from their parents as a result of the Israeli pogrom in Gaza.

After all the damage is done, it may very well be that the Israeli claims against the UNRWA employees are either exaggerated or unfounded. It wouldn’t be different than the debunked Israeli disinformation regarding decapitated children, rape, sexual violence, and mutilation of women reported by the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz on the October 7 events. 

Having said that, even if Israeli allegations against a handful of low-level individuals held some validity, why should UNRWA be responsible for a conduct carried out by employees outside their working hours, and not associated with their work duties? In fact, in the more than 100 days of the Israel orgy of slaughter, UNRWA has lost 152 employees, a staggering 1300 percent more than the number of the accused staff. Keeping this in mind, one must question whether donor nations and UNRWA’s Commissioner considered the possibility that these allegations could be an Israeli gambit to deflect from its responsibility for murdering 152 UNRWA employees.

Now, let’s examine how donor nations responded to a sister UN organization, the Peacekeeping force, when staff faced accusations of misconduct. In 2021, the UN Secretary-General concluded that it was credible that 450 members of the Peacekeeping force in Gabon were guilty of child rape and sexual exploitation.  Unlike UNRWA, however, the US and other donors did not suspend funding to the UN agency when reports of sexual abuse emerged, more importantly, they continued the funding even after the allegations were verified. Canada, for example, did not freeze its aid even after its own investigation accused the UN of “‘glaring’ accountability gaps” in handling sexually abusing people they’ve been sent to protect.” 

Yet, immediately after Israel raised, yet to be verified, allegations against a very few of UNRWA staff, Canada and other donors preempted any investigation and froze funding to an organization that currently provides vital humanitarian assistance to a population enduring siege and relentless bombing.

As in the Western hypocrisy case on the war of genocide in Gaza, the incongruence response to the two UN Agencies reveals that Western virtue is gaged by the identity of the victim and victimizer. In response to the more than 2000 allegations of sexual abuse, the accusers were from Africa and Haiti. In the second case, the unverified allegations against the 12 individuals came from Israel. The disparity in the two UN cases is a stark illustration of the evident Western bias, and how it’s driven by the victims/victimizers’ racial characteristics rather than a commitment to genuine fairness.

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US Military Showdown Imminent in Red Sea as UN Issues Final Warning

The UN Security Council’s warning to Yemen’s Houthi movements to halt attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea was among the last diplomatic steps before military action, according to officials from multiple countries participating in a coalition to protect sea traffic.

The Houthis control large swaths of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, in the wake of a decade-long civil war and military intervention by neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The Iranian aligned group has used its Red Sea coastline to target international shipping with an array of homemade missiles and drones in protest against Israel’s ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.  

The attacks, which include the seizure of a Japanese-managed containership, have drawn the ire of the U.S., U.K., and other allies as they attempt to secure the sea lanes that account for about 15 percent of global commercial traffic.

The security council issued its warning Wednesday after Houthis fired at least 18 cruise missiles and drones at U.S. and U.K. warships patrolling the area on Tuesday. 

Voting 11-0 with abstentions by China and Russia, the resolution is expected to provide additional diplomatic cover for military action.

During a press comment in Bahrain, where he is meeting with regional officials about the situation in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the Houthi leadership that “actions have consequences.”

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Women’s Rights Groups Protest UN Appointment Of Transgender Activist As “Women’s Champion”

The United Nations has appointed a transgender activist as a “women’s champion,” prompting women’s rights groups to express their “dismay and disappointment.”

The Times reports “Seventeen women’s rights groups have signed a letter to the charity UN Women UK expressing concern about its choice of a transgender woman as its “UK champion”.

UN Women bills itself as the “Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women,” that works “for gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

Yet they’ve appointed a biological man as the UK’s representative for women.

It seems like a direct exercise in trolling women at this point.

The person in question is Munroe Bergdorf, a model, broadcaster and transgender activist.

Campaign Group Fair Play For Women issued a statement noting “In December the UN Women’s UK committee appointed a male who presents in a highly sexualised stereotype of womanhood as an ambassador for women.”

It continues, “UN Women has made a point of demonstrating that it considers males can become women. It’s disappointing to see the UK committee go so far as to select a male to represent women. Their credibility is in tatters.”

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What US Got Most Crucially Wrong in UN Veto

The United States has once again voted for genocide before all the world. 

There is no government in the world that has more power to put an end to likely the worst crime of the century than the United States. 

And yet on Friday at the U.N. Security Council Washington vetoed a resolution that would have demanded an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s unmitigated slaughter. The U.S. blocked the measure because it unequivocally wants the killing to continue. 

It can talk all it wants about its rejection of the resolution because it did not condemn Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7.  But the crux of the U.S. justification for a vote that has brought it worldwide condemnation is a willfully ignorant statement about the cause of this war. 

In the U.S. explanation of its veto, the U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said: 

“Perhaps most unrealistically, this resolution retains a call for an unconditional ceasefire. I explained in my remarks this morning why this is not only unrealistic but dangerous: it would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7. …

As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, any ceasefire is at best temporary and is certainly not peace. And any ceasefire that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves.”

This formulation reveals the U.S. government’s twisted thinking. The occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza are not the causes of this and previous wars, but instead Hamas’ “ideology of destruction.” Which stems from what? Just some evil DNA?

Thus for the U.S. the solution is not ending the occupation but maintaining the slaughter supposedly to destroy Hamas, even though Israel has killed relatively few of its fighters and none of its top commanders and is instead waging a war of annihilation against the Gazan people.  

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Another Shameful US Veto at the United Nations

Yesterday was another shameful day for the Biden administration and the United States:

The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution Friday backed by almost all other Security Council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Supporters called it a terrible day and warned of more civilian deaths and destruction as the war goes into its third month.

The excuses that Robert Wood, the U.S. deputy ambassador, gave for opposing the resolution added insult to injury. He said that a ceasefire would “only plant the seeds for the next war,” as if the continuation and intensification of the current war weren’t already doing that to a much greater extent. The resolution called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages, but the U.S. representative had the gall to call it “unbalanced.”

The U.S. objected that the process had been “rushed,” but speed is obviously crucial when there is a major humanitarian crisis that requires urgent attention. If the U.S. hadn’t shot down other Security Council resolutions on this conflict over the last two months, the situation would not be quite as far gone as it is. Wood claimed that the resolution was “divorced from reality,” but nothing could be more divorced from reality than an administration that is actively stoking the conflict while pretending that a ceasefire is bad for the cause of peace.

The resolution that the U.S. vetoed had the support of almost 100 other member states, including several major treaty allies. Vetoing this measure doesn’t just leave the U.S. isolated on the world stage, but it also confirms in the eyes of the world that our government is a rogue great power that cannot be trusted. In addition to being profoundly wrong in itself, this veto will do significant damage to our country’s reputation in the eyes of almost all other nations in the world. Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International summed it up well:

US veto of ceasefire resolution displays callous disregard for civilian suffering in face of staggering death toll. It is morally indefensible, a dereliction of the US duty to prevent atrocity crimes and a complete lack of global leadership. Just appalling.

While the U.S. continues to shield Israel from international pressure, it is also rushing more weapons to Israel without Congressional review. This is the first time that an administration has used the emergency provision in the Arms Control Act since the Trump administration did this in 2019 to rush weapons to the Saudi coalition for use in Yemen. The Trump administration’s move was widely criticized as a cynical attempt to escape scrutiny of the U.S. role in fueling that war, and the Biden administration is doing the same thing today. The president has been eager to skirt Congressional oversight in this conflict. Arms transfers to Israel over the last two months have been carried out with virtually no transparency, and Biden has lifted all restrictions on the kinds of weapons that Israel could receive from the U.S.

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The UN Is Threatening Privacy Under Pretense of New Cybercrime Treaty

The US digital rights group EFF is describing the latest UN Cybercrime Treaty draft as “a significant step backward” and a case of “perilously broadening its scope beyond the cybercrimes specifically defined in the convention, encompassing a long list of non-cybercrimes.”

This “dance” – with some reported progress, for things to then again get worse – is not exactly new in the now lengthy process of negotiating the document, amid criticism not only from observers among the involved rights non-profits, but also UN member-countries.

EFF is also convinced that these latest developments are not accidental, i.e., a case of oversight, but rather an essentially purposeful wrong step that diminishes chances of the treaty, once/if adopted being the result of proper consensus.

When it all started, the Treaty was presented as a “standardized” manner for the world to combat cybercrime.

What has been happening in the meanwhile, though, is a seemingly never-ending stream of additions and expansions of the document’s original powers, to the point where it has now, in the words of EFF, “morphed into an expansive surveillance treaty.”

A major concern is what EFF calls possible overreach as national and international investigations are carried out. And instead of improving on these concerns, the new draft is said to have held on to past controversial rules, only to add even more.

This time, it’s in the form of “allowing states to compel engineers or employees to undermine security measures, posing a threat to encryption.”

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